Gates Foundation: China sets example for the world on Millennium Development Goals

BEIJING, March 30 -- China is setting an example for the world on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) both through the work that China does domestically and through the partnership China undertakes with many different developing countries, said Mark Suzman, senior official of Gates Foundation on March 26.

China has made enormous contribution both directly and indirectly towards the MDGs, because in many of the key goals, particularly the goals to reduce child mortality by two thirds and maternal mortality by three quarters, which are the two most important, and the overall goal to try to eradicate extreme poverty China has probably made the largest single contribution of any country and has seen some of the fastest rates of improvement in the decline of these indicators, said Mark Suzman, the President for Global Policy, Advocacy and Country Programs of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in an exclusive interview with People’s Daily Online during his trip to China recently.

2015 is the deadline for the MDGs, and the world hasn’t decided on what the next set of goals should be. There are active negotiations going on at the United Nations right now in New York. No matter what are the following goals, Mark Suzman believes that building on the incredible example that China has had on the MDGs, keeping a focus on the health and poverty goals is a critically important area which China can show global leadership both in the discussions at the United Nations and in the execution in the so called unfinished agenda of the existing MDGs.

In fact Gates Foundation has also made great contribution to the MDGs and the global development in various aspects as it was established in 2000 with the purposes of promoting the education and health fairness of the world. “Gates Foundation is going to celebrate its 15th anniversary. And there are many areas we are proud of in these 15 years. The single biggest has been our work to try to increase the vaccination of children, poor children worldwide to reduce death from infectious diseases. Besides, we also have seen successes in areas from financial services for the poor to agriculture,” said Mark Suzman.

Eight years ago Gates Foundation opened its China office. Since then it has made continuous efforts to promote China’s social welfare. Mark Suzman said: “When we started in China, a big part of our work is around HIV prevention. Now it’s still a serious problem that we continue to engage. Gate Foundation is in partnership with Chinese Ministry of Health to help prevent the disease from spreading more widely. Secondly, there is extensive work in TB control which remains a very serious problem in China including areas like what we know as multi-drug resistant TB, which is more difficult to treat. Again we are very much in partnership with some other private partners, primarily the Ministry of Health. We have been working towards scaling up some national policies to improve the level of treatment from national hospitals and in the regions. That’s certainly the area we hope to continue to work. The third area on health we have been working extensively in China in recent years is around tobacco control. We help reduce the tobacco consumption and health impact of tobacco consumption in China.”

In the interview, Mark Suzman also commented on China’s charity development, saying: ”We have been incredibly encouraged in the last five years to see the growth and discussion about the importance of philanthropy in China both among prominent Chinese individual businessmen and women but also among ordinary public. Gates Foundation is willing to help promote China’s charity development. We will not only encourage direct giving but also encourage the environment for philanthropy.”