A global public good

The GDI is focused on eight priority areas: poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccines, financing for development, climate change and green development, industrialization, the digital economy and connectivity, according to a concept note from the Group of Friends of GDI, which hosts working sessions at the UN.

The group was launched in January at the UN headquarters in New York. Representatives from 100 countries and 20 international organizations participated, building greater international consensus on implementing the GDI.

In less than a year, 60 countries have joined the group.

"We are hopeful that given China's own experience of development, in achieving growth and rapid growth in eliminating poverty, that the model could serve as a basis for cooperation between developing countries and China as well as among themselves, in order to advance the goals we pursue in the GDI and the Group of Friends," Akram said.

In January, China launched Phase III of the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Trust Fund with $50 million, providing resources for international cooperation on poverty reduction and food security.

In March, under the GDI framework, China co-organized a seminar with the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. The program has helped train 1,000 people from nearly 100 countries on cross-border e-commerce.

In June, Xi attended the High-Level Dialogue on Global Development as part of the 14th BRICS Summit and announced 32 deliverables for implementing the GDI.

Those measures include upgrading the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, which will add a further $1 billion on top of the $3 billion already committed.

At the same time, he also announced readiness to enhance support for the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund.

The GDI includes funding for projects that will directly benefit countries from the Global South. "These initiatives will support and build on the growing volume of South-South cooperation, and will deepen collaboration among developing countries," Jorge Chediek, the former UN secretary-general envoy on South-South cooperation, told China Daily in an interview.

"In this context, China's leadership has played an essential role via political support and the strong commitment of resources to expand cooperation in recent decades," said Chediek, who also headed the UN Office for South-South Cooperation and served as the UN resident coordinator and the UN Development Programme's resident representative in multiple countries.

Meanwhile, China's developmental architecture system that provides global public goods led to the GDI setting the broad parameters of cooperation between China and Africa, Munene said.

"African countries have embraced the GDI knowing that development begets freedom and justice. Evoking the spirit of Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance, Agenda 2063, which is anchored in 20 goals for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future, needs like-minded multilateral frameworks such as the GDI to make the Pan-African dream a reality," he said.

Indeed, the benefits of the GDI are already tangible, Munene added. In the fight against COVID-19, China stood with Africa by committing resources to help the African Union achieve its goal of vaccinating 60 percent of the population by the end of this year, making this the largest vaccine assistance program undertaken by a single country to help Africa overcome the pandemic, he said.