Foreign and Military Affairs

China to take new measures to fight poverty for MDGs: Wen

By Wu Jiao and Zhang Yuwei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-09-23 10:40

China to take new measures to fight poverty for MDGs: Wen

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao speaks during the Millennium Development Goals summit at UN headquarters in New York, September 22, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

UNITED NATIONS - Aiming to bolster the global fight against poverty, China Wednesday announced new measures to fulfill its own development goals as well as help those in developing countries.

Despite notable efforts made by China in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), China will continue to strengthen its efforts to ensure fulfillment of the MDGs by 2015, said Premier Wen Jiabao Wednesday in the UN high-level plenary meeting on MDGs.

Yet he noted there are challenges in meeting the goals due to regional imbalance.

According to Wen, the next five years is critical in fulfilling the MDGs, and the global community should put its emphasize on helping Africa shake off poverty.

He also urged the developed countries to honor their promises as to help developing countries.

Wen also announced new measures to be taken by China to honor its?commitment in helping other developing countries. China will:

--?build 200 schools for developing countries, dispatch 3,000 medical experts, and train 5,000 medical personnel for them.

--?provide medical equipments and medicine to 100 hospitals, and help build 200 clean energy and environment protection programs. It will also donate US$14 million to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

-- reduce and cancel debt for poor countries, and continue to provide preferential loans and credit support for developing countries.

--?expand the scope of products and countries which enjoys zero-tariff toChina, and encourage domestic firms to invest in developing countries.

--?strengthen agriculture cooperation with developing countries in the next 5 years, dispatching 3,000 agriculture experts and technicians to those countries, and invite 5,000 agricultural personnel to come to China for training.

--?train 80,000 personnel for developing countries in the next 5 years, and increase the number of people who can enjoy scholarship to study in China, and provide training for 3,000 headmasters and teachers.

According to statistics of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, China has accomplished the objectives of halving the population stricken by poverty and hunger, popularizing elementary education and reducing child mortality earlier than schedule.

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted China's success in reducing poverty, saying it could serve as an example for many other countries while he met with Wen Jiabao Wednesday afternoon.

The Secretary-General expressed his appreciation for China's contributions to various UN peacekeeping operations, and sought China's further support in Sudan, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

They also exchanged views on climate change and the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, from?November 29 to? December 10.

On the same day, Wen also attended a UN panel discussing ways to facilitate anti-AIDS efforts as part of the global drive to meet the MDGs.

On the sideline of the Summit, Wen attended a ceremony together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on strengthening cooperation between China and UNDP.

The MoU reviews a good partnership between China and UNDP, and reaffirms the commitments made by UNDP in the China/UNDP Country Program (2011-2015) to further providing development assistance to China and continuing its cooperation with China in the areas of poverty eradication, environment and sustainable development, gender equality and other areas.

Zhou Yiping, Director of the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation at the UN told China Daily: "Many developing countries have collected successful lessons from achieving the MDGs in the past years, and they developed innovations which their peers can borrow and adopt in their MDGs implementation. And these innovations are exactly what least developed countries need."

South-South Cooperation is trying to establish a bridge for countries of the Global South to exchange of resources, technology, and knowledge between developing countries to achieve the development goals together, he said.

Wen's visit shows that China has been showing full support to the work of the UN. This is the third consecutive year that top Chinese officials have made headline appearances at major UN conferences and Wen's second participation in UN meetings at the UN headquarters since 2008. Chinese President Hu Jintao also attended UN conferences last year.

Wen will address the general debate of the 65th session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.