China has seen unprecedented transformation while accomplishing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) set out in 2000, said a report released on Friday.
The Report on China's Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (2000-2015), jointly launched by the Chinese government and the United Nations (UN) in China, is the country's final progress report before the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda later this year.
According to the report, China lifted 439 million people out of poverty between 1990 and 2011, reduced the under-five mortality rate by at least two-thirds, cut the maternal mortality rate by three quarters, and halved the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
China also actively engaged in south-south cooperation and provided help to more than 120 developing countries in their efforts to attain the MDGs, the report said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a video message during the report release ceremony, that in the past 15 years, China has made unremitting efforts to implement the MDGs and achieved great progress.
In the post-2015 development agenda, China will continue a path of peaceful, innovative and green development for a better future, Wang said.
Helen Clark, the Chair of the UN Development Group, also sent her congratulations to China for "achieving many of the MDG targets ahead of schedule, which has greatly contributed to the overall global performance of MDGs."
Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong said that China will integrate its goal of comprehensively deepening reform and completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects with implementing the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
In 2000, the MDGs mandated the 189 nations that signed them to "spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing condition of extreme poverty" and were outlined in eight specific goals.
