Malaysia Chairs 8th WTO Ministerial Conference's Planery Session

GENEVA, Dec 17 (Bernama) -- Malaysia was given the privilege to chair the plenary session of the 8th World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference, said Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Friday. In a statement Saturday, MITI said the choice of Malaysia to chair one of the plenary sessions was a clear recognition of the country's efforts to advance the WTO agenda. Its minister, Mustapa Mohamed, said this ministerial conference was especially historic due to the accession of Russia, Samoa, Vanuatu and Montenegro, he said. "Russia’s accession will open more opportunities for Malaysian exports to Russia and further strengthen bilateral economic relations between the two countries," he said. The accession also showed the WTO was a truly global institution dealing with trade, he said. The WTO was formed in 1995 to promote multilateral trade liberalisation and enforce global trade rules. Malaysia is a founding member of the WTO. MITI said Mustapa also took the opportunity to conduct a series of bilateral discussions with counterparts from Turkey, European Union, Egypt, Mexico and Canada. It said these bilateral meetings were focused on discussions regarding ways to enhance trade and investment flows and to reinvigorate the role of business councils. Mustapa said greater flows of trade and investment could only occur if there were more business-to-business contacts between countries. "Towards this end, business councils need to step up their engagement," he said. In one of the meetings, head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Switzerland, Johaan Ammann, told Mustapa that a delegation of top Swiss corporate leaders would be visiting Malaysia next year, MITI said. -- BERNAMA