Mr. Chair,

At the outset, I wish to congratulate you on your election as Chair of the Committee on Information and on the formation of the new Bureau of the Committee．I believe that under your able leadership, this Session will produce positive outcomes in reviewing and formulating UN policies on public information. I also wish to take this opportunity to once again, congratulate Ms. Cristina Gallach on assuming the important post as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.

China thanks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for submitting the report on the activities of the Department of Public Information and supports the statement made by the South African delegate on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. China commends the work of the Department of Public Information in news services,strategic communications and outreach activities. We support the DPI's efforts to upgrade its new media platforms, improve the UN website, digitalize audio and video archives and in other areas.

Mr. Chair,

China wishes to stress the following points concerning UN's work relating to communications and public information going forward.

First, public information and communications services should be strengthened. As the most representative and authoritative inter-governmental international organization, the United Nations is the main platform for countries to promote multilateralism. In its work on public information and communications, the United Nations should follow the principles of openness, transparency, timeliness and balance. Efforts should be made to protect the right to information about UN affairs of all countries, the vast number of developing countries in particular. Relevant work should be led by member states and the role of this Committee should be strengthened in reviewing UN public information policies and providing guidance to the work of the DPI. According to General Assembly resolutions and mandates, the DPI should make continued efforts to enhance its communications capacity, step up dialogue and communication with member states and guide the orderly participation of the civil society in its outreach activities, so as to win broader public support for the United Nations.

Second, the focus of DPI's work should be sharpened. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the victory of the world anti-Fascist war. A host of UN summits and commemorative activities are scheduled and the post-2015 development agenda will be adopted. These events will exert profound influence on peace and development of the world and hence attract close attention of the international community. The General Assembly Resolution 69/96 clearly requested the DPI to actively carry out promotional campaigns and outreach activities centering on this theme. It is our hope that the DPI will formulate and implement a comprehensive plan to give active publicity to the important role of the United Nations and the outcomes of the UN summits. We hope that the DPI will call upon the international community to seize the opportunity of the 70th anniversary of the Organization to reflect on history and look into the future, to uphold the victorious outcome of the world anti-Fascist war and to safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. We also hope that the DPI will encourage the United Nations to act as a strong defender of international peace and security and an active mover for world development and prosperity.

Third, equitable use of all six official languages should be vigorously promoted. China appreciates the good efforts of the Secretary-General and the DPI in implementing the resolutions on multilingualism and answering the requests of this Committee. At the same time, we have noted the continued disparity between the use of English and the use of other official languages. As the language used by the biggest number of people in the world, Chinese has not received equitable treatment in UN documents, publications and media. Take the website for example, despite the call of the General Assembly for all UN agencies and departments to set up their websites in all six official languages, the number of websites in Chinese is still small．Except for the United Nations main website in the Chinese language, the Chinese version of websites of many UN departments and agencies suffer from inadequate amount of information and lack of updates. In fact, similar problems exist with websites in the other non-English official languages. We hope that the Secretary-General and the DPI will take these problems seriously, push for actions by UN agencies and departments of the Secretariat to earnestly implement General Assembly resolutions, and distribute human and financial resources on an equitable basis to achieve full parity among all six official languages in UN's work. To that end, China stands ready to provide support within its capability.

I wish to conclude by reiterating that China will, as always, actively participate in the work of this Committee and continue to strengthen communication and cooperation with the Secretariat, the DPI in particular.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.