The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will strengthen cooperation with China in the future, former UNFPA executive director Nafis Sadik said Saturday in Beijing.

Dr. Nafis Sadik said that in addition to reproductive health and family planning, further cooperation will cover the fields of prevention of AIDS, aging population and cooperation between developing countries.

Sadik is in Beijing to receive the Fourth China Population Award for her tremendous contribution in international cooperation.

She said that without China's success in family planning, the world would have reached a population of six billion many years before.

"It is remarkable that although China is a developing country, its life expectancy of about 71.8 years, its infant mortality rateof around 31 per 1,000 and its extremely low maternal mortality rate are consistent with the same rates that exist in technologically advanced countries," Sadik said.

Founded in 1969, UNFPA is the world's largest organization providing assistance to the developing countries in the field of population. So far, it has offered US$ 4.6 billion to 168 countries around the world.

UNFPA started cooperation with China in 1979. And from 1979 to 1994, the foundation gave China US$160 million to be used towards the fields of reproductive health, family planning, production of contraceptives, poverty relief, population information and research, and population education in middle schools.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2002)