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Xi Jinping Delivers Speech at High-level Roundtable on South-South Cooperation
2015/09/28

On September 26, 2015, President Xi Jinping attended and chaired the High-level Roundtable on South-South Cooperation co-hosted by China and the United Nations (UN) at the UN headquarters in New York, summarizing the experience and discussing the development plan on South-South cooperation with leaders of vast developing countries and heads of international organizations. President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, President Edgar Lungu of Zambia, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi of Samoa, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Denmark, and other heads of state and governments, as well as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the UN and heads of other international organizations such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) were present at the Roundtable.

 

In his speech, Xi Jinping pointed out that Mr. Deng Xiaoping had stated in his speech at the UN General Assembly in 1974 that China was a developing nation belonging to the third world. Although China has scored tremendous development achievements in the past 40-odd years, China is still a developing country and the importance it attaches to South-South cooperation remains unchanged. China proposing to hold this Roundtable aimed at promoting South-South cooperation for higher-level and more in-depth development.

Xi Jinping pointed out that South-South cooperation, as a great pioneering measure uniting the developing nations together for self-improvement, is featured by equality, mutual trust, mutual benefit, win-win result, solidarity and mutual assistance and can help developing nations pave a new path for development and prosperity. As the overall strength of developing nations improves, the South-South cooperation is set to play a bigger role in promoting the collective rise of developing countries and generating a robust, sustained, balanced and inclusive growth of the world economy.

Xi Jinping raised the following proposals on South-South cooperation in the new era.

The first is to explore diversified paths of development. A matched key is required to open the lock. The developing countries should stick to the development paths of their independent choice and with their unique characteristics, share successful experience in governance and administration of state affairs, focus on capacity-building, explore growth potentials, solve development difficulties and improve the well-being of the people.

The second is to commit to docking the development strategies of developing nations. The developing countries should make better use of their comparative advantages, enhance macroeconomic policy coordination, and advance cooperation simultaneously in such areas as economy, trade, finance, investment, infrastructure construction and environmental protection, so as to improve the overall competitiveness of the developing countries.

The third is to strive for results from practical development. The developing countries should concentrate on rolling out a number of flagship projects with strategic and exemplary significance by taking connectivity and production capacity cooperation as breakthrough points and giving full play to such new mechanisms as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank of BRICS, so as to generate sound economic, social and environmental effect and instill vigor to South-South cooperation.

The fourth is to improve the global development framework. The developing countries should promote the reform of global economic governance, consolidate the multilateral trading system, promote the Doha Round negotiations to obtain authorization at an early date, expand communication and exchanges with developed countries, forge a diversified partnership system, and thus build a community of common interests.

Xi Jinping announced that in order to help other developing countries to grow economy and improve people's livelihood, China will carry out the "Six 100s" initiative, according to which it will make available to other developing countries in the next five years 100 poverty reduction programs, 100 agricultural cooperation projects, 100 trade promotion and aid programs, 100 environmental protection and climate change programs, 100 hospitals and clinics, and 100 schools and vocational training centers. In the next five years, China will provide 120,000 opportunities and 150,000 scholarships for citizens of other developing countries to receive training and education in China, and help nurture 500,000 professional technicians for the rest of the developing world. China will also set up an Academy of South-South Cooperation and Development, and provide 2 million USD of aid in cash for the World Health Organization.

Xi Jinping stressed that solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries form the unshakable foundation of China's foreign policy, and that as a developing nation, China will share its development opportunities with other developing countries. China will closely link its development with the common growth of the developing world, connect the Chinese Dream with the dream of all the people in the developing countries for a better life, and join hands with other developing countries to create a bright future for common progress.

The Roundtable proceeded in a friendly and warm atmosphere. The leaders of other developing nations and heads of international organizations present at the Roundtable expressed gratitude to China for convening the Roundtable and their full support for Xi Jinping's initiative and propositions on South-South cooperation, saying that China is providing leadership in international affairs. The major and practical measures President Xi Jinping announced at UN Sustainable Development Summit and the Roundtable testify to the importance China attaches to, the support China renders for and the contributions China makes to South-South cooperation. The South has become a major impetus for global growth and South-South cooperation has become an important supplement to international development cooperation. However, South-South cooperation cannot replace North-South cooperation or the developed countries' aid to their developing peers. The UN should increase support for South-South cooperation.

Xi Jinping emphasized in the end that the post-2015 development agenda sets a higher development objective and brings forwards more demands for all parties. The South-South cooperation should take the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda as an opportunity to boost the development of the developing countries at higher levels and in broader areas.

The Roundtable issued a joint communique of the co-chairs, which affirms the significant contributions of the South-South cooperation, summarizes important principle of South-South cooperation and raises the suggestions on deepening South-South cooperation including boosting experience exchange in development philosophy, deepening coordination in macroeconomic policy, forging flagship cooperation projects and promoting reform on global economic governance.

Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Yang Jiechi, and others were present at above event.

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