Opinion

Millennium goals

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-20 16:40

Premier Wen Jiabao will be in New York this week to attend two United Nations conferences held during Sept 21-23. The Chinese leader's presence at the two important UN gatherings indicates China's active participation in international affairs and its long-term commitment to support the UN's unique role in coordinating global efforts to address burning issues afflicting the world today.

Wen will attend the UN high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He is expected to elaborate on China's strategy in attaining the UN's anti-poverty goals. The event is aimed at providing the political impetus needed to tackle the remaining gaps in global efforts to achieve the MDGs.

China is the world's largest developing country and its commitment to the MDGs is globally significant. It reinforces the country's image as a responsible world power. It also sets a good example for others who are still unable to meet the global objectives and move forward.

The MDGs were established in 2000 at the Millennium Summit in New York. World leaders had pledged to do their utmost to attain the goals by 2015. The objectives included slashing poverty, fighting disease, checking environmental degradation and boosting health.

According to UN reports, global progress on poverty reduction was largely due to the reduction of hunger in China. The UN recognition speaks volumes for China's vigorous efforts in the past years to alleviate poverty and promote human development.

Since 2000, China has achieved remarkable progress in the grand targets. It has managed to halve the number of poor people from the 1990 figure of 85 million and slashed the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by half.

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Some of the MDGs, including those on primary education and the child mortality rate, have been met in China. The country has also made great strides in women development: Chinese women held 20.3 percent of the seats in the National People's Congress, China's legislature, in 2006.

The Chinese government has also supported international development cooperation to narrow the North-South gap. It has provided much assistance to many developing nations and offered massive debt relief to 50 poor nations.

To honor its global commitments and bring real benefits to its people, China will meet the MDGs as scheduled. It hopes other countries in the world will do the same, to achieve the common development of our global village.

Still, formidable challenges for the MDGs remain. According to a World Bank report released last week, 64 million more people are living in extreme poverty in 2010 and about 40 million more people went hungry last year because of food, fuel and financial crises.