China's Global Development Initiative a timely call-for-action to address global challenges: WEF officer

The China-proposed Global Development Initiative (GDI) is a timely call-for-action to address those pressing challenges that threaten the global collective ability to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an article on the World Economic Forum (WEF) website has said.

In the article "How China's efforts are advancing global development," the author Rebecca Ivey, chief representative officer of WEF China Office, said "no country can face global challenges alone" today.

Immediate challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change have shown that "a lack of global collaboration and multilateralism are the true barriers to overcome," Ivey wrote.

"We hope that initiatives such as the Global Development Initiative and the combined efforts of Chinese and global stakeholders from government, business and civil society could help to accelerate joint problem-solving and a renewed multilateralism to advance progress on the SDGs and provide a pathway to a more peaceful and prosperous world," she said.