China at UN: A showcase for sustainable development

Updated: 2016-09-19 12:56

By HONG XIAO in New York(China Daily USA)

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China will demonstrate its achievements and experience in sustainable development at the United Nations this week.

Premier Li Keqiang is visiting the United States, Canada and Cuba from Sunday (Sept 18) to Sept 28.

During his stay in New York from Sunday to Wednesday, the premier is scheduled to attend the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly along with China-US related bilateral activities and meet with representatives in finance, think tanks and media.

In addition to joining the annual general debate and a UN high-level meeting on refugees and migrants during the General Assembly, the premier is scheduled to host a symposium initiated by China. The theme is the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the global process.

At the symposium, the premier is expected to showcase China's national achievements and experiences in sustainable development and its role in leading the global implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and guiding the development of global cooperation.

China at UN: A showcase for sustainable development

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Peter Thomson, president of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, are expected to attend the symposium.

"China is the world's largest developing country, it is a leader in terms of aggregating for South-South Corporation; it is a leader in terms of sharing its own development experiences with all the developing countries; and it is a champion to make sure that funding for developments is available," said Nicholas Rosellini, deputy regional director for Asia and the Pacific and director of Bangkok Regional Hub.

"It's very important that the OECD countries (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries) of the north, the wealthy countries of the north, continue to invest and also equally important the countries of the south help each other, and China is very much leading the aggregating for that," he said.

"We've seen the very impressive commitment by China to various funds not only for development but also for humanitarian and peace-keeping and very importantly for environmental sustainability. So I see that China is a leader, and I know that during this General Assembly, China will show us leadership,"Rosellini added.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015 adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which provides guidance to national development and international development cooperation in the next 15 years.

Development could serve as a means to address various global challenges, speed up economic transformation and upgrading, map out the course of equitable, open, all-round, innovation-driven and sustainable development and advance the well-being of mankind.

China attaches great importance to the 2030 Agenda and has made strong efforts for its implementation.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' website, the 13th Five-Year Plan was reviewed and approved by the Fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress this March, linking the 2030 Agenda with domestic mid- and long-term development strategies.

Efforts will be made to publicize the agenda nationwide in order to mobilize domestic resources and raise public awareness, creating a favorable social environment for implementation.

China will strengthen inter-sector policy coordination and review and revise laws and regulations to provide policy and legislative guarantees for the implementation.

The domestic coordination mechanism for the implementation consists of 43 government departments. China is determined to lift the 55.75 million rural residents living below the poverty line out of poverty in the next five years, which will mark a significant step toward and early harvest of China's implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

"This new agenda underpins several landmark agreements adopted on tackling climate change, financing development, managing disaster risks and responding to humanitarian crises," wrote Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the foreword of the UNDP 2015-2016 Results Report - Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.

The 75-page UNDP 2015-2016 Results Report says China used the UN research to become the first G20 country to fully align its national development plan with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As the G20 president this year, China lists promoting inclusive and interconnected development as one of the four key agenda items, which will focus on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com

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