China said Monday that the international community should speed up actions to further promote the advancement of women.

All state government should "turn commitments into concrete actions" and "invest more manpower materials and resources" to implement their commitment to goals of equality, development and peace for all women, said Meng Xiaosi, head of the Chinese delegation to the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) opened at the UN headquarters in New York.

The session also marks the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, and will examine progress since the historic women's conference in Beijing.

Meng, who is vice-chairperson of the National Working Committee on Women and Children under the State Council of China, said countries should continue to focus on women and development and pay increased attention to the voices of women from the developing and least developed countries.

She also suggested enhancing experience sharing and dialogues among different regions with great efforts to address the key obstacles and difficulties in advancing gender equality.

Talking about China's efforts on implementing the Beijing Platform for Action, Meng said the government has concentrated its resources to improve people's living standards under the guidance of people-centered development concept and a series of new measures have been adopted to further promote gender equality.

She said China has strengthened gender awareness in legislation in the formulation and revision of laws and taken various policy measures to promote women's participation in political decision- making.

"At present, there are 8 women state leaders, 230 ministerial and vice-ministerial/provincial level women leaders, and 670 mayors and deputy mayors of the over 600 cities," Meng said, adding that there are women in most neighborhood and village committees.

Besides, China has increased input to achieve nine-year compulsory education and augmented funding for women's health care, Meng said, adding that 25 out of 31 provinces all over the country have issued laws/regulations against domestic violence.

She also noted that as a developing country, China "still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality."

"Gender awareness among various sectors and levels of government still need to be strengthened, violence and gender discrimination at employment take place from time to time, and women's participation in political decision-making needs to be further enhanced," she said.

The CSW is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body.

Every year, representatives of member states gather at the UN Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide. This year's meeting runs from March 1 to March 12.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2010)