The Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC), Mr. Wu Bangguo, visited the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi on Saturday for talks with senior officials of UN-HABITAT and the UN Environment Programme.Mr. Wu, who met the Acting Deputy Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Mr. Daniel Biau, and the Deputy Executive Director of UNEP, Mr. Shafqat Kakakhel, said China was ready for further friendly cooperation with the two UN agencies. He stressed that economic growth should come with thoroughness, harmony and sustainability, saying China, as a developing nation, faces many challenges in environment protection. He said China was facing a regional imbalance in human settlement development, and called on UN- HABITAT for more support in infrastructure and housing construction. He said that in the past 25 years, China's urban living space per person had increased from 6.7 sq meters to 22.8 sq meters, with the rural living space rising from 8.1 sq meters to 27.2 sq meters. The UN-HABITAT will hold a World Urban Forum in Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu province at a date to be decided. Mr. Wu said that China was willing to enhance coordination and cooperation with UN-HABITAT to make the forum a success. Mr. Kakakhel and Mr. Biau expressed appreciation to China for its achievements in environmental protection and human settlements development, noting that China had worked hard to reduce the negative impact of industrialization. Mr. Wu was in Kenya as part of an official four-nation African tour, which includes Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nigeria. |
