China has identified reduction of maternal and child mortality rates over the past decades, achieving the goal set by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Program of Action ahead of schedule, according to China Population and Development Country Report published on September 7.

The report said that in 2002, monitoring at 116 sites showed that maternal mortality rate was declined year by year, compared to 64.8 per 100,000 live births in 1994 to 43.2 per 100,000 live births in 2002.

The under-five mortality rate was also dropped from 49.6 per thousand in 1994 to 34.9 per thousand in 2002.

These two factors indicate that China has realized the goal set by the ICPD program of action earlier than it urged that by 2015, which requires that all countries should make efforts to reduce the under-five mortality below 45 per thousand.

However, the report pointed out that certain laws and regulations are not fully observed and enforced in some localities due to inadequate attention from leading officials.

Another constrain is that funding and medical supports are insufficient in some poverty-stricken regions and households.

Moreover, regional disparities of the under-five mortality rates are quite obvious, in which rural areas are higher than urban areas and inland regions are far ahead of seashore areas.

Source: Xinhua