BEIJING - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will work with China to advance inclusive and sustainable growth, said a UNDP official Friday.

"China's leaders understand the importance of inclusive growth, " said Rebecca Grynspan, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNDP Associate Administrator, in an address to Peking University on Friday.

The 12th Five-Year Plan spells out a detailed plan to advance inclusive growth, she said, "importantly, it gives strong emphasis to increasing the wealth of the people as the wealth of the country."

China has shown leadership in establishing national policies that incentivize green growth, setting rigorous targets for energy efficiency and energy conservation, and making significant and growing investments in renewable energy, Grynspan said.

As the largest developing country in the world, offering its own sizeable support to other developing countries, China is in a unique position to inspire and promote sustainable development not only at home, but abroad, she said.

It is Grynspan's first visit to China as UNDP Associate Administrator.

While in China, she has exchanged views with key government officials, representatives from civil society organizations, and other partners, on China' s objective to shift towards more inclusive growth and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

During the visit, she addressed the World Economic Forum's 'Summer Davos' in Dalian, on the Forum's main theme of "Mastering Quality Growth."

"My message is that quality growth is about inclusive growth and sustainability, so we need to focus not only on the speed, but on the quality of growth," she said in an interview with Chinese media Friday afternoon.

Grynspan also visited a UNDP Technical Task Force(TTF) project site in north China's Tianjin, where farmers are being helped to introduce new technologies, develop sustainable practices and increase income.

"I have been able to gain a deeper insight into the progress, evolution and challenges faced by the people of China, as well as how UNDP can engage more effectively to take our partnership with China forward," she said.

Grynspan said China has done very well in achieving the MDGs, noting that China has lifted 500 million people from poverty in the past 30 years, which means that globally, the world is on track to reduce poverty by half by 2015.

However, she said although China has chalked up remarkable achievements and is now leading the world in many fields, it still faces a lot of challenges as a developing country, and it needs UNDP's support in meeting those challenges.