The Partners in Population and Development (PPD), a south-south organization, held its ninth annual conference in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Monday.

More than 70 ministers and high-ranking officials of population affairs from the 20 member countries attended the conference. Dr. Thoraya Obaid, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA and high officials from the World Health Organization and other international organizations were also invited to the conference.

The conference passed the strategic program of the organization for the coming ten years (2005-2014). It also discussed the Yangtze Declaration, which aims at better implementing the Program of Action adopted at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and decided to submit it for approval at the International Forum on Population and Development to be held in Wuhan from Sept. 7 to 9.

Greeting all the participants, Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the State Commission for Population and Family Planning and chairman of the PPD and the conference, said PPD has become a dynamic international alliance linking the vast developing countries in the fields of population and family planning.

"It represents the interests and voices of 54 percent of the world's population," said Zhang.

Zhang said the coming Wuhan forum aims at summing up past experience in the implementation of the Program of Action adopted at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, promote exchanges in genital health and family planning and discuss how the international community could better realize the Program of Action adopted at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals under the framework of south-south and south-north cooperation.

Zhang said all the preparations for the Wuhan forum have been completed.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2004)