Vice Chairman Ashok Singh,
Vice Chairman Sameep Shastri,
Director General BBL Madhukar,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Namaste and good morning.
It’s my great pleasure to attend the BRICS CCI Annual Women’s Summit and Felicitations 2024 on International Women’s Day. Happy Women’s Day to all ladies. Warm congratulations to every recipient of felicitations.
As creators of human civilization and drivers of social progress, women make extraordinary achievements. With the theme of ‘The Changing Narrative: Women Development to Women-Led Development’, this summit captures new trends of our time and applauds women’s achievements, reflecting the importance of women in national and social development. There’s one well-known quote from an Indian movie, ‘woman strong, mother strong, sister strong, then country strong’. That’s perfectly right.
Our world is witnessing enormous changes with mounting conflicts and challenges. But peace, development and win-win cooperation are shared aspiration for all. Women account for half of the world population. Women’s status is a significant mark of social progress. Ensuring women’s rights is protecting dignity and human rights. Supporting women to realize their dreams and play leading roles are inherent goals of building a global community of shared future. China is a force for peace, stability and progress of the world. We are committed to national development and rejuvenation through Chinese modernization. We actively implement the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. We strive to enhance global solidarity and cooperation, address challenges and crises, and promote world peace and development.Chinese women play a prominent role in this great cause.
—China achieves visible outcomes in women’s development. China pursues the policy of gender equality and protects women’s rights and interests. China’s reform and development create greater opportunities for women. In China, women make up over 40% of the employed population, and represent over 50% of undergraduate and postgraduate students in higher education. Among the founders of major e-commerce companies, more than 40% are women. From political affairs to business operations, from diplomatic stage to peacekeeping missions, from the world of art to space exploration, from Olympic gold medalist to Nobel Prize laureate, Chinese women’s confidence and excellence reshape the world’s perception of China in the new era. Meanwhile, women’s education, employment and medical conditions still face urban-rural imbalance and regional disparities in China. We will continue to address these challenges.
China is committed to promoting women’s development worldwide. In 1995, China hosted the 4th World Conference on Women, which adopted Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and laid down the guidelines for gender equality. In 2015, President Xi Jinping hosted the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment at the UN Headquarters in New York and delivered an important speech, setting a new milestone for global women’s development. China supports developing countries’ poverty reduction, job creation and welfare projects for women, and promotes women’s exchanges under the framework of G20 and other fora. We call for convening another global summit on women in 2025 and will lend stronger support for global women’s development.
—The BRICS countries are committed to supporting Women’s leading role. BRICS countries recognize women’s contribution to peace, reconstruction, economics, finance, innovation and international organizations. BRICS success and expansion create more economic and social development opportunities for women at national, regional and global levels. BRICS women development report shows a remarkable rise in BRICS nations’ women performance in economics, health, education and management in past 10 years. Under President Xi Jinping’s initiative, China held BRICS Women’s Leadership Forum and Best Women Startups Contest. We anticipate successful women events during Russian BRICS presidency this year.
India is a major BRICS country making efforts to reduce poverty and raise labor participation rate for women. The BRICS CCI not only builds an eco-system for BRICS women entrepreneurs and professionals to pursue careers and cooperation, but also showcases the success stories of Indian women in multiple domains.
—Increasing women’s well-being is a global mission. While the international community promotes women’s development and advocates women’s interests. The rights, opportunities and resources allocation remain unequal between men and women. Gender equality and women’s development require united and persistent endeavor of the world.
The UN Women designates ‘Invest in women, accelerate progress’ as the theme of International Women’s Day 2024. Women should play more prominent roles in national governance and economic, cultural and social affairs. They can lead the way in new technology and industrial revolution. An enabling environment should be fostered for women to unleash creativity and embrace an amazing life and career. Their rights must be protected without bias or discrimination. This year’s UN Summit of the Future should give voice to women, and women’s development goal should be early harvest of the 2030 Agenda.
As a famous Chinese saying goes, women hold up half the sky. Let us work together to deepen BRICS cooperation, promote women’s development, and build a better world.
Thank you.
