Vice-Chairwoman of China's National Working Committee on
Children and Women, Hong Tianhui, said on Sunday that the country
was committed to raising women's economic status.?
China was dedicated to the protection of women's rights and
raising their economic status by cooperation with enterprises, Hong
told Xinhua on the sidelines of the 2006 Global Women Summit which
was opened Saturday in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.
Hong attributed China's significant achievements in this field
to its constant efforts to realize gender equality.
China was doing its utmost to ensure women were treated fairly
by employers when vacancies existed, that economic resources were
shared fairly and that social progress was made by females. This
had come about since China hosted the fourth UN women's conference
in 1995 in Beijing, added Hong.?
During a pre-summit ministerial roundtable meeting on Saturday,
Hong told 43 other participants that China had taken three measures
to raise women's economic status including implementation of
favorable policies to support women entrepreneurship, provision of
financial and technological support for women who want to set up
their own business and developing women's potential to actually
secure employment.?
According to Hong more and more Chinese women have begun to set
up their own enterprises and women in business now account for some
20 percent of the country's entrepreneurs.
She said China would continue to narrow the gap between men and
women in possession of development resources and income
distribution as the world's most populous country was building a
wealthy society.
The three-day summit, called "the Davos for Women" in reference
to the male-dominated annual economic forum, was attended by around
900 leading women from 88 countries and regions.
This year's summit, the 16th since it first met in Canada's
Montreal in 1990, drew a record number of delegates. Led by Hong,
China sent a 35-member delegation to the summit.
(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2006)
