The China Song Qingling Foundation and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) will hold the first International Forum on Children's Development from October 29 to 31 in Beijing.

The forum, themed "Children in the 21th Century and the Sustainable Development of Society," will see more than 200 experts and 20 children delegates from home and abroad attend, according to the organizer.

The forum will concentrate on such three sub-topics as "the quality of children's development," "children's education, sexual difference and cultures" and "children's protection and their rights".

Each of the topic will have two children delegates.

All the 20 children representatives received a training course prior to the forum through activities and games on Thursday, in order to facilitate them to freely express ideas during the meeting.

The 20 youths will be fully involved in the discussions on the forum, and have a face-to-face communication with the experts presenting the discussion. Among them, there are 10 Chinese from domestic cities and provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanxi, and the other 10, recommended by the UNICEF, are from Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, India and the Philippines.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2005)