No universal model for development

China’s sustainable development strategy seeks to improve the quality of its manpower through educational advancement powered by science and technology and has worked well in enhancing people’s living standards, China’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Li Chengwen told Abdul Hannan Tago of Arab News in a special interview recently in Riyadh.

What, according to you, are the challenges facing the international community on the path to sustainable development?

Since the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, global sustainable development has undergone profound changes. Sustainable development has gradually become an international consensus, with deeper international and regional cooperation. Countries throughout the world have made huge progress in promoting sustainable development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. At the same time, global sustainable development is also faced with serious challenges such as rapid population growth, increasing poverty, North-South uneven development, severe environmental pollution, reduction of biodiversity, desertification and global climate change.

Kindly spell out China’s strategy in this regard.

China is one of the first few countries to propose and implement sustainable development strategies. Over the past two decades, our country has actively responded to the complex changes in the environment at home and abroad; achieved rapid economic development, higher living standards; and made remarkable progress in population quality improvement, resources conservation and environmental protection.
On the other hand, as a developing country with a large population, China is also confronted with a fragile ecosystem and inadequate per capita resources. Its per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was placed 88th in the IMF ranking in 2011 and there are still 122 million people living in poverty. Moreover, given the severe resources and environmental constraints on economic development, pronounced uneven development among regions, and weak scientific and technological innovation capacities, China still faces an arduous task of improving people’s livelihoods.

In light of this situation, what will be your country’s top priorities?

They include economic development as the top priority, improvement of people’s living quality and development capacity as the fundamental starting point and aim, institutional reforms and scientific as well as technological innovation as the driving force, so as to comprehensively promote green economic development and social harmony and progress. China’s sustainable development strategy aims to have the total population effectively controlled, the population quality considerably improved, the levels of science and technology development and education significantly enhanced, and people’s living standards continuously improved.

Besides empowering the people with general and technical education, what are the other elements of this strategy?

China attaches great importance to every form of basic capacity building, so as to enhance the capacity for sustainable development. China strives to strengthen the capacity of independent innovation to build an innovative country. We are speeding up infrastructure construction, enhancing the capacity to withstand natural risks while improving laws and regulations in a bid to consolidate bases to implement its sustainable development strategy. China has been carrying out public education campaigns, and expanded the channels of public participation to improve public identification with and participation in sustainable development in the society at large.
China makes unremitting efforts in building an environmentally friendly society. It has accelerated the construction of environmental protection infrastructure, strengthened related supervision and management, reduced the emissions of major pollutants, and improved environmental quality. China has continued to implement key projects for ecological protection and development and constantly stepped up ecological conservation.

What is your message to the international community on the occasion of this conference?

Achieving sustainable development is the common responsibility and mission of the whole world. The international community should focus on the goals of sustainable development, coordinate economic, social, and environmental factors and strive to achieve comprehensive, balanced, coordinated and sustainable development. The principles of social equity and justice should be maintained to ensure that the results of development can benefit all countries and regions. However, as countries are in different development stages, there is no universal model for sustainable development. Therefore, we must respect each nation’s autonomy in promoting sustainable development, and allow each country to choose a suitable development model.
International cooperation is the only way leading to global sustainable development. The international community should adhere to the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” and other principles enunciated in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.