BEIJING -- Women have truly held up "half the sky" in China's economic and social development, President Xi Jinping said on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women.

Listing the achievements, Xi said women in China now account for over 40 percent of the employed population, make up more than half of all entrepreneurs in the internet industry, and accounted for more than 60 percent of the medalists of the past four Summer Olympic Games.

In the new era, Chinese women are participating in the whole process of national and social governance with unprecedented confidence and vitality, Xi said.

"On the new journey of Chinese modernization, every woman is a protagonist," he said.