China's Global Development Initiative vital for least developed countries: Cambodia's top diplomat

PHNOM PENH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China-proposed Global Development Initiative (GDI) is crucial in supporting least developed countries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to reduce poverty, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn said.

In a recent written interview with Chinese media, Sokhonn said the GDI has been warmly welcomed by international community, especially developing countries.

"This is because the GDI aims at aiding least developed countries, especially those struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, mitigating poverty and food security through international cooperation, and promoting financial and green development," he said.

"Indeed, the GDI is another public good that China provides to the rest of the world," he added.

Sokhonn said the GDI will contribute to strengthening international development cooperation and accelerating the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Moreover, the GDI reminds that each nation wants development and growth, hence cooperation is needed, he said.

The top diplomat said Cambodia strongly supports the GDI.

"I strongly believe that Cambodia's participation in the initiative will further energize the existing cooperation frameworks, noticeably the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the building of a Cambodia-China Community with a Shared Future," he said.

Senior economist Ky Sereyvath, director-general of the Institute of China Studies at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said on Friday that the GDI has set out a blueprint for the development of countries and international development cooperation, and pointed the way forward for global development and international development cooperation.

"The GDI embraces the people-centered core concept," he told Xinhua. "It will help promote global prosperity, steering global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth."

Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said on Friday that the GDI will foster a global community of development with a shared future and it's the aspiration of all nations for a better life.

"The initiative focuses on development as the master key to addressing all problems, and strives to solve difficult issues of development and create more opportunities for development, leaving no countries and no individuals behind," he told Xinhua.

He added that the GDI responds to the dynamics and urgent needs of global development, as it has identified priority areas including poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 and vaccines, financing for development, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy, and connectivity.

"The GDI advocates the spirit of open and inclusive partnership, and I believe that it will inject a new impetus into the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Matthews said.