Mr. Chairman,

The Chinese delegation aligns itself with the statement made by Ecuador on behalf of Group of 77 and China.

In recent years, the international community has been taking vigorous actions to advance the cause of women with encouraging results. At the same time, regional conflicts, climate change, and the refugee/migrant crisis are posing challenges to the living environment of women, who bear the brunt of human trafficking, forced labor, sexual exploitation and domestic violence. Full realization of gender equality still has a long way to go.

Mr. Chairman,

The vision of building a community of shared future for mankind put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping is of great importance as guidance to the global cause of women. Without the advancement of women, there will be no all-round progress of human society. The international community should take actions in the following aspects:

First, formulate and improve strategies for women's advancement. In formulating national development strategies, countries need to include the gender perspective, take into full account the situation and special needs of women, vigorously safeguard women's rights and interests so that they will become equal participants in, contributors to, and beneficiaries of social progress and development.

Second, implement the objectives related to women contained in the 2030 Agenda in a comprehensive and balanced manner. Many SDGs concern women, including poverty reduction, education, health, and safe drinking water. It is necessary to effectively implement them all instead of attending to some while neglecting others.

Third, increase assistance to the developing countries. Imbalance in development among different regions severely hinders the progress of women's advancement. The developed countries must effectively honor their commitments, and increase financial and technical assistance to developing countries so as to narrow the gap in women's advancement among countries.

Fourth, give greater attention to the care and protection of special groups. All countries and relevant international organizations need to strengthen coordination and cooperation to improve social service delivery to such vulnerable groups as women with disabilities, elderly women, female victims of human trafficking and girls in the areas of safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, health, education, and employment.

Mr. Chairman,

The Chinese government has set gender equality as its basic national policy, and is now putting even greater emphasis on the comprehensive advancement of women. China has formulated over 100 laws, rules and regulations aimed at safeguarding women's rights and interests, including the Employment Promotion Law and the Anti-domestic Violence Law. A multitude of integrated measures have been adopted to promote women's entrepreneurship and employment, women's participation in decision making and management, improvement of women's health, and women's equal access to education. According to the mid-term review of China National Program for Women's Development (2011-2020), 44 of the 54 key statistical indicators for monitoring and assessment have been reached ahead of schedule or basically reached, which represents an achievement rate of 81.5%. At present in China, women account for 42.9% of the total employment, maternal mortality rate has been reduced to 20.1 per 100,000, and women take up 49.7% and 52.4% of the total graduate and undergraduate student enrollment respectively in institutions of higher learning.

China is actively implementing the commitment announced by President Xi Jinping at the Global Leaders' Meeting on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in 2015. China has honored its pledge to UN Women for 2016 and 2017, and is steadily rolling out its training programs for women from developing countries. China is also actively conducting people-to-people exchanges through bilateral and regional mechanisms in an effort to promote the exchanges and cooperation with women organizations in countries along the route of the Belt and Road.

China will continue to actively participate in international exchanges and cooperation on the advancement of women, and contribute to the global cause of gender equality.

Thank you, Mr. President.