Xi vows aid for gender equality

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the United States, Sept. 27, 2015. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen)

Chinese President Xi Jinping pressed Sunday for the world to step up efforts to improve women's rights and gender equality.

Xi announced a $10-million pledge for UN Women and said China would in the next five years build 100 health centers and an equal number of school start-ups for girls in the developing world.

"China will do more to enhance gender equality as its basic State policy," Xi said, citing a Chinese maxim that women hold up "half the sky."

In a separate announcement on Saturday, Xi said China will set up a fund with an initial contribution of $2 billion to support the South-South cooperation and assist developing countries in implementing their post-2015 development agendas.

Xi said China will also do its best to raise its investment in the least developed countries (LDCs) to $12 billion by 2030. In addition, China plans to exempt the debt of the outstanding intergovernmental interest-free loans due by the end of this year owed by the relevant LDCs, landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries, the president said.

Xi's announcement of more support for cooperation between developing nations was widely hailed Saturday at a roundtable, co-hosted by China and the UN, on South-South cooperation at the UN headquarters.

China is "a leader" in advancing South-South cooperation, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said at the roundtable.