Welcoming Remarks by Dr. CHEN Dongxiao, President of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) at NDB Seminar

  

SIIS President Chen Dongxiao

Mr. Anil Kishora,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is our great pleasure and honor that Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) collaborate with NDB to co-organize this seminar on “Deepening the Global Partnership for Development”. On behalf of the SIIS, I hereby extend warm welcome and deep appreciation for all the participants today.

As Mr. Kishora has just highlighted the theme of today’s seminar, we are here to focus on how to strengthen global partnership for development and how multilateral development banks can contribute.

The urgence for global partnership would never be overestimated, as many of speakers of yesterday and this morning have echoed that we are facing mounting multidimensional and cross-cutting challenges in both global and planetary terms.

Meanwhile, the road for global partnership for development is deemed bumpy ahead of us, as international communities nowadays are trapped in what I called triple-shortage of common understandings.

The first is the shortage of common sense of Where Are We Now. Too many oversimplified and over-dichotomized narratives today such as “democracies vs. autocracy”, “security vs. development”, etc., have suffocated potential global cooperation and further severed the world apart. The reality is, we are halfway to 2030, but we remain far from achieving the SDGs.

The second is the shortage of shared values of Who Are We. The rising identity politics, populism, and narrow-minded ideology-based political discourse prevent international communities from working for shared values for global partnership. The reality is, we do share a lot of values while we respond to changing social, environmental and economic situations. The “ESG” index, and the “SAGE” approach which initiated by one of European think tanks, referring to “Solidarity, Agency, Material Gains and Environmental Sustainability”, are largely compatible with Beijing’s initiative on High-Quality Development based upon “green, balanced and innovative, open and inclusive” ideas. These are shared values for development partnership.

The third is the shortage of common agenda of What Collective Actions we should take together, including but not limited to a huge, dynamic upscaling of global finance for global commons and public goods. This is the topic which I believe will be addressed thoroughly by our panelists.

The above-mentioned triple shortage of common sense, shared values and collective actions, could be framed as CSC deficit.

Finally, I would say, the success of homo sapience is built largely upon cooperation and niche construction. Humans have evolved motives to socialize and to use their capacity to shape their environment. I wish and believe that today’s discussion will suggest a way forward, serving as inspiration, food for thought for our common agenda of global partnership for development.

With that, I would wrap up my welcoming remarks, and wish the seminar a great success.

Thank you all.