FREETOWN, May 20 (232news.com) – On May 9, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the High-Level Virtual Meeting of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) in Beijing.
Wang Yi stressed that in response to various challenges in the era of COVID-19, and in particular to the expectations of developing countries for accelerating their post-pandemic recovery, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Development Initiative (GDI), which calls on the international community to pay more attention to development, strengthen international development cooperation. The GDI was warmly received by Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres, and actively participated in by the UN member states at large. So far, more than 100 countries have expressed their support for the GDI, and more than 50 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI set up by China on the UN platform. Wang Yi said the GDI serves as an accelerator of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and remobilization of the global development cause, which fully meets the expectations of all countries, especially the vast developing countries.
Wang Yi recommended that all parties should work together to promote the initiative from four aspects to deepen and achieve fruitful results:
First, re-energizing global cooperation on the 2030 Agenda. Second, creating a favorable environment to accelerate global development.Third, fostering equal and balanced global development partnership. Fourth, enabling the UN system to play the central and guiding role.
Wang Yi stressed that China is a champion for global development, and more important, China is a practitioner of development cooperation. In the future, a series of practical measures will be taken to promote the implementation of the GDI to make new contributions to the cause of global development. The first is to enhance consultation with other emerging markets and developing countries, and hold a high-level meeting on global development at a proper time; the second is to increase investment in development resources; the third is to build on the consensus to establish a pool of GDI projects to be participated by all parties, and seek early harvest; the fourth is to release the Global Development Report in due course.
This High-Level Meeting of the Group of Friends of the GDI is themed with “Deepening Cooperation Under Global Development Initiative for Accelerated Implementation of the 2030 Agenda”. UN Secretary-General António Guterres attended and addressed the opening ceremony. The Deputy Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan and Thailand, Foreign Ministers of Cuba and Pakistan, ministerial officials of Cambodia, Egypt and other countries, as well as permanent representatives of members of the Group of Friends and responsible officials of a number of United Nations Development agencies were present.
Full speech of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi can be viewed here:
http://en.qstheory.cn/2022-05/10/c_749868.htm
