GDI helps you and I
China’s got a plan for addressing the world's development challenges.
- And you'll never guess who crafted it.
On Tuesday, Vice President Han Zheng held court at a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York to discuss Xi Jinping's Global Development Initiative (GDI).
Some context: Xi unveiled the GDI, one of his signature Three Gs, at the 2021 UNGA.
The world isn’t doing so well on sustainable development, according to Han (CGTN):
- “About 90 percent of the [Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)] are ‘derailed’ and nearly one-third stagnant or even regressing.”
Han proposed that the global community should:
- Place development at the center of the international agenda
- Build an open global economy, oppose “decoupling,” and increase the voice of developing countries in global governance
- Capitalize on the latest scientific and technological developments
- Increase international cooperation
How to do all that? The GDI, of course! Han said the initiative is already addressing development challenges worldwide:
- More than 70 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI.
- The GDI's project pool includes nearly 200 projects.
- China will launch a USD 10 billion fund to implement the GDI.
Get smart: Despite all the publicity, the GDI remains in its infancy and lacks the scale to get the world back on track to meet the SDGs.
Get smarter: The GDI helps portray Beijing as the voice of the Global South, focused on helping developing countries improve their economies without all the pesky conditions that Western countries impose.