The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will deepen cooperation with China, including fundraising, for the country's realization of children's development goals, said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy during her Thursday afternoon meeting with Vice Premier Wu Yi in Beijing.

Wu thanked Bellamy for UNICEF's help in improving the well-being of children in China over the past 25 years.

UNICEF has been working with the local government in Tibet since 1980, operating in 21 counties in all seven prefectures of the autonomous region.

The vice premier said regional disparities and poverty are still restraining the development of women and children in the country. She hopes that cooperation with UNICEF in the next term (2006–2010) will help China address these problems.

Western China is struggling to catch up with the country's overall economic growth. The central government initiated a "Go West" campaign in 2000 to stimulate development there, including in such areas as education, health care and other social services.

Bellamy said her agency's work in China would tune in to the priorities set by the Chinese government.

Bellamy toured the Tibet Autonomous Region between Sunday and Wednesday, visiting village households, elementary schools and township clinics in various counties of Shannan Prefecture. She talked to children, parents, teachers and local health workers to gain first-hand information about the situation of children in western China and inspect the results of UNICEF's cooperation with local health and education officials.

"The projects in Tibet are small but they set the stage for expanding our efforts in Tibet and other areas in the western region," said Bellamy.

Her meeting with local health and education officials focused on UNICEF cooperation in the areas of mother and child health care, basic education and capacity building of teachers and educators.

Bellamy underscored the importance of education for girls and of expanding preventive health practices versus reliance on curative measures. She also discussed the need to improve packaging interventions, such as education, sanitation and hygiene, in communities where UNICEF operates.

Significant progress has been made in the rate of hospital births, with the figure doubling in the past five years to 28 percent. However, the figure is still far behind the national average of 79 percent.

In the past decade, infant and maternal death rates in Tibet have dropped by around half.

Still, infant mortality stands at 53 per 1,000 live births and maternal mortality is more than 400 per 100,000 live births, some eight times higher than the nationwide rate.

Basic education enrollment has climbed dramatically to 92 percent, approaching the national average of 98 percent. However, only 31 percent of children in Tibet have access to the compulsory nine years of education.

Bellamy also met with Minister of Commerce Minister Bo Xilai on Thursday to discuss the next five-year round of cooperation. The Ministry of Commerce is the coordinator for UNICEF's work with China.

(China Daily September 3, 2004)