BEIJING: China on Sunday issued a white paper on the country’s international development cooperation.
Titled “China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era,” the white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, consists of eight chapters and expounds on China’s views on international development cooperation in the new era, the actions it has taken, and its plans for the future.
China entered a new era after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012. Since then, the country has considered China’s responsibilities from a global perspective, and proposed its vision of a global community of a shared future and the Belt and Road Initiative.
The paper specifically illustrates that “international development cooperation” refers to China’s bilateral and multilateral efforts, within the framework of South-South cooperation, to promote economic and social development through foreign aid, humanitarian assistance, and other means.
The paper emphasizes that within the framework of South-South cooperation, it will provide assistance to other developing countries, and it will perform international duties compatible with its national strength.
It says that in spite of China’s tremendous achievements, China is still a developing economy, so its development cooperation is a form of mutual assistance between developing countries, which falls into the category of South-South cooperation and “therefore is essentially different from North-South cooperation.”
The white paper identified Belt and Road cooperation a major platform to promote policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity among countries.
It also identified helping other developing countries to pursue the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a key goal, which can narrow the North-South gap, helping build a common prosperous world. – Agencies
