The Communist Party of China (CPC) has transformed a poor and backward country into the second largest economy in the world, greatly contributing to the global economy and human progress, said Romulus Ioan Budura, Romania's former ambassador to China, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"In the past 100 years, the CPC has made outstanding contributions to China's development, world peace, and human progress," the nearly-90-year-old sinologist told Xinhua at his home in Bucharest.

He said he learned to sing the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China" when he was studying in Beijing in the early 1950s, and he found the lyrics very true.

"The song truly illustrates the irreplaceable importance of the CPC to the development of the country and the happiness of the people," said Budura, who acted as ambassador to China from 1990 to 1995.

He said the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 was not only the success of the CPC, but also a great event in the history of the entire Chinese nation, greatly improving China's international status and also inspiring other colonial and semi-colonial countries in the world to strive for national independence.

Also, the CPC did not blindly follow the development model of other countries. It instead formulated a development path based on its own social reality and national conditions, laying a solid foundation for the country's future development, said the senior sinologist, who served as an advisor to the Romanian president before taking the position as the ambassador to China.

"Today, China has not only won a decisive victory in getting rid of poverty, but also has been striving to promote the development of science and technology, and has achieved impressive results in high-tech fields such as communications and artificial intelligence," he said.

Having put forward the Belt and Road Initiative and called for building a community with a shared future for mankind, China has contributed its wisdom to responding to various challenges facing mankind, and pointed out the direction of development for the future of the world, Budura said.