Experts and scholars from BRICS member countries－Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa－have called for greater efforts as well as more responsibility from the media to promote the Global Development Initiative to a wider audience.

They made the call at a high-level think tank and media forum, the Global Development Initiative－Media Responsibility and Action Plan, held by China Media Group in Beijing on Monday.

With COVID-19 seriously harming global development and with developing countries taking the greatest hit, President Xi Jinping proposed the GDI to call on countries to promote common development and make concerted efforts to meet the challenges confronting humankind. The most important objective of the people-centered initiative is to help implement the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Yao Yang, head of the National School of Development at Peking University, said the initiative could not have been better timed as global development goals seem to have been lost amid the COVID-19 pandemic and fierce geopolitical challenges.

Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, noted that technologies created in the Fourth Industrial Revolution could and should be adopted by developing countries to spur development.

Governments should play a bigger role in highlighting education, encouraging innovation and applying new technologies, he said.

Marsela Musabelliu, executive director of the Albanian Institute for Globalization Studies, said globalization has entered a new phase despite some claiming the end of it. And a proactive and pragmatic China has much experience it can share with other developing countries in fostering development. Countries should strengthen people-to-people exchanges to reduce misunderstandings and improve communication.

Leonardo Attuch, editor of Brasil 247, said the challenge nowadays is to improve communication among countries as Western media outlets could be biased against BRICS. As such, cooperation among BRICS members should be enhanced.

Zhao Hai, director of the international politics program at the National Institute for Global Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out initiatives including BRICS, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have plugged a huge gap in global development. While development programs that European countries and the United States have introduced, for instance, the Global Gateway, will also help meet developing countries' demand as long as these programs are not exclusive.

Himadrish Suwan, chairman of the Confederation of Young Leaders in India, said the just-concluded BRICS Summit pointed the direction for India, which has lots of development potential. And India's development and its cooperation with others will substantially contribute to global development and prosperity.

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