World improving human conditions faster than before, says Bill Gates at Davos

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has said the world has been able to improve human conditions faster than ever before.

He was referring to the impact of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially about the goal to reduce child mortality.

"We've improved the human condition faster than ever before," Mr Gates said during a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meet at Davos, Switzerland, today.

Stating that positive advances have been made in reducing child mortality rates, he exuded confidence that further improvements would come.

"At the base year 1990, 12 million children died every year. By 2015, it will be below 6 million," Mr Gates said.

On improvements that might be needed in the MDGs, he said there was no need for extra goals but only that the targets should be revised.

"Leave it alone... It's hard to argue with success because this success is measured in lives," he added.   

MDGs are aimed at improving the overall living conditions of people and one of the priorities is to reduce extreme poverty and hunger.

The session also saw the participation of British Prime Minister David Cameron and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, among others.

Cameron stressed that time should not be wasted in working towards fulfilling MDGs, since their time-frame is till 2015.

More than 2,500 people from over 100 countries are participating in the 43rd WEF meet.