UNDP chief: BRICS sends promising signal

Achim Steiner, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Administrator told Xinhua Wednesday that the BRICS countries together are sending a promising signal to the world in peace and development.

Steiner said "I hope that through the BRICS summit, to be held next week in China's harbor city of Xiamen, these emerging economy countries could play their role in meeting the big challenges humanity is facing." 

He said that the economic transformation in the past decades have elevated these countries not only in economic term, but also provided them a platform to influence the outcomes of global significance.

Steiner said that counties should look after not only their own interests, but also collective interests, which is the core idea of UN system.

The UN official said in 2015, the General Assembly, or the parliament of the world, adopted the agenda for 2030, the 17 goals for sustainable development goals (SDGs) were based on lessons learned through decades of development in the world that climate change, population, poverty, refugees, economic and financial instability, and inequality could become the risks to world economy, peace and stability.

The SDGs are an expression the goals of interdependence. Nations poor or rich, small or large, depend on one another for our future, he said, adding that fast economies will be at risk if they do not dress the problem of inequality. 

The future of our future generations will be compromised if pollution and climate changes are not collectively handled. In this perspective, climate change and pollution is a sustainable issue which might otherwise be an inter-generation problem.

Above all, SDGs is a commitment to collaboration, we must act together to face all the challenges which go back to the core idea of UN which is multilateralism, Steiner said.

China, which has helped hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the past decades and contributed enormously to the world, is trying to address the problem of inequality which are often found in fast economies, Steiner said.

No one should be left behind, either geographically or in terms of their income levels, he said.

In the past few years, China has been taking its economic growth path and lessons learned into a broader international context, as the country depends on the rest of the world for relations, market, resources and partners.

In its Belt and Road Initiative, and China-Africa Summit, we have seen that China embraces the notion of being partners to other countries of the world and addresses sharing its success with other countries, the UN official said.

China, with its economic size and development priories, is leading the world in south-south cooperation, which is very important for UNDP in accomplishing its goals, he said.

Through its ecological civilization policies and policies its government is still mapping out, China's development is benefiting the world, he said.

China's renewable energy technology and mass production ability have lowered threshold for many African countries in getting their cleaner energy. This, again is a good example of what China has been doing in south-south cooperation, Steiner said. 

The coming BRICS summit is expected to offer another platform for emerging countries to share their lessons in development and bring them closer in facing challenges ahead, he said.

BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is recognized as an important force in global governance. China holds the BRICS presidency this year.