China is committed to raising women's economic status, Vice-Chairwoman of China's National Working Committee on Children and Women Hong Tianhui said in Cairo on Sunday.

China has been dedicated to protection of women's rights and raising their economic status by cooperation with enterprises, Hong told Xinhua on the sidelines of the 2006 Global Women Summit, which was opened Saturday in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. 
Hong attributed China's significant achievements in this field to its constant efforts to realize gender equality.

China has done its utmost to ensure women's rights to job opportunities and fair sharing economic resources and social progress since China hosted the fourth UN women's conference in 1995 in Beijing, she said.

During a pre-summit ministerial roundtable meeting on Saturday, Hong told 43 other participants that China has taken three measures to raise women's economic status, including implementation of favorable policies to support women entrepreneurship, providing financial and technological support for women who wanted to set up their own business, and developing women's potential to get jobs.

According to Hong, more and more Chinese women have begun to set up their own enterprises and women entrepreneurs now account for some 20 percent of total Chinese entrepreneurs.

She said that China would continue to narrow the gap between men and women in possession of development resources and income distribution as the world's most populous country was building a well-off society.

The three-day summit, dubbed "the Davos for Women" in reference to the men-dominated annual economic forum, was attended by some 900 leading women from 88 countries and regions.

This year's summit, the 16th one since its first meeting in Canada's Montreal in 1990, has drawn record number of representatives.

Led by Hong, China sent a 35-member delegation to the meeting.

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2006)