24 September 2008, New York - “China's Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals, 2008 Report” was launched today at UN Headquarters in New York. Chinese Minister He Yafei and Kemal Dervis, Chair of the United Nations Development Group and Administrator of the United Nations Development Program attended and addressed the launching event.

The launch was organized one day before the UN High Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals, at which the UN Secretary-General and Heads of State and Government will review global progress toward the MDGs and commit themselves to accelerated action to achieve the goals by 2015.

At the launch, Vice Minister He Yafei explained that China had closely integrated the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into its own development planning and into its work to build a well balanced, moderately prosperous ‘Xiaokang’ society. After years of hard work, the new Report shows that China is ahead of schedule to meet the MDG targets of halving the impoverished population and providing universal access to primary education, while firmly on track to meeting most of the rest of the goals by 2015. Vice Minister He emphasized that China would continue its earnest endeavors to achieve the MDGs in China, thus making a strong contribution to their achievement globally.

Speaking highly of China’s achievements in meeting the Goals, Dervis recognized China’s great contribution to the global fight against poverty and hunger through its efforts to alleviate poverty. He pledged that the United Nations would continue strengthening its partnership with China to promote the timely achievement of the MDGs.

Immediately preceding the launch, Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator in China, convened a panel of Chinese and international experts who reviewed the progress China had made to date, the remaining challenges and the potential lessons for other developing countries. Panelists included Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the MDGs, Professor Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University, Professor Wen Tiejun of the People’s University Beijing and Professor Wang Sangui of the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The discussion highlighted that progress toward global achievement of the MDGs had been given an enormous boost by China’s rapid progress. Over the last 30 years, China had lifted more people out of poverty than any other society had ever done in such a short space of time. Some continuing challenges remain in areas such as gender (MDG3), HIV/AIDS (MDG6) and the environment (MDG7), and the Report explains the nature of these challenges and China’s plans to continue addressing them. But, overall, the panelists agreed that China’s achievements in poverty reduction provide important lessons and experiences, many of which could be applicable in other developing countries.

The Report was co-authored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and the United Nations System in China. Previously, they two sides jointly published reports on China's Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in 2003 and 2005.   
 
For copies of the Report, please contact Zhang Wei at the United Nations in China wei.zhang@undp.org , or visit www.un.org.cn, where the Report (in English and Chinese) will be available to download from 25 September.