Distinguished guests and representatives,
Ladies and gentlemen,
By the Guishui River and at the foot of the Great Wall, I am very glad to join you at the opening of the 2024 National Evaluation Capacities Conference. I wish to extend my heartfelt welcome to all the distinguished guests coming from afar.
Evaluation is a vital instrument in national governance and a crucial link to ensure sound and effective decision-making. High-quality evaluation helps facilitate reasonable allocation of resources, enhance decision-making capacity, improve administrative efficiency and reinforce management and accountability. Since the early 20th Century, countries around the world have actively engaged in public policy evaluation. The philosophy has kept developing, concrete results have kept emerging and cooperation continues to deepen.
The National Evaluation Capacities Conference provides an important platform for exchanges and cooperation with the international community. Since its inception in 2009, all parties have shared experience and practices, strengthened capacity-building and boosted cross-departmental collaboration, with international consensus reached. This year’s edition is of great significance for countries to further bolster evaluation capacity-building, promote international cooperation in this field and achieve the United Nations 2030 SDGs.
Dear guests and representatives,
The Chinese Government places a high priority on public policy evaluation as an important means of modernizing China’s system and capacity for governance. Since the launch of reform and opening up in 1978 and during the country’s transition from a planned economy to a socialist market economy, we have crossed the river by feeling for the stones and actively drawn on the useful experience of the international community. We have gradually developed and consolidated the idea of sound and democratic decision-making. As we enter the new era, President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to conduct a comprehensive impact evaluation of the introduction and adjustment of major policies and to follow up and evaluate the implementation of measures in a timely manner. We have continued to strengthen conceptual guidance and institutional development. We have carried out extensive evaluation practices and international exchanges and cooperation. A public policy evaluation system with Chinese characteristics has taken shape.
Firstly, the philosophy has been continuously refined. As a natural member of the Global South and a developing country, China has worked continuously to step up its theoretical research on evaluation. Staying committed to a people-centred approach, we have strived to enhance the transparency of public policies and have always taken people’s satisfaction and sense of fulfilment as the fundamental basis for evaluation. Taking local conditions and China’s national reality into account, we have adopted realistic evaluation indicators and methods. We have upheld fundamental principles while breaking new ground, expanded areas of evaluation and diversified evaluation methods. We have remained problem-oriented, beefed up the application of results, and realized the closed-loop management from evaluation to decision-making, execution and back to evaluation.
Secondly, mechanisms have become increasingly robust. We have proactively improved mechanisms for pre-introduction and post-implementation evaluation of major policies and kept the channels for participation in policymaking open. The Legislation Law of the People’s Republic of China has explicit provisions on the formulation, revision and repeal of laws, administrative regulations, local regulations, autonomous regulations and separate regulations. It stipulates that legislation shall uphold and develop whole-process people’s democracy and that during the process of law-making, participation by the people through various channels shall be guaranteed. Departments and commissions under the Central Committee of the CPC have conducted comprehensive evaluations, inspections and oversight of major decisions and issues within their purview. Specialized agencies like finance, audit and statistics have provided timely and objective feedback on the impact of policy implementation. We have redoubled efforts to build evaluation capacity and cultivate evaluation personnel. This July, the Third Plenary Session of the twentieth CPC Central Committee adopted the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization. The enhancement of evaluation and monitoring in all areas was mentioned many times in the resolution, charting a course for China to refine mechanisms and increase the effectiveness of evaluation.
Thirdly, emphasis has been placed on experience accumulation. We have evaluated macro policies. The midterm evaluation was adopted on a trial basis during the period of the Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2001–2005). During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006–2010) period, this practice was made a statutory procedure. Dynamic monitoring and final evaluation have been gradually carried out in subsequent five-year plans. Evaluating the consistency of macro policy orientation is an important innovation in macro regulation. We have included both economic and non-economic policies in the scope of evaluation to strengthen policy coordination and ensure that efforts are aligned. Additionally, we have conducted specialized evaluations in a wide range of areas such as agriculture, poverty reduction, science and technology, education, public health and ecology. We have established an evaluation indicator system for foreign aid projects, carried out comprehensive and special evaluations, and pushed forward the high-quality development of China’s foreign aid.
Fourthly, international cooperation has been pursued. We have boosted global development through China’s development and aligned China’s mid- and long-term strategies with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China has released three issues of the Progress Report on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Meanwhile, it has twice attended the Voluntary National Review on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to share development experience with other countries. We have conducted extensive exchanges and cooperation with relevant United Nations agencies, the World Bank and other international financial institutions, as well as with relevant developed countries and the European Union, to draw on each other’s strengths and make progress together. We have helped developing countries grow their capacity. We have assisted in enhancing their governance capability through development cooperation projects, seminars and training programmes.
Dear guests and representatives,
The world today is confronted with accelerated changes unseen in a century, sluggish global economic recovery, a widening gap between the North and the South, and a greater deficit of global development. Food insecurity, climate change and other global crises are intensifying. Progress towards implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development lags far behind expectations. Last month, the United Nations Summit of the Future was a success, along with the joint release of the Pact for the Future. It pools strength for world peace and development, draws up a blueprint for the future of humanity, and provides an important opportunity to reform the global governance system.
Development holds the key to solving all problems. The Global Development Initiative put forward by President Xi Jinping is an important public good that China provides to the rest of the world for the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China will continue to work with all parties under the initiative to gain a thorough understanding of the significant position of evaluation and fully leverage the critical role of evaluation. This aims to provide strong support and effective safeguards for national and international development.
Firstly, establish a country-led evaluation system. We need to encourage and support governments to give full play to their leading role, constantly optimize their evaluation systems, carry out extensive evaluation practices and enhance the level and capacity of national governance. Countries differ in national conditions and levels of development. Thus, we should fully respect each country’s independence in the field of evaluation and support them in developing evaluation systems and choosing evaluation methods and indicator systems that suit their national conditions.
Secondly, strengthen the evaluation capacity of all countries. We need to have an in-depth understanding of the new circumstances and challenges faced by evaluation, ramp up the sharing of knowledge and experience, think creatively and apply a systematic approach to thinking. We need to support all countries in building their evaluation capacity, encourage them to strengthen evaluation personnel training and effective investment, and issue more standards and specifications on evaluation. Upholding true multilateralism, we should make full use of the National Evaluation Capacities Conference and other platforms and mechanisms and support the United Nations in continuing to play a leading and coordinating role.
Thirdly, take solid steps to improve the quality and effectiveness of the evaluation. We should be open and inclusive, and widely solicit opinions and suggestions from legislative bodies, advisory bodies and evaluation targets. It is necessary to strengthen analysis from the perspectives of climate change and sustainable development at the macro level, pay attention to the rights and interests of vulnerable groups at the micro level, and seize the opportunities to find new evaluation approaches in the new round of technological and industrial revolution. We need to further apply the evaluation outcomes, put in place a positive feedback mechanism for evaluation findings, and ensure that evaluation guides policy formulation and development practices.
Fourthly, continue to engage in international evaluation cooperation. We need to take a more active part in the United Nations-led global governance of evaluation, listen more to the voices from the Global South, and actively respond to their aspirations and expectations. China is willing to continue to strengthen cooperation with other developing countries in the evaluation field. It also hopes that developed countries, international organizations and international financial institutions will provide more financial and technical support to developing countries.
Dear guests and representatives,
A Chinese adage reads, “Victory is ensured when people pool their strength; success is secured when people put their heads together”. I hope that all of you present will involve yourselves in in-depth discussions to forge broad consensus and jointly make new progress in global evaluation cooperation.
To conclude, I wish the conference a complete success.
Thank you all.
