China has made great progress in gender equality and empowering women in the past 60 years, well on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, said a senior UN official on Saturday at the Asia Pacific Women Forum held in Hong Kong.

Khalid Malik, the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the UN Development Program resident representative in China, quoted Chairman Mao Zedong's famous remarks "Women holding up half of the sky" to review China's good will and determination in promoting gender equality.

He noted that the People's Republic of China has witnessed important progress since its founding nearly 60 years ago, with gender equality as the country's basic national policy and one of the core elements to pursue a harmonious society.

Six years away from the deadline of MDGs, China is now well on track for further progress to meet the goal in promoting gender equality, said Malik.

"There is almost no gender disparity to Chinese women's access to a living market, and there is much that the Asia-Pacific region can learn from China's lessons," he said.

The eight MDGs, set by world leaders at a UN summit meeting in 2000, also include relieving poverty, popularizing primary education, reducing child mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability.

As the Asia-Pacific region emerges stronger than any other one from the undergoing global financial crisis, he also believed the women in the region have a real prospect in redefining and strengthening their role in economy and society amid "a time of great changes".

"Women are the driving force to overcome poverty and hunger, fight illiteracy, prevent the spread of diseases and promote stability," he said.

More efforts were needed yet, Malik added. He urged both China and the whole region to eliminate even more bias towards empowering women and to bring the gender equality to a whole new level on the foundation of all the progress that has been made so far.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2009)