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28 September 2023, Lausanne
Distinguished Director General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
Distinguished Deputy Director-General Dr. Zhang Xiangchen,
Distinguished Ambassador Ms Kadra Ahmed Hassan,
Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening,
At the outset, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all participants, and thank the Secretariat for the hard work for putting everything together. Special thanks go to the Director-General, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be here. Your presence is another testimony to your commitment to promoting South-South cooperation and development at the WTO.
China has always attached importance to development issues and taken many practical actions to promote South-South cooperation. As the largest export destination of LDCs for many years, China has taken measures to continuously increased imports from LDCs, in particular agricultural goods and input materials where LDCS are endowed with comparative advantage. Platform such as China International Import Expo, namely CIIE, is very useful for LDCs export promotion, products like chili from Rwanda, cashew from Benin, or coffee from Ethiopia are very popular in China. We also encourage Chinese investors to invest locally, with a view to further integrating the LDCs into the global value chain and achieve sustainable development.
South-South cooperation goes beyond physical trade, and extends to capacity building and effective participation in international trade governance. The South-South Dialogue is set up for this purpose. It is one of the five pillars of the China's LDCs and Accessions Programme. The China Program has provided a wealth of capacity building activities. So far, 5 South-South Dialogues, 11 Round Tables on LDC accessions, 6 TPR follow-up workshops have taken place. In the meantime, 6 LDCs have successfully acceded the WTO; 44 young professionals from developing members and LDCs received internship opportunities at the WTO; and various WTO activities were made accessible to LDCs.
Colleagues,
We live in a time of turbulence. The scars and aftershock of the Covid pandemics are still being felt in our economies; the global economic recovery is uneven and faces headwinds; and the trade outlook looks dim. WTO predicts trade growth this and next year are expected to be 2.1 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively, lower than the pre-pandemic 20-year average annual growth rate.
Global challenges call for global cooperation. MC13 is just with four months. We should build on the success of MC12, with a pragmatic mentality. Development is the topic that must deliver. Among that, LDC graduation transition period and LDC accession are within reach. Other development issues, such as S&DT implementation challenges, policy space, technology transfer should not be forgotten, either.
Three quarters of WTO members are developing and least developed, and they are the indispensable part of global economic development. Without their economic and social development, the common prosperity of the world will never be achieved. Investment is widely recognized as a driving force for development. In this context, I want to bring your attention to the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement. Development is at the heart of the IFD Agreement. Now, over 110 WTO members have given their support to IFD Initiative. Among all the co-sponsors, 78 are developing members, among which 24 are LDCs.
Dear colleagues,
Our discussion agenda for this evening and tomorrow is very rich. I expect to hear your views and ideas on how to deliver development outcomes at MC13. I also look forward to working with all of you to promote the reform of the WTO in the direction of more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all, to narrow development deficit and better integrate the LDCs into the global value chains.
I wish this dialogue a full success.
