Mr. President,

Since the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in September last year, it has become an important content of the work of the United Nations and the international community to achieve the series of goals set by the Millennium Declaration. Over the past one year, the United Nations has dedicated itself to the strengthening of its peacekeeping capacity and also held a series of important meetings on issues such as human habitat, HIV/Aids, children, small arms and anti-racism, thus starting the process of implementation of the follow-up to the Millennium Summit of the United Nations. The Road Map towards the Implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, submitted by the Secretary-General, has put forward strategies for moving forward towards all these goals. We express our appreciation of his efforts in this regard.

However, at present, the pace of the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit falls very much short of the requirements of the various goals in the Millennium Declaration. The September 11 event has demonstrated that terrorist, separatist and extremist forces are posing as an increasingly harmful threat to peace, stability and even economic development in all countries and internationally. But it is a long, complex and arduous task to totally destruct the breeding ground of terrorism, separatism and extremism. The United Nations should double its efforts to strengthen the implementation of the follow-up to the Millennium Declaration. If any progress can be achieved in solving global issues such as poverty, regional conflict and sustainable development, it will be beneficial to both the strengthening of international cooperation against terrorism and peace and development the world over.

Mr. President,

Over the years, the United Nations has set many development goals. Few of these, however, have been implemented. The Millennium Declaration has also set a series of goals in this aspect, which have embodied the solemn commitments of leaders of all countries. The United Nations should take as its overriding current priority the realization of these development goals and formulate concrete, feasible implementing plans and methods with clear time frames in accordance with the specific realities and actual requirements of developing countries. As two important meetings on development, the International Conference on Financing for Development and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held next year, should face up to the reality that economic globalization has resulted in the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. Developed countries should take real action to fulfill their commitments and help developing countries out of poverty through concrete steps such as providing and increasing ODA to the latter, cutting their debts, transferring technology to them and improving market access for them. Also, the World Trade Organization will launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. We hope that this round will take into full consideration the concerns and interests of developing countries and become truly "a round enhancing development" or "a round for development".

Mr. President,

This year, African leaders have formulated the New African Initiative, making an important step towards the realization of African economic and political integration as well as sustainable development. At the same time, however, we should see that Africa still faces a whole lot of special difficulties. To attain its goal of sustainable development, Africa will have to achieve an average annual growth rate of 7% for the next 15 years so as to. We hope that the United Nations will play a bigger role in helping satisfy the special needs of Africa. We appeal to the international community, developed countries in particular, to make a positive response to the Secretary-General's recommendations and make substantive efforts to alleviate special difficulties African countries have.

China has always supported African countries in their efforts to maintain national stability, promote economic development and realize social progress. China attaches great importance to strengthening its cooperation with African countries. Since the China-Africa Forum on Cooperation held in Beijing last year, the Chinese Government has made specific arrangements with relevant African countries for the implementation of cooperation plans between the two sides, including fulfilling its pledge to exempt RMB 10 billion yuan of external debts. As a developing country itself, China has its own problems that are crying out to be solved. Still, we are ready to continue to help Africa, within our capacity, to achieve its development goals.

Thank you, Mr. President.