China calls for shared global growth

Annual report outlines solutions to overcome obstacles for development

China has unveiled an annual report, analyzing major obstacles for global development, and calling for joint efforts to overcome them and promote shared and sustainable development in a world filled with turbulence and changes.

The Global Development Report 2024 launched by the Center for International Knowledge on Development on Friday said the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development "faces great challenges in meeting its deadline".

Global growth has remained weak, trade and investment has witnessed sluggish growth, the report said, adding that the world is facing more prominent imbalances in economic development.

The report went on to point out other challenges, including global actions "far from sufficient for achieving the climate target", intensified geopolitical conflicts and anti-globalization trends, calling for cooperation to address all these issues.

Cooperation remains a rational choice for countries to maximize their interests, it said, urging international community members to work together for a community with a shared future for mankind.

They should push the 2030 Agenda back on track, and leverage the role of the Global Development Initiative, an initiative China proposed in 2021, in accelerating the agenda's progress, the report said.

It also highlighted the importance of adopting a systematic approach driven by solutions to the most pressing issues, encouraged better North-South and South-South cooperation, and asked major countries to lead international cooperation.

Zhang Laiming, vice-minister of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said at the report's launch ceremony that countries should build stronger consensuses, enhance cooperation, share development opportunities with others and conduct joint efforts to respond to risks and challenges.

Carlos Correa, executive director of the South Center, a think tank headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, said he was impressed by the "comprehensive scope" of the report, which "provides not only information and data, but also policy advice and recommendations in many areas".

"All countries, particularly developing countries, need a strong, and not fragmented, multilateral system. I appreciate very much the effort China is doing in that direction," Correa said.

Osama El Gohary, assistant to the prime minister of Egypt and chairman of the Egyptian Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center, said recommendations the report put forward "are not only a reflection of the global development landscape, but also a call for coordinated action to address the complex challenges facing us".

The recommendations, "if acted upon, can guide us toward a more sustainable, inclusive and prosperous future", Gohary said.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, founder and chairman of the Forum for a New South Asia, an organization based in Mumbai, India, said the solutions provided by the report point to greater global cooperation to achieve inclusive, fair, ecologically sustainable and people-centered development.

Noting the report's suggestions about global poverty reduction, Kulkarni said China's "epochchanging success" in eradicating extreme poverty "has many lessons for developing countries".