Mr. Co-Chairs,

Distinguished Colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to attend today’s summit. With the United Nations marking its 70th anniversary, this is a significant and timely opportunity for world leaders to get together in New York to chart the course for future development.

Development bears on the hopes and the very survival of the peoples of all countries. It embodies the expression of their dignity and their rights. It is in such a context that we laid down the Millennium Development Goals 15 years ago in an effort to better the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

In the intervening years, we have witnessed both continued worldwide growth and severe consequences of the international financial crisis. We have seen both the sweeping rise of developing countries and the lingering imbalance between the North and the South. While elated at the fact that more than 1.1 billion people have since been raised from poverty, we cannot but feel deep concern that more than 800 million still go to bed every day with an empty stomach.

At the global level, peace and development remain the dominant themes of the times. To properly address the range of global challenges we face, including the recent refugee crisis in Europe, there is no fundamental solution other than the pursuit of peace and development. Confronted by such a multiplicity of challenges and difficulties, we must hold fast to development as our master key, for only through development can we resolve the root cause of conflicts, safeguard the basic rights of the people, and meet the ardent hopes of people for a better future.

Mr. Co-Chairs,

Distinguished Colleagues,

The Post-2015 Development Agenda adopted by this summit draws up a new blueprint for global development and provides fresh opportunities for international cooperation. We should take this as a new starting point, work out a course of equitable, open, all-round and innovation-driven development, and strive to realize the common development of all countries.

— We need to ensure equitable development for all. All countries should have equal rights as participants in, contributors to, and beneficiaries of global development. This must not be a privilege available to just one or to a small number of countries, and inaccessible to a large number of others. Countries may differ in their capacity for development and the progress they have made towards their goals. In spite of this, they have shared objectives, and should bear the common – if differentiated – levels of responsibility. It is important to improve global economic governance, increase the representation and the voice of developing countries, and give all countries equal rights to participate in international rule-making.

— We need to ensure open development, to deliver its benefits to all parties. With the steady onward march of economic globalization, all countries should keep their doors wide open and allow factors of production to flow more freely and smoothly across the world. It is important for all countries to uphold the multilateral trading system, build an open economy, and come to share the benefits through mutual consultation and joint collaboration. We should respect each other’s choice of path towards development, draw on each other’s experience, and bring these different paths together at the point of success, thus furnishing the rich fruits of development to all peoples.

— We need to ensure all-round development to make the foundations more solid. Development will ultimately serve the people. While striving to eliminate poverty and improve standards of living, it is important for us to uphold equality and social justice and ensure that everyone has access to the opportunities and benefits of development. Efforts must be made to balance the development of the economy, society, and the environment, and achieve harmonious coexistence between man and society and between man and nature.

— We need to ensure innovation-driven development to release the potential to the greatest extent possible. Innovation is a vibrant driver. Problems arising in the process of development can only be resolved through further development. All countries should look to reform and innovation for ways to bring out their potential, build stronger engines for growth, and hone their competitive edge to the maximum.

Mr. Co-Chairs,

Distinguished Colleagues,

The Post-2015 Development Agenda is an ambitious list of deliverables that carries with it our solemn commitment. It is often said that the worth of any plan lies in its implementation. I therefore call on the international community to redouble its collective efforts to achieve the joint implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and work hard to realize our goal.

First, to build up capacity for development. Development, in the final analysis, is the job of individual countries. We Chinese say, “Eat according to the size of one’s stomach and dress according to the size of one’s figure.” It is therefore necessary for each country to formulate its own development strategies that fit its strengths and national conditions. The international community has a duty to help developing countries grow their capacity and to provide them with support and assistance tailored to their actual needs.

Second, to improve the international environment for development. Peace and development go hand in hand. Countries should work together to maintain international peace, promoting development with peace and securing peace through development. A sound external institutional environment is required to sustain development. International financial institutions therefore need to step up the reform of their governance, and multilateral development agencies need to increase their supply of resources.

Third, to update the partnership for development. Developed countries should honor their commitments and live up to their obligations in a timely manner. The international community, while maintaining the role of South-North cooperation as the main channel, should work to reinforce South-South and tripartite cooperation, and encourage the private sector and other stakeholders to play an even larger role in these partnerships.

Fourth, to strengthen the coordination mechanisms for development. Countries need to step up coordination of their macroeconomic policies to avoid as far as possible negative spillover effects. Regional organizations should accelerate their integration and invigorate their overall competitiveness by exploiting intra-regional complementary advantages. The United Nations must continue to fulfill its leadership role.

Mr. Co-Chairs,

Distinguished Colleagues,

Over the past 30 years and more since China inaugurated its reform and opening up, our country has followed a development path with distinct Chinese characteristics – one that was chosen in the light of our prevailing national conditions. Through our success in lifting 439 million people out of poverty and the remarkable progress we have made in areas such as education, health and development of women, we have essentially realized our Millennium Development Goals. China’s development has not only improved the well-being of the 1.3 billion-plus Chinese people, but also given a strong boost to the global cause.

Over the past six decades, China has taken an active part in international cooperation. We have provided 166 countries and international organizations with nearly RMB400 billion worth of development assistance and dispatched over 600,000 aid workers, more than 700 of whom have laid down their precious lives in aiding the development of other countries.

Looking to the future, China will continue to maintain an ethical balance between justice and its own interests by putting justice before such interests. We will join our own efforts with those of other countries in a concerted drive to realize the Post-2015 Development Agenda. To this end, I wish to announce the following:

— China will establish an assistance fund for South-South cooperation, with an initial pledge of US$2 billion to support developing countries in their implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

— China will continue to increase investment in the least-developed countries, aiming to attain a level of US$12 billion by 2030.

— China will write off the debt on outstanding intergovernmental interest-free loans due by the end of 2015 owed by designated least-developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing countries.

— China will establish an international development knowledge center for studying and exchanging between countries on the theories and practice of development best-suited to their respective national conditions.

— China will propose a discussion on establishing a global energy internet to facilitate efforts to meet global power demand with clean and green alternatives.

China is also ready and willing to work with other stakeholders to make rapid progress on the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative,* to quickly render the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the BRICS New Development Bank operational, and to contribute to the economic growth of the developing countries and the well-being of their peoples.

Mr. Co-Chairs,

Distinguished Colleagues,

We, the people of China, make this solemn pledge: to maintain our commitment to implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda as our bounden duty, to work together with the world as one, and to strive for continued progress in global development.

Thank you.