Sharing of experiences crucial to eliminate poverty

The global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, will never be achieved if each one of the United Nations' 193 member states has to do it on their own. In fact, each of them, including the most advanced, can draw on a vast pool of international experience in developing their SDG strategy. One of the most important roles that the UN plays in the 2030 effort is as a bridge between nations, facilitating the sharing of experience and knowledge.

As we join China in marking the 40th anniversary of its reform and opening-up, one extremely impressive feature of China's rapid development is sometimes missed - China's continuous and strategic use of international lessons throughout this period. Opening-up didn't only allow foreign businesses to come to the country; international organizations, government officials from other countries, Nobel Prize winning scholars and other innovative thinkers, have been traveling to China regularly to exchange ideas about successful economic and social development.

China has never blindly adopted approaches and programs. But it has always been open to learning from them, carefully studying them and, when relevant, adapting them to China's own conditions and needs. China's experience can serve as a model for other developing countries by demonstrating the appropriate way to use the knowledge resources that the world can offer to countries seeking to chart their course to a better future.