BEIJING - When China took over the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)'s rotating presidency from Kazakhstan last year, President Xi Jinping proposed at the "SCO Plus" Meeting in Astana that 2025 be designated as the Year of Sustainable Development.

Over the past few years, Xi has emphasized boosting the sustainable development of the SCO through a spectrum of initiatives and cooperative projects. He sees that "true development is development for all and good development is sustainable."

At the SCO Bishkek Summit in 2019, Xi announced an initiative to establish an SCO demonstration base for agricultural technology exchange and training in China's Shaanxi province, a concrete action to "make the SCO an example of mutually beneficial cooperation."

Unveiled a year later in the county-level city of Yangling, the SCO demonstration base has become a hub for trade, talent training and technology exchanges. The base has trained more than 2,000 agricultural officials and technicians from the SCO and developing countries, which has boosted poverty-reduction drives in those nations.

When the SCO Forum on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development was held in Xi'an in Shaanxi province in May, Xi sent a congratulatory letter to the forum. Representatives of SCO countries attending the forum said the letter reflects China's commitment to building with all parties a beautiful world free from poverty.