Removing bottlenecks to multilaterism

The Global Development Initiative attaches great importance to removing obstacles to building an open world economy and guaranteeing global development

The combined impacts of the profound changes unseen in a century and the COVID-19 pandemic are severely challenging the process of global development, which hinges on global partnerships.

China is working with other nations to promote an open and interconnected global development environment — by deepening South-South cooperation and enhancing North-South cooperation.

At the 76th United Nations General Assembly on Sept 21, 2021, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative with the theme of "accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and promoting more robust, greener, and more balanced global development".

The initiative is an international public good provided by China to promote the global development process, and its implementation requires international cooperation through multiple paths.

The first path is to deepen South-South cooperation. China shares similar historical sufferings and common needs for development with other developing countries. As the largest developing country, China proactively promotes South-South cooperation to provide support and assistance to developing countries, especially the least developed countries, to eliminate poverty.

China has created the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund and closely worked with more than 10 international organizations to implement over 100 development cooperation projects in more than 50 countries, benefiting more than 20 million people.

China has also announced that it will provide an additional $3 billion in international aid within the next three years to support developing countries in combating the pandemic and promoting economic and social development; it will waive debts of interest-free loans owed by developing countries and aims to increase its investment in the least developed countries to $12 billion by 2030.

The second path is to advance North-South cooperation. China calls for strengthening North-South dialogue and cooperation, promoting new international relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation, so all countries and peoples can share development opportunities and achievements.

China also opposes hegemony and power politics. Since the end of 2021, the United States has launched a series of major interest rate hikes to control its inflation, leading to the influx of international capital into the US. As a result, many developing countries and emerging economies have seen a worsening capital imbalance and are under severe pressure of currency depreciation. This highlights the necessity of strengthening North-South coordination to build a global economic and financial safety net.

The US has implemented economic sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" against many emerging economies and developing countries through domestic laws and executive orders, severely harming their economic and social development, as well as the well-being of relevant countries.

Clinging to the Cold War mentality, the US generalizes the concept of national security and completely deviates from its touted concept of a liberal market economy as it promotes "decoupling" and "cutting ties", which disrupts the international economic interdependence based on different economies' comparative advantages in the global market.

One prominent example is how the US monopolizes and suppresses competitors in high-tech industries. From the containment of Huawei to the ban on TikTok, the US is politicizing and weaponizing technology and economic issues to maintain its hegemony and monopoly in the world.

In this context, China advocates international coordination of macroeconomic policies, and calls on developed countries, especially major powers, to assume their responsibility for maintaining world economic stability.

China is proactively driving pragmatic cooperation between the North and the South. It has established the China-International Fund for Agricultural Development South-South and Triangular Cooperation Facility and works with international organizations to implement rural poverty reduction and development programs in more than 30 countries.

Committed to true multilateralism, China advocates the principles of openness and inclusiveness, consultation and cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results, and opposes exclusiveness, confrontation and self-interest.

Multilateralism is inherently consistent with the non-exclusive and non-competitive nature of international public goods, and is essential to the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and helps create synergy for international development.

It is necessary to uphold the international system underpinned by the United Nations and support the UN to play a leading role in international development. China took the lead in publishing the National Plan on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, echoing the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The eight priority areas of the Global Development Initiative fully support the 17 sustainable development goals of the 2030 agenda, making the initiative a powerful driving engine for achieving the 2030 goals.

It is necessary to maintain the multilateral trade system underpinned by the World Trade Organization and create an international economic and trade system environment conducive to global development.

In the context of profound changes in the world economic landscape and the rise of unilateralism and protectionism, the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system is facing severe challenges. The US has blocked the appointment of judges to the World Trade Organization appellate body, threatening to paralyze the WTO's operations and pushing the multilateral trading system underpinned by the WTO into a crisis.

The multilateral trading system is fundamental to the division of labor among countries in the global industrial and supply chains. It also serves as a basic track for optimal global allocation of resources to promote global development and welfare.

China supports the reform of the WTO to adapt to the changing times, but opposes the practice of some countries which only endorse what suits their interests and advocates that problems should be resolved through consultation and dialogue.

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities should be followed throughout the reform of the WTO to effectively protect the rights of developing countries within the WTO framework. China calls for adherence to the principles of fairness and justice and opposes discriminatory rules against specific countries, so that the multilateral trade mechanism is not used as a tool for suppressing certain members.

It is also necessary to give full play to the synergy of multilateral frameworks such as the G20, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS to promote international development by building an open world economy.

Multilateral mechanisms are platforms for global governance stakeholders to express and coordinate interests and take joint action. In various fields such as the digital economy, energy transition, cybersecurity, international taxation, humanitarianism and climate change, the international community faces a series of major issues.

In global governance practices, each multilateral platform has its unique features and advantages. The Global Development Initiative attaches great importance to interaction with various multilateral platforms, as well as interconnections between rules, standards and macro policies, which is conducive to removing obstacles to building an open world economy and providing a powerful institutional guarantee for promoting global development.

The author is the director-general of the Bureau of International Cooperation at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.