BEIJING - China has issued various occupational qualification certificates to nearly 500,000 of its handicapped citizens in the past five years, according to a statement released by the China Disabled Person's Federation (CDPF) on Tuesday.

A total of 3.76 million disabled people nationwide received some form of vocational or technical training during the 2005-2010 period, according to the statement.

The CDPF said in the statement that it will train another 1.8 million disabled people in the next five years, and it will launch a variety of programs in order to make millions more employable.

More than 4.4 million urban and rural citizens with disabilities are currently employed in China.

Figures from the CDPF indicate that more than 2 million disabled people have set up their own businesses under the country's preferential tax policies and with financial support from the government.

The Chinese government has revealed that nearly 83 million citizens in China have some form of disability.

According to a Chinese-language World Report on Disability issued Tuesday in Beijing, around 15 percent of the world's population, or 1 billion people, live with disabilities.

The report, produced jointly by the World Health Organization and the World Bank, provides the first such global estimates in 40 years and an overview of the status of disability in the world.

The report shows that people with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities across the world.

It shows they are also more than twice as likely to find healthcare provider skills inadequate to meet their needs, and nearly three times more likely to be denied needed health care.

"To achieve the long-lasting, vastly better development prospects that lie at the heart of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals and beyond, we must empower people living with disabilities and remove the barriers which prevent them participating in their communities, getting a quality education, finding decent work, and having their voices heard," it says.

The report suggests steps for all stakeholders, including governments, civil society organizations and disabled people's organizations, to create enabling environments, develop rehabilitation and support services, and enforce new and existing standards and legislation, to the benefit of people with disabilities and the wider community.

Governments should work to increase public awareness and understanding of disability, and support further research and training in the area, it says, stressing that people with disabilities should be consulted and involved in the design and implementation of these efforts.