BEIJING -- China will send a delegation to the upcoming UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), calling for international cooperation for the development of the LDCs, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

"Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Fu Ziying will lead a delegation to the conference. China is willing to cooperate with the international community to make the meeting a success," Jiang Yu said at a regular news briefing.

The 4th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from May 9 to 13. The meeting will adopt the Istanbul Action Plan for the development of LDCs in the next 10 years, Jiang said.

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"The meeting is key to mobilizing the will and resources of the international community for the development of LDCs," Jiang said.

"China attaches great importance to the development of LDCs and has been doing its best to support their development," Jiang said.

According to the spokeswoman, China participated in the preparation process of the meeting and provided 300,000 U.S. dollars to help LDCs representatives attend the meeting.

It is hoped that the meeting can completely reflect the needs and concerns of the LDCs, Jiang said.

"We also call on the developed countries to fulfill their commitment as early as possible to allocate 0.15 percent to 0.2 percent of their Gross National Income as development aid to the LDCs," Jiang said.

The UN conference on the LDCs, held every 10 years, aims to increase cooperation between nations to work out overall plans, priorities and concrete objectives to support the development of the LDCs.

The LDCs are a category of states that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process. The current LDCs consist of 48 countries: 33 in Africa, 14 in the Asia-Pacific region and one in Latin America.