Mr. President,

The Chinese delegation wishes to thank Mr. Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, for his statement and introduction to the Strategic Plan for 2014-2017 and would like to make the following observations:

First, the Chinese Delegation appreciates the open, transparent and inclusive approach taken by UNICEF in formulating the 2014-2017 Strategic Plan. Thanks to the continuous efforts made by UNICEF during the last 18 months, the indicators and focus areas of the Strategic Plan have been further fine-tuned, and its goals, results and programs have become more relevant and measurable. The Chinese delegation believes that the new Strategic Plan should not only help UNICEF carry out its general mandate for advancing the rights and development of children around the globe, but also channel its resources in a more targeted fashion to help those children and countries most in need.

As the Strategic Plan for 2014-2017 will coincide with a crucial time when member States are striving to attain the MDGs at the last stage and formulate the post-2015 development goals, it will have a far-reaching impact on the work of UNICEF and its regional and country teams. We hope that UNICEF, in implementing the new Strategic Plan, will always maintain its focus on the promotion of the achievement of relevant MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals. It is our hope that UNIECF will also concern itself with the needs of the most vulnerable children in the developing countries while increasing its support for the LDCs and African countries. As it translates the Strategic Plan to country programs, UNICEF, we hope, will attach great importance to strengthening the capacity of program countries to achieve and sustain development, and respect the principle of national ownership and leadership of the program countries; we would also like to see continued improvement in its own organizational effectiveness and efficiency and in its capacity to provide better technical guidance and strategic support to program countries so as to effectively help them to achieve priority development goals and results.

The Chinese delegation welcomes the inclusion of the integrated budget for 2014-2017 as an integral component of the Strategic Plan, which tries to improve the focus on the results outlined in the Strategic Plan and achieve consistency and coherence in cost classification, absorption and recovery with UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women. China appreciates UNICEF's decision to increase the allocation of minimum regular resource to any single country program from the minimum of $750,000 to $850,000 and its plan to gradually increase its program expenditure and investment in program results in 2014-2017. Since the growth of financial resources and the core resources, in particular, will provide a powerful guarantee for UNICEF's effective and timely response to the needs of the program countries, the Chinese delegation calls on member States to continue to maintain or increase their contributions, especially their contributions to the core resources so that the 2014-2017 Strategic Plan can be carried out smoothly. We also hope that UNICEF will continue to strengthen its accountability and transparency as it implements the Strategic Plan, further quantify and clarify its results and contributions and keep member States abreast of the progress it has made in a timely manner.

Thank you, Mr. President.