The Global Development Initiative (GDI) — Study Materials

The Global Development Initiative (GDI) is one of the three mutually-reinforcing initiatives launched by President Xi Jinping in recent years to foster a global community of development with a shared future. It addresses the most pressing livelihood needs of developing countries, building cooperation platforms and partnerships in key areas such as poverty reduction, food security, industrialization digital connectivity and knowledge sharing.

President Xi Jinping launched the Initiative on 21 September 2021 at the United Nations (see his statement), in which he called for commitment to development goals which are fully aligned with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda and which gained the public support of over 100 countries and international organizations. Soon afterwards, on 20 January 2022, the Group of Friends of the GDI   was launched, also at the UN.

Commenting on the role of the GDI in charting China’s path to modernisation, Keith Bennett has said: “China’s realization of common prosperity for all, its more than doubling of the number of people living in modernized societies, and its contributions to global modernization through such means as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative constitute the path to the realization of humanity’s community of shared future. It is a fundamentally different paradigm for modernization.” (Interviewed in People’s Daily, 29 May 2023.)

See also: “The three initiatives China put forward have resonated warmly with the world,” People’s Daily, 20 January 2024.

Study texts:

Xi Jinping

Bolstering confidence and jointly overcoming difficulties to build a better world. Statement at the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. 21 September 2021. Selection.