Seminar brings together parliament members from developing countries

China is ready to work with other developing countries to build consensus on development, promote world economic recovery and sustainable development and enhance exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations via cooperation between legislative bodies, a senior legislator said on Thursday.

Shohrat Zakir, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Interregional Seminar on the Achievement of the SDGs for Parliaments of Developing Countries.

Attendees from the Inter-Parliament Union, Cambodia, Guyana, Honduras, Kiribati, Laos, Maldives, Nigeria, South Africa, Surinam and Thailand attended the seminar, which will end on July 15.

Chinese modernization has expanded the options for developing countries to pursue modernization and provided a Chinese solution for mankind to explore a better social system. With over 1.4 billion people moving towards a modernized society in a peaceful and developmental way, China will surely bring broader opportunities to world economic growth, Shohrat said.

"We are ready to work with other developing countries to strengthen communication and exchanges, deepen practical cooperation, make the 'cake' of trade bigger, stimulate growth drivers for investment cooperation, promote innovation-driven development and advance the reform of global economic governance," he said.

Moosa Siraj, a parliament member of Maldives, said this sort of seminar is good for improving relationships between the developing countries and help understand what each country is doing via learning from their experiences. For instance, China gives first priority to social and economic development to promote other aspects of development.

Moosa said this is the second time he has visited China, which is not like what some media reported, and he has learned about the country's transparent systems and democratic model.

"China now is the second-largest economy in the world and its market is open to everyone," he said, adding it is not media who can determine a country's image, but the people who live there who understand what system is good for them.

Thembani MbadlNyana, a counselor of the Parliament of South Africa, said China's democratic model is based on its own history and reality and suits the needs of the Chinese people.

Other countries have no right to criticize China's choice of democracy, instead, he said, adding increasing mutual understanding could help them know China's way better.

After the three-day activity in Beijing, the group will visit Kunming in Yunnan province, Nanjing and Suzhou in Jiangsu province and Shanghai to have an in-depth understanding of China's whole-process people's democracy and the practical experience of Chinese modernization.