Making joint efforts for development in a post-COVID world

The World Economic Forum will return to Davos for an offline gathering in 2022. Heads of government and business have urged joint cooperation on the world's main issues — climate change, the coronavirus and the economic recovery. This event has great significance. Without forgetting its commitment to a more sustainable and inclusive world, this year the forum focused on working together to rebuild the economy amid the pandemic.

President Xi Jinping delivered a special address at the virtual Davos Forum titled "Strengthen Confidence, Forge Perseverance and Create a Beautiful World in the Post-epidemic Era", introducing Chinese wisdom and global philosophy to the world.

The Chinese leader noted "these changes, not limited to a particular moment, event, country or region, represent profound and sweeping changes of our times". It means all countries should follow the trend of history, work for a stable international order, advocate common values of humanity and build a community with a shared future for mankind. Human society is at a crossroads. To solve unprecedented problems, the world should foster new opportunities amid crises and pool its strength to overcome difficulties and challenges.

Collaboration and cooperation for all countries in the world is the way to jointly defeat the pandemic, effectively resolve various risks and promote steady recovery of the world economy. Peaceful coexistence and win-win outcomes cannot be achieved if some countries maintain a Cold War mentality.

How can we figure out the future of human society in light of the changing world landscape?

The Chinese leader said cooperation represents the only way to overcome the pandemic and embrace the future.

He emphasized "the history of humanity is a history of achieving growth by meeting various tests and developing by overcoming various crises". Confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is facing new problems that cannot be avoided. Holding each other back or shifting blame will only cause needless delays in response and distract the world from the overall objective. One country's weak response or even passivity will hinder the world's fight against the pandemic.

Facts have shown amid the raging torrents of a global crisis, countries are not riding separately in small boats, but are rather all in a giant ship on which their shared destiny hinges.

Countries must adjust their ideas, actions, policies and strategies quickly to adapt to the changes of the time. Holding a Cold War mentality will impede the world's development.

Pursuing unilateralism and building exclusive small circles or blocs can only bring new risks and turmoil and widen gaps among economies.

According to Xi, to establish a new global governance system amid the new era, "countries around the world should uphold true multilateralism. We should remove barriers, not erect walls. We should open up, not close off. We should seek integration, not decoupling".

"This is the way to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all, and to fully unleash the vitality of the world economy," he said.

To create a better post-COVID world, countries need to trust each other and act with courage and strength together. President Xi's speech showed the world the necessary confidence to combat the pandemic and continue global socioeconomic development.

The author is a professor at the Institute of European Studies and director of Center for Spanish Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.