The Global Development Initiative (GDI) has seen progress in cooperation on development and received extensive support from the international community, according to a meeting on GDI outcomes on Tuesday.

"More than 70 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative, and nearly 200 projects of pragmatic cooperation have been included in the Global Development Initiative project pool," said Chinese Vice President Han Zheng in an address to the high-level meeting on GDI Cooperation Outcomes hosted by China at the UN headquarters in New York.

China has also announced it will launch a special fund of $10 billion to implement the initiative, added Han.

The GDI was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly in September 2021, with the aim to fostering international consensus on promoting development, cultivating new drivers for global development, and facilitating common development and progress of all countries. 

"Two years on, we have jointly voted 'yes' for development, worked together to expand the 'Group of Friends' for cooperation, enriched the 'resource pool' for development, and collaboratively built a 'tool box' for development," said Han at Tuesday's meeting.  

The Chinese vice president, however, said that the world faces severe challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as scheduled.

"About 90 percent of the SDGs are 'derailed' and nearly one-third stagnant or even regressing," he noted.

Han called for practicing true multilateralism, strengthening the alignment of development strategies of all parties, comprehensively mobilizing all types of development resources, and exploring more pragmatic cooperation.

"On the road to development, no country shall be left behind, and no one shall be left behind," he said. "This is the vision of the Global Development Initiative and the goal advocated by the United Nations."

More than 300 representatives, including those from the Group of Friends of the GDI and the Group of 77, attended Tuesday's meeting.

According to the attendees, the GDI has played a positive and important role in building consensus on development, deepening international cooperation and implementing the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs.

A think tank also released a report on the GDI's implementation, achievement and contributions to the world during the meeting.

(Cover: A Chinese expert introduces desert plants to people from central Asian countries at a desert research station in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 13, 2023. /Xinhua)