Your Excellency State Councilor Wang Yi,
Distinguished Delegates,
It is an honour to take part in this meeting.
In the year since President Xi put forward the Global Development Initiative at the 76th session of the General Assembly, the welcoming response from United Nations Member States and other stakeholders has demonstrated its significance.
We stand at a moment in history that demands robust multilateralism and coordinated global efforts.
The Global Development Initiative is a concrete expression of China’s continued commitments to support the common goals of the global community and to generate solidarity and strengthen collaboration.
There are important synergies between GDI priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals, including in the areas of poverty eradication, health, climate action, industrialization, financing for development, digital economy, and connectivity.
The Global Development Initiative thus embodies the three dimensions of sustainable development, with emphasis on meeting the basic needs of people, addressing the imperative of environmental protection, and spurring long-term investment in green infrastructure and digital transformation.
The challenges ahead are multiple and interlocking. When we are in the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, opportunities to find common purpose will be ever more crucial in the years left to achieve the SDGs.
Delivering on our promises and commitments to leave no one behind and to improve the well-being of all people can only be achieved through a global and coordinated response.
We must face these challenges together.
UN DESA welcomes opportunities to work with the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative toward a strengthened multilateralism fit for the challenges ahead.
UN DESA also stands ready to work with UN system organizations, Regional Commissions and UN Country Teams, through concrete collaborative efforts, to advance the GDI in synergy with the achievement of the SDGs.
I thank you.