"I think even when there are challenges, China is a very strong and important economy. It has many comprehensive latent advantages," Safdar Parvez, the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) country director for China, told People's Daily Online at a forum in Beijing on Sept. 19.
The East Asia Forum 2024 explored how China and the ADB can collaborate to address regional challenges, focusing on promoting regional and global public goods in ADB's developing member countries. The event included four sessions on topics ranging from China-ADB partnerships to energy transition, drawing numerous high-profile guests and experts.
"China is home to a lot of industrial sophistication, particularly in areas such as electric vehicles, solar panels, lithium batteries — what the country calls the 'new (quality) productive forces' — and we feel that there is a lot more that China can continue to contribute in terms of sharing its vast knowledge, its technology, its innovation," Parvez noted.
Parvez praised China's technological advances, saying innovation has become one of the country's strengths. He said other developing countries could adapt and replicate China's experience.
"We have tried to use our cooperation with China as a role model to try to inspire development in other developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region," Parvez noted, pointing out that other developing nations could learn from China's poverty reduction efforts, given the country's complete eradication of extreme poverty in 2021.
Parvez said the economic and social reforms proposed at July's third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee fit China's current economic transition needs. He said the ADB is ready to help China implement its reform agenda, especially in the low-carbon transition, sustainable development and tackling issues related to an aging population.
The relationship between China and the ADB has strengthened over nearly four decades since China joined the ADB in 1986. The country director for China stated that the Manila-based bank's current investment focus in China centers on climate mitigation and adaptation, environmentally sustainable development, regional health security, and other related areas.
