Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a significant speech during the first session of the 19th G20 Leaders’ Summit, outlining eight actions China will take to support global development.
First, China will work together to build a high-quality Belt and Road Initiative. On the basis of establishing a new financing window worth 700 billion yuan and injecting an additional 80 billion yuan into the Silk Road Fund, a comprehensive connectivity network will be developed, the Green Silk Road will take prominence, and the Digital Silk Road will be further empowered. Second, China will implement the Global Development Initiative. Building on more than 1,100 development projects already underway, a “Global South” research center will be established, development funds will be effectively utilized to support developing countries, and practical cooperation will be deepened in areas such as poverty reduction, food security, and the digital economy.
Third, China will support Africa’s development. At the China-Africa Cooperation Forum Beijing Summit in September this year, Xi announced 10 proposed actions to advance modernization in Africa over the next three years, supported by 360 billion yuan in funding. Fourth, China will support international cooperation on poverty reduction and food security. The country has decided to join the “Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty,” continue supporting the G20 Development Ministers’ Meetings, and host the International Conference on Food Loss Reduction.
Fifth, China, along with Brazil, South Africa, and the African Union, will jointly launch the International Cooperation Initiative on Open Science to ensure that global scientific and technological innovations benefit the Global South more effectively. Sixth, China will support G20 practical cooperation initiatives that benefit the Global South, leverage the outcomes of frameworks such as the “Roadmap for Increasing Clean Energy Investments in Developing Countries” and the “High-Level Principles on Bioeconomy,” support the G20 Entrepreneurship Research Center in Beijing, and encourage collaboration in fields like digital education, museum digitization, and the digitization of ancient texts. Seventh, China will implement the G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan by strengthening cooperation with developing countries in areas such as the extradition of fugitives, recovery of illicit assets, combating safe havens for corruption, and building anti-corruption capacity. Eighth, China will improve its high-level mechanisms for opening up and will expand unilateral openness to the least developed countries (LDCs). China has already announced a 100% tariff exemption for all goods from LDCs with diplomatic ties to China. Between now and 2030, China’s imports from developing countries are expected to exceed 8 trillion USD.