Opinion
Mutual benefits, all-win results
By Xie Xuren (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-10 14:06
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China will strengthen practical cooperation with the World Bank while marking 30 years of togetherness
This year marks the 30th anniversary of China resuming its legitimate seat in the World Bank. While constantly deepening its reform and opening-up process, China has cooperated very successfully with the Bank in project loans, knowledge sharing and international development. This has contributed to China's socioeconomic development and enabled the Bank to play a greater role in fighting poverty and promoting development in the world.
Promoting socioeconomic development through loan projects
Channel for funding and technology: Over the last three decades, the Bank has accumulative committed over $47.8 billion to China and supported 326 projects. Besides the inflow of funding, the projects have helped China import international technologies, improve productivity, and promote economic development.
Contributing to poverty reduction: Since the end of the last century, China and the Bank have intensified cooperation and implemented many large poverty alleviation projects. These projects have developed new concepts, such as development-oriented poverty reduction and participatory poverty reduction. They also launched many new practices, such as transferring migrant labor from poor areas, and providing micro financing for poor farmers.
Accelerating growth in major industries: The Bank's loans have supported a number of key projects directly related to national welfare and people's livelihood. Transport, rural development, energy, and urban development and environmental protection are the top four sectors financed by the Bank, with loan utilization accounting for 29.97, 23.35, 15.69, and 15.52 percent respectively of the Bank's total commitment in China.
Helping balance regional development: Along with the implementation of strategies to balance regional development, including the "western development strategy", "strategy of revitalizing Northeast China's old industrial base" and "strategy of boosting Central China development", the country has actively diverted Bank financing toward Central, West and Northeast China in the prioritized areas of infrastructure construction and improvement of people's livelihood. At present, more than 70 percent of the Bank's annual loan commitments to China are utilized for economic and social development of the above regions to harmonize development throughout the country.
Supporting Chinese enterprises to "go global": China has carried out effective cooperation with two of the Bank's affiliated institutions, the International Financial Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, and conducted joint studies on overseas investment policies and business patterns that have achieved preliminary effects. Meanwhile, Chinese enterprises have also made full use of their comparative advantage in production factors and secured a great deal of the Bank's project procurement contracts around the world.
Strengthening knowledge sharing for the benefit of innovation and human capital building
Actively promoting joint studies: Over the past 30 years, the Bank has conducted many joint economic studies with China and produced more than 200 reports. These reports have objectively recorded the successful practice and development route China now follows in its reform and opening-up, and have enabled the world to understand China's development better.
In addition, the reports have also raised many valuable policy recommendations in response to key issues on China's reform and development.
Ushering in advanced management concepts and operation mechanisms: China has ushered in advanced management concepts and standardized operation mechanisms, through loan-project cooperation with the Bank. The international competitive bidding system, disbursement and reimbursement system, project supervision system and project owner's responsibility system introduced through the projects have become prevailing practices in China's major engineering projects.
Training professionals to meet urgent needs: By organizing various kinds of training, study tours, seminars and workshops over the past 30 years China has cultivated a large talent pool with a sound understanding of market rules, profound professional knowledge and enormous international exposure, providing strong intellectual support to the country's endeavor to enhance its international financial and economic cooperation.
Deepening international development cooperation and sharing knowledge on harmonious development
Strengthening South-South Cooperation: With the Bank as a platform, China shows the world its development route marked with Chinese characteristics, reiterates the importance of respecting country ownership of development in developing countries, and calls for diversification in development roads and modalities. This has not only enriched the Bank's knowledge of development, but also actively contributed to the fulfillment of its mandate to fight poverty and promote global development.
While the past shines with remarkable achievements, the future is filled with long and arduous tasks: China is a developing country with a large number of people still living in poverty. The economy is still facing many long-term development challenges.
The World Bank, as the biggest multilateral development institution in the world, rich in financial and intellectual resources, is expected to continue to play an active role in China's economic development pattern and economic restructuring and in scaling up South-South Cooperation.
In the foreseeable period, China will continue to follow its scientific approach to development, stick to country ownership in development and strengthen practical cooperation with the World Bank for mutual benefits and all-win results.
The author is the Minister of Finance of China.