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Regional Consultation on Children Opens in Beijing
The Fifth Ministerial Consultation in East Asia and the Pacific on Shaping the Future for Children opened in Beijing Monday morning.
A total of some 250 participants including government representatives
and senior officials from relative UN agencies, donor governments
and non-government organizations joined the consultation.
Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony and congratulated the convening of the consultation on behalf of the Chinese Government.
The current consultation as well as the UN Special Session on Children to be held at the UN headquarters in September will have great impact on the children's development cause in East Asia and
the Pacific, said Li.
In the 1990s, under the guidance of the development goals and
action guide-lines specified at the World Summit for Children in
1990, the children's cause in all countries witnessed considerable development, Li said, citing as proof that more and more children can now enjoy better medical care and have opportunities for
education.
"This has not only lifted to a large extent the level of subsistence, protection and development of children, but also laid a good foundation for the world children's cause in the future," he said.
Li noted that countries of East Asia and the Pacific have always considered the children's cause an important part of their overall development and the traditional virtue of caring, loving and protecting children has always been treasured in their traditional
cultures.
"We are fully aware that a healthy and better-educated new generation is a guarantee for the sustainable economic and social development of all countries," Li said, adding that to protect the legal rights and interests of children by tightening links between family, society and children constitutes an important means of increasing family cohesion, maintaining social stability and
inheriting traditional culture.
Affirming the Chinese Government's emphasis on children, Li said through implementation of the "National Program of Action for Child Development in China in the 1990s", the Children's development cause in China has registered satisfactory growth in the past decade.
According to Li, a social environment favorable for the subsistence, protection and development of children complete with a legal system stressing the rights and interests of children, a better level of education, health care and nutrition of children, and a social life featuring children-priority have come into existence in China.
The first decade of the 21st century is an important period for China to inherit the past and usher in the future, and China's children's development cause, meanwhile, will also enter into a new historical stage, Li said.
A development program for Chinese children mapped out recently has set clear goals in this regard for the next 10 years and has urged all social forces to jointly create a better environment for children, Li said, expressing the belief that children in China and the rest of the world will certainly have a better future.
Li also stressed that the Chinese government is willing to reinforce cooperation with all countries and international organizations in order to promote a healthy development of the children's cause through concerted efforts.
State Councilor Wu Yi, who is also chairperson of the Working Committee for Women and Children of the State Council, delivered a welcoming speech also at the opening ceremony.
After a review of the achievements of the children's cause in East Asia and the Pacific during the past decade, she voiced the hope that during the current consultation, delegates would discuss and finally adopt the Beijing Declaration, a children's development program for the first decade of the new century, and also actively explore further cooperative means.
At the following first general session, Wu was elected chairperson of the current ministerial consultation as proposed by heads of delegations of all participating countries.
Prior to the opening ceremony, Li and Wu jointly met with Carol Bellamy, executive director of the UN Children's Fund, and other distinguished delegates.
Since 1990, similar ministerial consultations have been held four times and thus become an important regional mechanism for the children's development cause. Relative documents passed at previous consultations have since served as guide-lines for caring for children.
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