Global development research consortium launched in Beijing

BEIJING - China's leading university Wednesday set up a consortium to promote research and practice on economic structural change to achieve better global development.

The Global Research Consortium on Economic Structural Transformation (GReCEST) is initiated by the Center for New Structural Economics at Peking University and has 33 founding members from all over the world, mostly research institutions.

The consortium focuses on structural problems of developing countries, aiming to provide advisory and policy recommendations on sustainable development, said Zhou Qiangwu, director of International Economics and Finance Institute, a think tank under China's Ministry of Finance.

"It will also work to promote south-south cooperation and increase developing countries' participation in global economic governance," Zhou said at the inauguration conference.

"The conference is important as we can learn structural transformation experience from other parts of the world, including China," said K.Y. Amoako, president of the African Center for Economic Transformation.

The consortium provides a platform for sharing experience and best methods, he said.

The consortium will further strengthen the construction of the south-south cooperation think tank network and help developing countries reduce poverty and realize transformation, said Agi Veres, country director of the United Nations Development Programme.

The GReCEST is one of the priority areas under the umbrella of the Global Coalition of Southern Think Tank Networks, a UN-led coalition network of over 200 think tanks from both developing and developed countries.

China has pushed for knowledge sharing among developing countries in recent years. The country pledged to set up an international development knowledge center to facilitate studies and exchanges and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, during the United Nations Development Summit in September 2015.