Introduction to the Sino-German Center for Sustainable Development (CSD)
China and Germany share more than 35 years of successful bilateral development cooperation. At the same time China is providing foreign aid to developing countries for decades. During the last years, China and Germany realised the synergies between official development assistance as delivered by Germany and foreign aid and south-south cooperation as provided by China. As a joint initiative between the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ) and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (MofCom) the Sino-German Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) was opened on May 11, 2017 by Minister Gerd Müller and Minister Zhong Shan.
The establishment of the CSD introduces a new chapter of the development partnership between China and Germany. At the same time it is a concrete effort for vitalizing the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. As strategic partners, both countries are combining their international efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future together with developing countries. Acknowledging that public support will not be sufficient to tackle global challenges, partnerships with the Chinese and German business sector are sought to promote sustainable development in third countries.
For that the CSD explores new and innovative ways of international cooperation. More concretely, it is the CSD’s role to:
- support the Sino-German Dialogue on Development Cooperation from a methodological and technical point of view
- identify, assess, prepare, accompany and monitor triangular cooperation projects between Germany, China, and third countries, particularly in Africa and Asia
- actively seek partnerships with German and Chinese enterprises to utilise the potential of business activities to promote sustainable development in third countries
The Trade Development Bureau (TDB) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH were designated to run the CSD which is jointly steered by MofCom and BMZ as political partners.
For more information on the organizations steering and running the CSD please refer to our institutional partners section CSD Institutional Partners.
