VI. Supporting the Endogenous Growth of Developing Countries
Guided by the conviction that "it is more helpful to teach people how to fish than to just give them fish", China aims to help developing countries to enhance their capacity for independent development. It has increased targeted assistance for this purpose through human resources development and technical cooperation, in new forms and with new measures, to share its experience and approach with other developing countries, help them improve their capacity for governance, planning, and economic development, and train technical professionals and capable personnel in governance.
1. Improving Governance
China has helped other developing countries increase their governance capacity by assisting with their national planning, sharing its governance experience with them, and implementing capacity building projects through bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms.
– Assistance in planning. China has assisted other developing countries to draw up sound blueprints for growth, dispatching 39 senior planning consultants to a number of countries to help formulate plans, policies, and regulations regarding the economy, infrastructure, and the power sector. It helped Grenada to draw up a national development plan and submitted the draft in 2017. It dispatched a team of senior experts in customs, taxation and agriculture to Ethiopia and Cambodia to provide intellectual support for trade and investment facilitation. China worked jointly with Cuba to compile a medium- to long-term development plan which outlined the vision and development path for Cuba's machinery, metallurgy, chemical and recycling industries. It helped Cambodia to improve its transport system and agricultural productivity by formulating plans for a national road network and modern agriculture. It also helped Laos with its land resources and environmental protection planning, and assisted Bangladesh and other countries with plans for river management and flood control to develop their water resources.
– Sharing experience of governance. Through seminars and academic programs, China has shared its experience in strengthening law-based governance, its reforms to streamline administration, delegate powers, improve regulation, and strengthen services, and its experience with industrial innovation and upgrading and the digital economy, to help officials in the public sector in other developing countries increase their policy-making capacity. It has also strengthened the mechanisms for bilateral human resources development and cooperation, signing memorandums on this issue with 31 countries, including Rwanda, Kyrgyzstan, El Salvador, Papua New Guinea, and Trinidad and Tobago, to provide targeted support in these countries based on their needs.
– Building skills under multilateral frameworks. China has been actively cooperating with international organizations to build skills in other developing countries. Through the Trust Fund Project on Statistical Capacity Building launched together with the UN, China has provided training for some 900 government statisticians from 59 developing countries. It has also built skills in some countries in the form of joint studies and international seminars through funds and scholarships set up with the African Development Bank, West African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the Organization of American States. In cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization, China has trained some 600 senior civil aviation managers from 105 developing countries through the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund. Working with the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has trained more than 2,000 people from over 70 developing countries to engage in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and nuclear technology.
2. Promoting Technological Progress
Science and technology are the primary productive forces. China has strengthened technology transfer and application to help other developing countries improve their capacity for technological innovation and their workers' industrial and vocational skills.
– Sharing technological achievements. China has shared its achievements in science and technology with other developing countries, and opened training programs on space and satellite applications, 3D printing technology, metering technology, and marine biotechnology. It has run more than 1,000 intergovernmental technical exchanges programs. Through a program for international outstanding young scientists, 755 scientists from Egypt, Pakistan, Myanmar and India came to work in China on various research projects, and more than 7,700 people from over 100 developing countries and regions were trained in China. Under the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme, China has transferred more than 450 applicable technologies to Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and conducted experiments on some 300 strains of crops and vegetables, benefitting more than 30,000 farmers.
– Promoting technology transfer. Technology is for people to use. To make technology useful, China has founded transnational technology transfer centers targeted at ASEAN, South Asian and Arab countries to introduce advanced and applicable technologies through technical dovetailing, demonstration and training programs. It has set up joint laboratories and research centers with Ethiopia, Indonesia, Tajikistan, Mongolia and Serbia, to localize applicable and mature technologies from China, such as biopolymer application and small hydropower stations.
– Improving vocational skills. To ensure other developing countries have a qualified workforce with more technical personnel supporting sustainable growth, China has organized training in a wide range of fields, including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, processing and manufacturing, construction, science, education, culture, health, and arts and handicrafts. The Belt and Road International Skills Competition, held in May 2019 to promote skills cooperation for common development, provided a sound platform for developing countries to demonstrate their workers' skills and boost employment and entrepreneurship. Through technical cooperation and training, China has supported Morocco and Ethiopia in geochemical mapping, and trained skilled workers for their mining industry.
– Increasing sports competitiveness. China has sent experienced table tennis and badminton coaches to Uruguay, Samoa, Myanmar and Cambodia, to help train their athletes and coaches in theory and in the field. At the 16th Pacific Games in 2019, Tongan athletes trained by Chinese coaches won 9 gold, 5 silver, and 14 bronze medals, and the Papua New Guinea table tennis team won 2 silvers, the team's best ever performance. China has offered assistance for developing countries organizing large cultural and sports events, such as technical training for the mass performance and assistance with the opening and closing ceremonies at the 27th Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar, the 50th anniversary of Zambia's independence celebrations, and the 11th African Games in the Republic of the Congo.
