Foreign news

5th anniversary of the Five Major Development Concepts

Published

4 years ago

October 29, 2020

I’m Robert Lawrence Kuhn and here’s what I’m watching: the 5th anniversary of the Five Major Development Concepts, formulated by President Xi Jinping in 2015 as the overarching, guiding strategy for China’s economic and social development. According to Xi, China’s model, going forward, is driven by “innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing”.

I was there at the beginning, investigating each of the Five Major Development Concepts. I saw how the Five Concepts began to inform the thinking and guide the behavior of officials at all levels of government.

Fast forward five years, what has happened? What has been accomplished? What challenges lie ahead?

First is innovation – now more important than ever, especially in light of fierce technology competition with the U.S., President Xi calls for China to lead the global technological revolution, and make innovation the primary driver of economic growth, stressing that success depends on strengthening property rights and protection of entrepreneurs. A challenge for innovation: how long will it take China to produce world-class semiconductor chips?

Second is coordination – actualized by three mega-regions: in the south, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with around $2 trillion in GDP. In the east, centered on Shanghai, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, nine provinces, and two centrally administrated municipalities that constitute about 40 percent of China’s GDP. In the north, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region including the new city of Xiong’an, where non-core functions of the Chinese capital will migrate. A challenge for coordination: how to balance coordination with the competition, such as between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

The third is green – China is now a world leader in renewable energy: producing, utilizing, and financing renewable power. China has the lead in hydro, solar, and wind energy. Moreover, China is building and financing cutting-edge renewable energy projects globally. A challenge for green: how can China reduce its dependence on coal.

Fourth is openness – China is continuing to open markets to foreign entry, such as in service industries like finance, and designating new free trade zones, such as the entire island province of Hainan. A challenge for openness: with China relying more on its domestic market, and with the U.S. threatening to decouple, how can China continue to reform?

The fifth is sharing – where more-developed regions partner with less-developed regions, such as in poverty alleviation, fighting epidemics, and healthcare. For example, Shanghai hospitals partnering with Qinghai hospitals in minority areas. The challenge for sharing: How to make it self-sustaining.

For China now to transition from its first centenary goal of becoming a “moderately prosperous society (in all respects)” in 2020, to its second centenary goal of becoming a fully modernized socialist nation in 2050, the Five Major Development Concepts remain crucial.

I’ll keeping watch. I’m Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Scriptwriter: Robert Lawrence Kuhn

Cameraman: Morgan Compagnon

Video editor: Liu Yuqing

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

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Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

1 month ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

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