Interview: China is a welcome partner of developing countries, says UN Under-Secretary-General

"China is a welcome partner of the developing countries," said Tegegnework Gettu, UN Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, on Thursday, a day ahead of the landmark UN Sustainable Development Summit.

"In some countries like Ethiopia, China has played a very positive and critical role in its economic development," said Gettu of Ethiopia in an interview with Xinhua.

Speaking on cooperation between China and other developing countries, he said "developing countries make their own decision (while choosing development partners). The world is interdependent and integrated. China is one of the major actors."

"The development cooperation with China should be seen as a positive development," he added.

More than 150 world leaders are expected to attend the UN Sustainable Development Summit from Friday to Sunday at UN headquarters in New York to formally adopt an ambitious new sustainable development agenda.

"The whole concept of the post-2015 development agenda concerns the developing countries, the equality and the poverty. No child, no family should be left behind," he said. "The concept of the post-2015 development agenda is to protect the developing countries, to promote development in the developing world, to help them catch up."

The new agenda is people-centered, universal, transformative and integrated. It calls for action by all countries for all people over the next 15 years in five areas of critical importance: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that "It (the agenda) is a roadmap to ending global poverty, building a life of dignity for all and leaving no one behind."

"It is also a clarion call to work in partnership and intensify efforts to share prosperity, empower people's livelihoods, ensure peace and heal our planet for the benefit of this and future generations," Ban said.

Gettu noted, "It is important for us to make sure that the developing countries can catch up with the developed countries. This is the only way to establish long-lasting peace and equality."

The Under-Secretary-General also spoke highly of China's impressive trajectory in economic and social development.

"China has set an example for the world. It lifted 500 million people out of poverty. It has become the second largest economy in the world," he said. "Chinese contribution to the UN will increase."

Poverty eradication also tops the new agenda. "End poverty in all its forms everywhere" is the first sustainable development goal in a package of 17 goals.

Gettu is in charge of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management providing three main services: technical secretariat support and advice to intergovernmental bodies, meetings management, and documentation management, according to UN website.

"We gonna have 154 heads of state coming here (to the summit) and we facilitate their documents, the translation and the interpretation," said Gettu. "The key challenge is to increase our ability to meet an ever-increasing demand."

This momentous agenda, comprising of 17 goals, will serve as the launch pad for action by the international community and by national governments to promote shared prosperity and well-being for the next 15 years. Endit