The official opening ceremony of the Seminar on the Chinese Local Development Practice of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was held in Xiamen on September 7.
The international program runs from September 7 to 20, 2026, bringing together representatives from different countries, government institutions, expert communities and the media.
The seminar is held within the China Aid framework with the participation of the Global Development Promotion Center of the China International Development Cooperation Agency — CIDCA.
The opening ceremony itself demonstrated the international character and high level of the program.
Ms. Kong Suting, an official of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Xiamen Municipal People’s Government, addressed the participants. Ms. Chen Zezhao, Deputy Director-General of the Office of the Xiamen Leading Group for the BRICS PartNIR Innovation Center, introduced Xiamen’s experience in promoting BRICS cooperation and innovation.
Representatives of participating countries also delivered remarks. Among them was Mr. Ali Asso Haroun, Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Djibouti. Other international participants also shared their views and expectations for the program.
Professor FU Siyi of Xiamen University also addressed the seminar participants with a lecture entitled “China in Perspective — Diversity, Values, and the Art of Connection.” Her presentation introduced some of the key features of China, its society, cultural values and contemporary development. The lecture provided a valuable introduction to the subsequent seminar program and helped participants better understand the historical, cultural and social foundations of China’s modern development.
One of the most valuable features of the seminar is its focus on China’s development experience not only at the level of ideas and national strategies, but through local and regional practice.
This is particularly important for understanding modern China.
China today offers a vast field of practical development experience, where national strategies are implemented through provinces, cities, districts, enterprises and local communities. To understand China’s development model, it is therefore important to see how national priorities are transformed into concrete projects at the local level.
Xiamen itself provides a particularly interesting example. The city combines openness to the global economy with innovation, industrial development and extensive international cooperation.
It is therefore significant that one of the areas of the program is the work of the BRICS PartNIR Innovation Center, as well as mechanisms for promoting Chinese technologies, industrial products and integrated solutions in international markets.
For Kazakhstan, this experience is especially relevant. China-Kazakhstan cooperation today increasingly includes industrial cooperation, digital technologies, green energy, transport and logistics, innovation and human-capital development.
Programs of this kind are therefore important not only as educational platforms. They provide an opportunity to see directly how China’s regional development mechanisms work in practice and to discuss which elements of this experience may be useful for other countries, while taking national circumstances into account.
For me as a journalist, the greatest value of this program is the opportunity to observe China directly — to meet officials, academics, experts and business representatives, and to exchange views with participants from different countries.
The seminar has only just begun, and an intensive two-week program lies ahead.
Yet the opening day has already demonstrated an important point: China is not only presenting its development experience to the world, but is also creating platforms for open dialogue, mutual learning and the search for new opportunities for international cooperation.
It is through such direct dialogue that a deeper understanding of contemporary China can be formed.
