UNDP will strengthen partnership with China to achieve SDGs

The 2019 China International Import Expo being held in Shanghai this week coincides with the United Nations Development Programme's four-decade development partnership with China. About 1 million people are expected to see new products and technologies being showcased by more than 150 countries from different industries all around the world. The expo, in its second year, is in many ways representative of China's increasingly important role in international trade and global engagement.

Indeed, China's trade volume is the largest in the world, and the country has become one of the world's leading export markets. This rise has also created an opportunity for China to be an important international financing and development partner. In 2017, China's total foreign direct investment was more than $100 billion. And China's official development assistance is helping partner countries around the globe in reducing poverty and improving people's livelihoods, while supporting advancement in areas such as agriculture, health, education and energy.

China's own development journey has been truly unprecedented. Just over 40 years ago, its economy was smaller than that of the Netherlands, now it is the world's second largest. More than 750 million people have been lifted out of poverty and per capita income has increased over 20 fold.