All welcome to join GDI, UN event told

China welcomes the participation of all countries in the Global Development Initiative, or GDI, to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a senior official said on Wednesday of the initiative put forward by President Xi Jinping.

All countries should attach great importance to development issues in the face of global crises and challenges, Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu told reporters after the opening of a UN forum on sustainable development held at the UN headquarters in New York.

He called on nations to join the GDI in order to achieve coordinated development in the economic and social realms, taking in fields such as energy, food, the environment, health and climate change.

"China has always been a firm supporter and active practitioner of the concept of sustainable development," Huang said. "It has continued to advance various tasks of the 2030 Agenda and has made positive progress in various sustainable development goals such as poverty reduction, energy, climate change, ecosystem protection and green development.

"We keep the people-oriented principle and firmly promote poverty elimination," he said, adding that China has achieved a historic success in eradicating absolute poverty.

In September last year, President Xi put forward the GDI at the UN General Assembly, calling on the international community to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for more robust, greener and more balanced global development. Xi also stressed a people-centered approach in the GDI.

Support for the initiative has been voiced across the globe from the very beginning of its creation, and fruitful outcomes have been achieved since then.

During a visit by Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Malaysia on Tuesday, the two countries agreed to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and the implementation of the GDI.

Last week, Indonesia's Coordinator for Cooperation with China and Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said Indonesia would actively participate in the GDI and the Global Security Initiative, another initiative proposed by Xi.

Practical measures

China's practical measures to implement the GDI were also hailed by the members of the BRICS grouping－Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa－when the leaders of the five developing countries met online for the 14th BRICS Summit last month.

Huang said that under China's current poverty line, all 98.99 million rural residents had been lifted out of poverty. This feat means that China has achieved, 10 years ahead of schedule, the goal of "no poverty" under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"We uphold harmony between man and nature and firmly promote green and the low-carbon development," Huang said.

Data released by China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment shows that of all the worldwide additions to the designated green leaf areas between 2000 and 2017, China accounted for about 25 percent－the largest contribution.

According to the minister, China has implemented laws and regulations related to energy conservation, improved the energy structure, developed low-carbon energy and renewable energy and promoted the growth of industries covering new energy and energy conservation and environmental protection.