China has stressed the importance of following a "capacity to pay" principle, amid considerations by the United Nations (UN) to determine member states' dues to its budget.
Liu Zhenmin, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the statement at the meeting of the Fifth Committee of the 64th Session of the UN General Assembly for determining member states' dues to the organization's budget in 2010-12.
"China stands ready to make an even greater contribution to the UN on the basis of the capacity to pay, as our economy continues to grow," Liu said.
China's contribution to the UN has risen from 0.995 percent before 2000 to 2.667 percent in the 2007-09 period. According to current methods of calculation, that figure may rise to 3.189 percent in the 2010-12 period, which is about a 20-percent increase over the previous three-year period.
Still, despite its rapid economic development and impressive gross domestic product figures, China has the world's largest population and faces enormous challenges at home, Liu said.
In 2008, China's per capita gross domestic product stood at $3,000, ranked about 100th in the world and still far from the average per capita gross national income of $7,119 (the threshold), he said.
"By the standard of the World Bank, which considers those living on less than $1.25 a day as poor, the Chinese population living at the poverty level will total 250 million, the second largest number in the world," he said.
"Economic development, poverty eradication and the realization of modernization remain daunting challenges for China," Liu said.
"The evaluation of China's capacity to pay should not be conducted without taking into account China's specificities."
From China Daily
