China should have more say in global decision-making (4)

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China should have more say in global decision-making (4)

(People's Daily Online) 09:58, August 30, 2013

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Wei Jianguo, Vice Chairman of CCIEE delivers a speech at the at the report launch in Beijing on Aug. 29, 2013. (People’s Daily Online / Gao Yinan)

People’s Daily Online Aug. 28, Beijing – A report calling for significant reform to global governance institutions to afford better representation to emerging nations was launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Beijing on Thursday.

Prof. Zhang Yuyan, the director of institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences made a summary of the report, entitled “Reconfiguring Global Governance – Effectiveness, Inclusiveness, and China’s Global Role”, which captures the essence of the first High-Level Policy Forum on Global Governance held in Beijing last December when over 100 academics and policy practitioners from five continents gathered in Beijing to discuss the present state of international governance.

The report identifies three main challenges to global governance: the altered geography of global power caused by the economic rise of emerging nations such as China; the proliferation of globally-shared issues such as climate change and financial instability; and a need to ensure the legitimacy and accountability of global public goods. It provides in-depth analysis of these issues and the context in which we find them, and takes a detailed look at China’s growing role in international affairs.

Speaking at the launch of the report in Beijing, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark welcomed the report’s findings, noting that “As global citizens, we face an unprecedented number of shared environmental, social, and economic challenges, from global warming to the spread of pandemics, to cyber-war and transnational crime, trade barriers and others seeking a better, safer life. We depend on effective global governance to address such challenges.”

The report also presents the policies that developed and developing countries have implemented to achieve global governance. The report confirms the important role China has played in the multilateral relations and global governance in the past thirty years. The report indicates that China will have more chance to promote their development ideas and expertise and to strengthen its international influence.

The report suggests that China can serve as bridge between developed and developing countries, and help developing countries to be better-heard in the dialogue on global issues. It argues that China has emerged as one of the leading voices of reform to spur collective action on various global issues, and as a champion of the United Nations and its attendant efforts to advance global peace and prosperity.

As well as providing a faithful account of the groundbreaking discussions at the Forum, the report also includes expanded insights from a selection of the experts who attended the forum, written specially for this report. These provide a detailed explanation of some of the Forum’s key outputs and offer the reader a more comprehensive understanding of the report’s findings.