People-centered approach offers valuable lessons

At a promotional event held on Tuesday in Jakarta, Indonesia, Ari Satyawan, a village head from the country's Central Java Province, said a study trip to China two years ago gave him new ideas on reducing poverty and advancing rural development.

China's experience in agricultural technology, rural industries and public services showed how a people-centered development approach can be translated into practical grassroots governance, he said.

After returning home to Krasak village, Ari paid greater attention to local resources, market demand and village planning, while working through village-owned enterprises, cooperatives and farmer groups to help residents find more income opportunities.

"We learned a great deal from China and saw huge potential and opportunities to improve the work in our own village. This is very important for us. We hope to build Indonesia's villages into beautiful village-level communities, like those in China," he told some 200 representatives from China and Indonesia.

Ari's story was among the grassroots experiences shared at the promotional event for the English edition of the fifth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, during which officials and experts said that China's governance philosophy and development practice offer valuable inspiration for Indonesia's modernization and rural development.

The fifth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, which was published in both Chinese and English last year, contains 91 spoken and written works of Xi from May 27, 2022 to Dec 20, 2024.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made poverty alleviation a top priority in the governance of the country. By the end of 2020, China had lifted nearly 100 million rural residents out of poverty as planned, bringing an end to absolute poverty in the country.

The fifth volume of the book underscores the significance of the poverty alleviation campaign to Chinese modernization. "If China can make it, other developing countries can make it too. This is what China's battle against poverty says to the world," Xi, who is also Chinese president, noted in a speech, which is included in this volume.

That message resonated strongly with Indonesian participants, who said that China's experience is particularly relevant as Indonesia seeks to narrow regional gaps, improve rural livelihoods and advance its Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision.

Ahmad Muzani, chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia, said the fifth volume of the book systematically presents Xi's governance philosophy and practical experience, offering important references for developing countries.

With a population of more than 1.4 billion people, China has made remarkable achievements in maintaining national stability, promoting high-quality development, improving social welfare, exploring socialist democracy and advancing Chinese modernization, he said.

Indonesia is also at an important stage of promoting national development, achieving economic prosperity and improving people's well-being, Muzani said, noting that it faces many development tasks similar to those of China.

The stability, continuity and spirit of innovation demonstrated in China's governance practice have injected important stability into global development and provided experience that Indonesia can learn from, he added.

Indonesia's Minister of Transmigration Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara said that China's achievements in poverty reduction offer important inspiration for Indonesia's pursuit of inclusive development.

"There is one issue that keeps leaders awake at night, and that is poverty. This is not merely about the economy, but about dignity," Iftitah said.

China's experience shows that poverty reduction requires not only effective policy tools, but also strong political will, disciplined implementation and a people-centered model of governance, he said, emphasizing that for Indonesia, learning from China does not mean mechanically copying its practices, but gaining a deeper understanding of the governance logic behind them.

"The success of development cannot be measured only by high-rise buildings in big cities, but by whether villages and border areas also share the prosperity," Iftitah said, adding that Indonesia wants to better understand how development can reach people in outlying areas.

Veronika Saraswati, director of the Global Development Research Center of Indonesia, said that Indonesia's participation in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation reflects the broader need for countries to deepen open cooperation and share development opportunities amid profound global changes.

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn