China's Position Paper on UN Reforms (full text)

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-08 11:35

1. Poverty

To eliminate poverty, an urgent priority is to facilitate the implementation of the MDGs. This should become the focus of UN reforms and the September summit.

We should steer globalization toward balanced development, and strengthen developing countries' position for equal participation and decision-making in international affairs.

China supports developing countries' efforts to promptly formulate and implement comprehensive national strategies in light of their own national conditions for the realization of MDGs. The international community should provide necessary assistance to support these efforts.

International development assistance should be provided in a way that takes into full consideration the national conditions of developing countries, and increases the recipient countries' autonomy and participation in this process for better results.

China is in favor of the Secretary-General's recommendations of a timetable for increasing Official Development Assistance (ODA) to 0.7 percent of national GDP, and believes that it is necessary to draw detailed implementation plans and set up a monitoring and assessing mechanism.

China supports international efforts to explore innovative resources as a useful supplement to ODA, which should continues to play a major role.

We shall reform and improve the international financial system to make it consistent with the principle of equality and mutual benefit, and monitor, and guide rational flows of international capital to fend off financial crises.

We should establish and improve an open and fair multilateral trading system, based on full consideration of the interests of developing and new members, and eliminate agricultural subsidies and substantially reduce tariff and non-tariff trade barriers as soon as possible in accordance with the mandate provided by the Doha Declaration.

The Chinese side supports efforts to promote an agreement on the modality of negotiations at the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in accordance with the July 2004 approximation and the mandate provided by the Doha Declaration, with a view to achieving an early completion of the Doha round and making it a genuine "development round".

The developed countries should reduce and forgive, in real earnest, debts owed to them by developing countries, so that more capital will be available for development.

We should encourage and strengthen public-private partnerships and mobilize more resources to promote economic growth and eliminate poverty.

China supports to strengthen South-South cooperation, including sharing experience, expanding areas of cooperation and mutual assistance for mutual benefit, in order to enhance capacity building for development.

2. Disease

All countries should promptly implement the UN resolutions 58/3 and 59/27 related to "enhancing capacity-building in global public health", put public health development in the context of their own development plans and activities, establish scientific and standardized public health systems, and improve the monitoring, prevention, control, treatment and reporting networks for contagious diseases. The developed world should help the developing countries in this regard.

Relevant agencies operating within the UN system should consider incorporating public health into their activities, programs and plans, give greater support to all countries in strengthening public health capacity and promote international cooperation.

We should strengthen the guiding and coordinating role of the World Health Organization and other relevant international organizations in disease prevention and treatment. China is in favor of more resources being channeled for the WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.

We should make further efforts to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. The immediate priority is to speed up the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS within the existing cooperation framework. The developed countries shall honor their commitments through the provision of more financial and technical support to the developing countries in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Currently there is no universally recognized standards to define whether contagious diseases pose a threat to international peace and security. Given that the Security Council's main function is to deal with issues that pose grave threats to international peace and security, it is unadvisable for it to repeat the work of other agencies.