On July 11, a ministerial seminar on population, sustainable development and poverty alleviation in developing countries was held in Beijing. A total of 19 representatives from 10 African and Asian countries, including Ghana, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Southern Sudan, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe took part in the seminar. They included high level government officials in charge of population, development and poverty alleviation in their countries, including five officials at the minister level.

Wang Pei’an, vice-minister of the NHFPC, and Zhu Liugui, deputy head of the Academy of International Business Officials, under the Ministry of Commerce, took part in the opening ceremony and gave speeches. A representative of the participants from Nigeria’s National Population Commission also made a speech.

In his speech, Wang Pei’an said that poverty alleviation and population issues as well as sustainable development are important topics for current global development and “south-south” cooperation. The global community and countries should make use of this timing to actively push ahead the development of family planning, reproduction health, population and social affairs.