Roundup: Xi speaks for developing countries in UN, offers new outlook on development, int'l relations (1)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has won applause at the UN headquarters as he called for safeguarding the interests of developing countries in the world and pledged financial, human resources support for underdeveloped nations and global development.

"China's vote in the United Nations will always belong to the developing countries," Xi told the general debate of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly on Monday.

"We firmly support greater representation and say of developing countries, especially African countries, in the international governance system," he promised.

As the leader of the world's second largest economy that has made remarkable economic achievements over the past three decades and more, Xi also voiced China's intention to contribute to global development.

"We are ready to share our development experience and opportunities with other countries and welcome them to board China's express train of development so that all of us will achieve common development," he said.

Xi's words met with warm applause again and again from the audience in the gigantic UN General Assembly Hall.

The president arrived in New York on Saturday to attend a series of summits marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. He had paid his first state visit to the United States from Sept. 22 to 25, which took him to the West Coast city of Seattle and the capital of Washington D.C..

Xi left for Beijing Monday after addressing the UN Sustainable Development Summit, the High-level Round Table on South-South Cooperation, the Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, the general debate and the Peacekeeping Summit during his three-day stay in New York. He also met with leaders of other countries during the period.

Xi's remarks on post-2015 development and international relations have also impressed the audience deeply when he delivered his speeches over the past three days.

On development, Xi called for an equitable, open, all-round and innovation-driven development path, stressing that no country should be left behind.

On international relations, Xi proposed building a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation and creating a community of shared future for mankind.

"Major countries should follow the principles of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation in handling their relations," he said.

"Big countries should treat small countries as equals, and take a right approach to justice and interests by putting justice before interests," the president stressed.

"No matter how the international landscape may evolve and how strong it may become, China will never pursue hegemony, expansion or sphere of influence," he added.

CHINA CONTRIBUTION

Ranging from global peace and development to South-South Cooperation and women's rights, President Xi has pledged China's support in various aspects.

During Monday's general debate, Xi announced that China will establish a 10-year, 1-billion-U.S. dollar China-UN peace and development fund to support the UN's work, and it will set up a permanent peacekeeping police squad and build a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops.

Meanwhile, China will provide 100 million dollars of free military assistance to the African Union in the next five years to support the establishment of the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis.

Also on Monday at the UN Peacekeeping Summit, Xi said China will help train 2,000 peacekeepers for other countries in the next five years and launch 10 minesweeping assistance programs.

But those are not all of China's pledges during the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.

On Saturday at the UN Sustainable Development Summit, Xi said that China will set up a fund, with initial contribution of 2 billion dollars, to support South-South Cooperation and assist developing countries in implementing their post-2015 development agenda adopted at the summit.

Xi said China will also do its best to raise its investment in the least developed countries (LDCs) to 12 billion dollars by 2030.

In addition, China will exempt the debt of the outstanding intergovernmental interest-free loans due by the end of 2015 owed by the relevant LDCs, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries, the president said.

China has always paid attention to the interests of developing countries, especially African countries.

Also on Saturday at the High-level Round Table on South-South Cooperation, co-chaired by Xi and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Xi put forth China's "Six 100s" initiative, in which China will make available to other developing countries in the next five years 100 poverty reduction programs, 100 agricultural cooperation projects, 100 trade promotion and aid programs, 100 environmental protection and climate change programs, 100 hospitals and clinics, and 100 schools and vocational training centers.

Also during the period, Beijing will provide 120,000 opportunities and 150,000 scholarships for citizens of other developing countries to receive training and education in China, and help nurture 500,000 professional technicians for the rest of the developing world.

In addition, the Chinese president said that his country will set up an Academy of South-South Cooperation and Development, and provide 2 million dollars of aid in cash for the World Health Organization.

For African countries, China is drawing up a plan to help Sierra Leone and two other Ebola-inflicted countries with economic and social reconstruction and mutually beneficial cooperation, Xi said Sunday while meeting with Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma on the sidelines of the annual session of the UN General Assembly.

Xi said relations between China and the African country are a real testimony to the phrase "a friend in need is a friend indeed."

On Sunday at the Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment, Xi said that China will, in the coming five years, help other developing countries build 100 "health projects for women and children," send teams of medical experts to provide services, and implement 100 "happy campus projects" to finance the schooling of poor girls and raise girls' school enrollment rate.

China will also host 30,000 women from developing countries for training programs in China and provide 100,000 skills training opportunities in local communities of other developing countries, Xi said.

China will donate 10 million dollars to UN Women for the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action and the realization of the related goals in the post-2015 development agenda, Xi announced.

XI'S OUTLOOK ON DEVELOPMENT

Sharing his view on the post-2015 development agenda, Xi called for an equitable, open, all-round and innovation-driven development path.

"We need to ensure equitable development to make access to development more equal," Xi told the audience at Saturday's Sustainable Development Summit.

He called for improving global economic governance, increasing the representation and voice of developing countries, and giving all countries equal right to participating in international rule-making.

"We need to ensure open development to deliver its benefits to all parties," Xi said, noting that all countries should uphold the multilateral trade system, build an open economy and come to share its benefits through mutual consultation and joint collaboration.

The president also asked for ensuring "all-round" development to make the groundwork of development more solid, stressing the need to uphold equity and social justice, and to achieve harmonious coexistence between man and society and between man and nature.

"We also need to ensue innovation-driven development to fully tap the development potential," Xi said.

All countries should look to reform and innovation for ways to bring out their development potential, build stronger engines for growth, and cultivate core competitive edge that they have not had before, he said.

To well implement the post-2015 development agenda, Xi put forward a four-point proposal for the international community: building up the development capacities; improving the international environment for development; updating the partnership for development; and strengthening the coordination mechanisms for development.

"The international community has a duty to help developing countries with capacity building and provide them with support and assistance tailored to their actual needs," the president noted. (Mor