Bulgarian vice president urges more proactive actions to advance global women's cause

Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Iotova on Wednesday called for intensified global efforts to eliminate all forms of inequality and advance global women's cause with faster steps and more proactive actions.

Iotova was in China to attend the 2025 Global Leaders' Meeting on Women, held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday.

In an interview with China Media Group on Wednesday, she praised the historic significance of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which took place in Beijing three decades ago and produced the globally influential Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action.

"Please allow me first to congratulate the Chinese government and the All-China Women's Federation for organizing this summit at such a high level. The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, adopted 30 years ago, have since been incorporated into all major international instruments, United Nations resolutions, and multiple European policy documents. I served as a member of the European Parliament for 10 years. The Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action have been repeatedly cited and remain a crucial starting point for our work on equal rights between women and men. Reflecting on the progress made over the past 30 years is deeply meaningful," said Iotova.

She also shared a powerful metaphor from Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the opening ceremony of the summit that left a lasting impression on her.

"He said that protecting women's rights and interests and advancing global women's cause are of vital importance to world development, because half of the sky is held up by men and the other half by women. If either side is unsteady, the whole sky will collapse," said Iotova.

She stressed that beyond commemorating past achievements, the summit's core mission is to foster greater global solidarity.

"The goal of this summit is not only to review the achievements of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action, but more importantly, to foster greater global unity and mutual support. We should stand with those who need help the most and strive to eliminate all forms of inequality. Therefore, I believe that, building on the progress made over the past 30 years, we should advance the global women's cause in the next 30 years with faster steps and more proactive actions," said the vice president.

Bulgarian vice president urges more proactive actions to advance global women's cause

China has remained the world's largest online retail market for a 13th consecutive year, with its digital consumption exceeding 23.8 trillion yuan (about 3.39 trillion U.S. dollars), official data shows.

The figure was released at a national e-commerce work conference held from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The conference said that China's e-commerce sector has achieved solid gains in high-quality development over the past five years, emerging as a new source of momentum to foster new quality productive forces and playing an important role in advancing the country's new development paradigm.

Despite rising external uncertainties, China has continued to expand its win-win cooperation, increasing the number of Silk Road e-commerce cooperation partner countries to 36.

E-commerce has become a major engine for job creation and industrial upgrading. Employment in the sector has surpassed 78 million, and express delivery volumes have seen an average annual growth of nearly 20 percent over the past five years.

Software and information services linked to cloud computing and big data have also expanded rapidly.

The conference outlined the Ministry of Commerce's e-commerce policy priorities for 2026, including strengthening innovation-driven growth, improving the country's development environment, and expanding international cooperation.

China remains world's largest online retail market for 13th straight year