GENEVA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese diplomat stressed Tuesday that only through development can countries resolve the root cause of conflicts, safeguard the fundamental rights of the people, and meet the ardent hope of the people for a better future.

Yu Jianhua, head of the Chinese Mission to UN in Geneva, made his remarks at a side-event of the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council, in a speech entitled "The Contribution of Development and Poverty Reduction to the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights".

Yu emphasized that in the face of both hopes and challenges, countries must hold on to development as the master key.

"The development we want must be equitable to ensure its equal access; it must be inclusive to benefit all parties; it must be comprehensive to make its groundwork more solid; it must be innovation-driven to fully tap the development potentials," Yu told the audiences.

Yu said that China follows the people-centered philosophy in its pursuit of innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development, with tremendous progress has been made.

"China is now able to feed its 1.3 billion population; nearly 800 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, reducing the global poor population by 70 percent and making important contributions to the global endeavor to fight poverty and promote human rights," he noted.

"China is identified by the UN as the fastest growing country in the past 30 years, creating a development miracle in human history," he added.

Tuesday's side-event was jointly sponsored by the African Group and the Permanent Mission of China to the UN office in Geneva.

As for the China-Africa cooperation, the Chinese diplomat told the audience that after the 2015 Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the outcomes of the Johannesburg Summit have been well implemented, delivering good results.

According to him, over 90 percent of the 60 billion U.S. dollars China pledged to fund Africa has either been delivered or sourced. A large number of projects in infrastructure, industrial parks, special economic zones, and industrial capacity cooperation have been launched, completed or seen good progress.

Since 2009, he said, China has been Africa's top trading partner for nine years in a row. Total Chinese investment in Africa reached 100 billion U.S. dollars. China-Africa financial cooperation has been moving forward, better facilitating business interactions between China and African countries.