Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, who attended the Third International Conference on Financing for Development on behalf of President Xi Jinping, said China will partner with various parties to actively secure financing for development to achieve sustainable growth and shared prosperity in the world.
Representatives of the 193 UN member states attending the Addis Ababa conference are expected to reach a far-reaching agreement to provide a funding framework and a package of policy advice to help countries seek both public and private funds locally and internationally in order to achieve a 17-target Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be held in New York this September.
In an interview with Xinhua, Lou said financing lies at the center of setting and implementing the world's post-2015 development agenda. In the past 15 years, despite a boost in international financing, the developing world faced tremendous development hurdles.
As global cooperation continues to strengthen,the world should focus more on helping the developing world address their concerns. The developed countries should deliver their promises to further write off debts, open the markets, and make good on the Official Development Aid (ODA) pledge to invest 0.7 percent of the gross national income for the developing world.
He identified poverty reduction, health, education, infrastructure construction as the key areas for the ODAs offered by the developed world.
Lou said as the world's largest developing country, China benefited a lot from the international financing cooperation and in return contributed actively to the process. Over the past few decades, China has extended assistance to over 120 developing countries to invest in health, education, climate change, agriculture.
"Especially after the First International Conference on Financing for Development in 2002, China provided money, technology, market and experiences to fast-track South-South cooperation," Lou said. "South-South cooperation was built on a partnership that features mutual trust, equality, and no political strings attached."
"South-South cooperation can play an even bigger role but it should always come as a supplement to the North-South cooperation which has been dominating the international financing cooperation scenes," he added.
Lou said China is experimenting with initiatives like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the BRICS Development Bank, and the "Road and Belt Initiative" to produce new public products to advance the global development towards shared prosperity.
