Nation helping solve puzzle of global modernization

Developing countries learn about CPC initiatives through exchanges, university programs

Zhou Yongmei, director of Global Partnership of ISSCAD, Peking University, turns the tassel for a student from Oman during the commencement ceremony of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development on June 22. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Erfa Iqbal, a Pakistani civil servant for more than 25 years, recently graduated from Peking University with a doctoral degree in economics. With the governance knowledge she has acquired in China, she will soon return to her position with the government of Pakistan.

Wearing a red gown and an academic cap, Iqbal gave a speech on June 22 at Peking University's centennial auditorium for the commencement ceremony of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development. "It feels like a dream," she said.

Established in 2016, the institute aims to strengthen cooperation on experience sharing and capacity building with various countries. Its students are mid- to senior-level officials from developing countries, and the curriculum is focused on economics, politics and governance.

This year's 35 graduates came from 19 Asian and African countries, and were conferred 17 master's degrees in public administration and 18 doctoral degrees in economics. Overall, the institute has trained over 400 students from more than 70 developing countries in governance and administration.

Curious about the nation's rapid development, officials and political parties from developing countries have come to China through various cooperation projects, such as university programs, inter-party exchanges, and short-term visits, to understand the modernization path explored by the Communist Party of China.

Zhao Fengtao, vice-chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, said, "As the world's largest developing country, China continues to increase its resource input into global development cooperation, creating opportunities for world development through its own progress."

In an address at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting in March last year in Beijing, President Xi Jinping said, "It is the people of a country that are in the best position to tell what kind of modernization best suits them."

"Developing countries have the right and ability to independently explore the modernization path with their distinctive features based on their national realities," said Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

China will continue to support and help developing countries in their pursuit of faster development, industrialization and modernization and offer Chinese solutions and strength for narrowing the North-South gap and achieving common development, he said.

Focusing her research on industrial cooperation with China, Iqbal said, "All the classmates got a sense of what is going on globally, how China is now reshuffling economics around the globe."

"China is making history, and we have been trained by ISSCAD to be part of this process, to fix the jigsaw puzzle, for our respective countries," said Iqbal, who is executive director general of the Board of Investment, Islamabad.