Bangladesh, GDI and SDG goals

As Chinese vice-minister of foreign affairs, Sun Weidong, arrived in Dhaka on Friday for a two-day official visit to discuss a host of issues related to mutual interest, Bangladesh is preparing to join the China-led Global Development Initiative (GDI). According to media reports, the Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh has already reviewed a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the GDI forwarded by the Chinese government earlier and then sent it to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the finance ministry for scrutinizing the technical aspects before the final decision.

According to reports, the draft document proposes to elevate the China-Bangladesh strategic cooperative partnership by enlisting China’s practical and active assistance in implementing cooperation projects in the eight sectors based on Bangladesh’s needs and exploring additional potential projects in line with the GDI. Eight priority areas include healthcare, disaster prevention and relief, connectivity, climate change and green development, digital economy, poverty reduction, education and active engagement in public policy dialogue, experience sharing, capacity building, and practical cooperation.

The Global Development Initiative, put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2021, primarily aims to support the timely achievement of all 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by “revitalizing global development partnership, and promoting stronger, greener and healthier global development.” The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent severe economic shocks it took on the global economy, particularly in the Global South, dealt a dire blow to the prospect of timely implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), set to be achieved by 2030. SDG financing gap has widened from 2.5 trillion annually before the pandemic to Between 3.9 and 7 trillion today

In a proactive response to such global urgency, China came up with the Global Development Initiative. More broadly, the GDI, in this context, is a reflection of China’s growing diplomatic and economic clout across the world.

As in the other cases related to China, this initiative, alongside the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) introduced by China to collectively address pressing global issues, and promote global security and bridge among diverse civilizations, has received skepticism from the western media. But a careful look into the apparently benign six accompanying principles- a people-centered approach, development as a priority, benefits for all, innovation-driven development, harmony with nature, and action-oriented approaches- will illustrate how the GDI has been pitched in harmony with the people, planet, and prosperity.

The initiative has envisioned a people and planet-centric approach toward boosting economic prosperity, with the primary aim to inject renewed economic impetus into the participatory countries’ already lagging efforts to achieve SDG goals. It is China-led but not necessarily China-centric, given that, as of today, more than 100 countries and international organizations have expressed their support to the Initiative and 68 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI at the UN. The GDI is underpinned by active and shared engagement of the participatory countries, principally putting the Group of Friends of the GDI as the main driver and the United Nations as an important partner for cooperation.

With an economy at a take-off stage and a mid-term aspiration to attain upper middle-income status by 2031, the GDI’s priorities and principles perfectly fit the country’s current aspects of development stride and underlying challenges along the way. As Bangladesh is poised to embrace the GDI, it holds significance in at least three ways.

Firstly, like the wider global scenario, income inequality in Bangladesh has deepened in the past six years, according to data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), with the Gini Coefficient related to income up from 0.482 in 2016 to 0.499 in 2022. The GDI’s principal position on the “people-centered” development approach and commitment to ensuring “benefits for all” will help accelerate an egalitarian and inclusive development path toward the equal and just distribution of economic output across society.

Secondly, Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and a major victim of climate change extremity. Like other climate victims, it has been paying for a crisis, not its own creation. Eighth-largest populous country in the world with a population of more than 163 million, Bangladesh, according to the Germanwatch’s 2021 Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) ranks at 7 among the most vulnerable countries to climate change. With scarce resources and a constant struggle to balance priorities between economic development and climate challenge, the GDI will help Bangladesh provide with the capacity to simultaneously address both challenges, given the initiative’s strong emphasis on maintaining harmony between humans and nature and priorities on “greener and healthier global development”.

And thirdly, most importantly indeed, Bangladesh’s economy, thanks to its robust and stable economic growth over the last couple of decades, is in a transitional stage- from a lower-tier economy to an emerging one. Many of the challenges Bangladesh has been facing today on the economy, human resources development, technological advancement, and infrastructure fronts are similar to what China had experienced at the early stage of its economic journey toward being a global economic powerhouse today. With its commitment to “action-oriented approaches” and priorities on ensuring “active engagement in public policy dialogue, experience sharing,” the GDI will certainly be a prolific platform for Bangladesh to glean lessons in proactively addressing its development challenges.

The writer is a development worker and independent researcher. He can be contacted at [email protected]