Mr. President,

China thanks the Chair of the 16th session of PBC, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, Ambassador Muhammad Abdul Muhith, for his briefing on the PBC's work and progress achieved over the last year. China will continue to give his full support to the Chair of the 17th session of PBC, Permanent Representative of Croatia, Ambassador Ivan Šimonović at his work. China commends the PBC’s accomplishments of the last year and also takes note of the many challenges it faces in its efforts. Let me make a few points.

It is important to let the countries concerned take ownership and at the same time support them exploring a development path well suited to their natural conditions, provide constructive assistance based on their actual needs and priorities and improve the relevance and effectiveness of peacebuilding programs. It is up to the countries concerned to determine whether peacebuilding is effective or not. Hence engagements with countries concerns should be enhanced and their opinions and ideas should be taken on board in a timely manner.

Development remains the top priority, as development is the master key to solving all problems. The most critical challenge to post-conflict countries is to grow the economy and improve people's livelihoods. Therefore, resources should first and foremost go to areas such as eradicating poverty, protecting people's livelihoods and improving access to education and public health. Peacebuilding efforts should synergize with the efforts of regional and international organizations and international financial institutions. Greater investments should be made in the development field thus to help post-conflict countries out of the vicious cycle of falling back into turmoil due to poverty and deliver a peace dividend to the people. Developed Countries need to earnestly fulfill their commitments on ODA and climate financing and make up for historical gaps.

The PBC should play its advisory role well. As a body jointly mandated by the GA and the Security Council, the PBC has the advantage of balancing politics, security and development. In the past year, the PBC has provided 17 advisories to the Security Council and his engagements with the GA and ECOSOC have also been further strengthened. We welcome this. We expect the PBC to leverage his advantages on the basis of adhering to the ownership of the countries concerned and promoting partnerships, further strengthen engagements with the aforementioned three UN organs and come up with more valuable and practical advice and recommendations.

China highly values peacebuilding and has always been a staunch supporter of conflict-affected and post-conflict countries in their nation-building and development efforts through multilateral and bilateral channels. The Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative that we put forward have injected strong impetus into common development efforts. China has made multiple financial donations to the PBF and has provided funding support to many peacebuilding projects through the China-UN Peace and Development Fund. As we speak, discussions on peacebuilding financing issues are underway at the fifth committee and agreement is yet to be reached among the parties on assessed contributions, monitoring and oversight and others. China will continue to participate constructively in these discussions and expect all parties to reach a consensus on this. We will also continue to support peacebuilding efforts with real actions and contribute to achieving lasting peace.

I thank you, Mr. President.