More than 60 countries including Fiji have joined China’s Group of Friends of GDI (Global Development Initiative), the Asian powerhouse’s major development initiative after the Belt and Road Initiative.

Chinese ambassador to Fiji Zhou Jian said the GDI represented “China’s wisdom to solve the world’s development problems and China’s solution to improve the global governance system”.

“The initiative focuses on international co-operation in areas such as poverty reduction, food security, anti-epidemic and vaccines, financing for development, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy, and connectivity,” he said this week.

“It will pull efforts to solve the problem of unbalanced development among and within countries, promote the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“The GDI has implemented more than 100 early harvest programs, benefiting more than 60 developing countries.

“The South-South Cooperation Fund has been upgraded to the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund.

“The Chinese Government has committed to increasing its capitalisation to $4 billion, which will be utilised to support “small and beautiful” projects of above eight major sectors.

“The Sub-Fund for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has already provided $US61.4 million ($F135.8m) in funding to 48 UN projects, benefiting 74 countries from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Europe. The majority of these countries are the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states.”

In March, China and Fiji signed a MOU to develop co-operation and promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative.