China appears poised to meet all the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, according to a joint report issued by China's Foreign Ministry and the UN system in China.

"China is a very good MDG performer," Renata Lok-Dessallien, UN Resident Coordinator in China, said upon releasing the report on September 21. "The country has already met several MDG targets ahead of schedule, including reducing poverty and hunger, enrolling children in schools and reducing under-five mortality."

The MDGs, adopted by 189 UN member states in September 2000, consist of eight specific goals in areas ranging from economic and social development to environmental protection. Most goals set 1990 as the baseline and 2015 as the target year.

Dessallien made the statements at a press conference in Beijing as heads of state and government from 140 countries, including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, gathered at a September 20-22 summit in New York to assess progress toward the goals.

China is the first developing country to achieve the MDG poverty reduction target--halving the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day--the report says.

Measured against the international poverty line, the share of China's rural population living in poverty was reduced from 46 percent in 1990 to 10.4 percent in 2005.

The Chinese Government has not only shown a strong political will to reduce poverty, but also devised a series of policies, based on its economic growth, to benefit the poor, said Subinay Nandy, China Country Director of the United Nations Development Program.

Moreover, China shares its experience in poverty reduction with other developing countries by cooperating with external partners, including the UN system, he added.

In terms of children's schooling, China's net primary school enrolment rate reached 99.4 percent by the end of 2009--99.36 percent and 99.44 percent for boys and girls respectively--the report says. This shows China has achieved the goal of universal primary education ahead of schedule.

China's infant mortality rate also came down from 50.2 per 1,000 live births in 1991 to 13.8 per 1,000 live births in 2009. Likewise, the mortality rate of children under the age of five dropped from 61 per 1,000 births in 1991 to 17.2 per 1,000 live births in 2009. The MDGs call on countries to reduce under-five mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015.

China's progress, however, has been uneven, UN officials cautioned. Dessallien said "rising inequalities and the rural-urban divide" remain major points of concern, adding further policy measures could be taken to address wealth gaps and regional disparities.

To meet all MDGs by 2015, China needs to redouble efforts to promote environmental sustainability and gender equality and combat HIV/AIDS, said Dessallien.