Mr. Chairman,

The Chinese delegation congratulates Senegal on assuming the chairmanship of the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly. China supports the statement made by the representative of the State of Palestine on behalf of G77 and China.

Development is the eternal pursuit of human society. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has opened a new chapter in international cooperation for development. Next year will mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the fifth anniversary of the adoption of Agenda 2030. The Second Committee of the UN General Assembly should inject, at the current session, a new impetus into the international community's accelerated implementation of Agenda 2030 and push for achieving the goal of “leaving no one behind”.

First, we should forge international consensus and make development a priority of our work. The international community should accelerate the implementation of the SDGs and place development issues at the heart of the global macro-policy framework. Countries should, in light of their national conditions and stage of development, integrate Agenda 2030 into their medium- and long-term development strategies. Poverty is the biggest challenge to the implementation of Agenda 2030. As such, poverty reduction should be treated a top priority. At the same time, our attention should focus on infrastructure building, education, healthcare and other areas closely related to people’s livelihood in order to continue improving their wellbeing.

Second, we must stay engaged in win-win cooperation and deepen the global partnership for development. The international community should build a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, equity, fairness and cooperation for shared benefits. We should safeguard the international cooperation architecture with North-South cooperation as the main channel, supplemented with South-South cooperation. Developed countries should honour their ODA commitments, increase their input and help developing countries improve their development capabilities and levels according to their needs. Developing countries should forger greater solidarity, seek greater strength through unity and deepen South-South cooperation. The United Nations development system should take the reform as an opportunity to support Member States in better implementing Agenda 2030.

Third, we should promote global economic governance and create an enabling international environment for development. The international community should firmly uphold multilateralism and the multilateral trading system, oppose all forms of protectionism and unilateralism, actively build an open world economy and help developing countries better integrate into the global industrial and supply chains. Attention should be given to the concerns of developing countries and efforts made to further enhance their representation and voice in global economic governance.

Fourth, we should advance together the building of “the Belt and Road” to achieve quality development. The Belt and Road Initiative focuses on development, emphasizes the principles of wide consultation, joint contributions and shared benefits and pursues open, green and clean cooperation. It commits to pursuing high-standard cooperation to improve people’s lives and promote sustainable development. In the six years since the “Belt and Road Initiative” was launched, China has signed with over 160 countries and international organizations more than 190 documents on cooperation and has jointly established 82 cooperation parks overseas with relevant countries, creating more than 300,000 jobs at the local level. Last April, the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation released a list of 283 concrete results; participating enterprises signed project cooperation agreements worth more than US$64 billion. Building the “Belt and Road” that is fully aligned with Agenda 2030 will help accelerate the achievement of the SDGs worldwide.

Mr. Chairman,

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past 70 years, people of all nationalities in China have forged ahead as one, lifting 850 million people out of poverty. In just a few decades, we have completed the industrialization process that took developed countries hundreds of years, having thus created a miracle in the history of human development. For 70 years, China has continuously integrated itself into the world and made outstanding contributions to world peace and prosperity through its own development. China is the second largest contributor to the UN’s regular budget and peacekeeping budget. It is also a country that has dispatched the largest number of peacekeeping military personnel among the permanent members of the Security Council. China has remained the No. 1 contributor to global economic growth for more than a decade and has contributed to more than 70% of the global cause of poverty reduction. Its stock of FDI has jumped to the second place in the world. The secret code of China’s remarkable achievements is our unwavering commitment to follow the leadership of the Communist Party of China, uphold the status of our people as masters of the country and follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, always taking people's aspiration for a better life as the goal to strive for.

We also realize clearly that China is still a developing country with a prominent problem of unbalanced and insufficient development. We will always link our own development with the common development of other developing countries, jointly advance the building of the Belt and Road, scale up input in South-South cooperation and promote common development through openness and cooperation with a view to building a community of shared future for humankind.

President Xi Jinping said, China’s yesterday has been inscribed in the annals of humankind; China’s today is being created in the hands of hundreds of millions of its people; China’s tomorrow will surely be even better.

China will work tirelessly with the international community to achieve Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, to create a better future for humankind.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.