November 29, 2017 -- The High-level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Mid-term Review of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons 2013-2022 kicked off in Beijing on Monday. 

 

Sponsored by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific（ESCAP）and the Chinese government, and organized by China Disabled Persons Federation (CDPF), the five-day meeting is expected to attract some 350 representatives from member states of the ESCAP, the UN, and NGOs for the disabled.  

 

“We will develop programs for people with disabilities and work to provide better rehabilitation services for them,” President Xi Jinping said in his report at the 19th CPC National Congress. 

 

China has attached great importance to the cause of the disabled and is willing to exchange ideas and share its experience with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, achieving goals set for the 2013-2022 period and boosting the all-round development of the disabled, said LV Shiming, vice chairman of the CDPF at the opening ceremony. 

 

Nagesh Kumar, chief of the social development department of the ESCAP, spoke highly of the region’s efforts to safeguard the rights of the disabled and boost their sustainable development in the past 25 years. Countries in the region will join hands together to accomplish the 2013-2022 goals, he said.  

By: Ma Wenhui