A Hong Kong official Sunday welcomed the decision by the General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to hold the Sixth Ministerial Conference (MC6) in Hong Kong in December 2005, according to a government press release.

Hong Kong's Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology John Tsang noted that "Hong Kong's bid to host MC6, already accepted by the General Council in October 2003, underlines our active and constructive participation in the WTO. With the timing of the event now decided, we shall be able to press ahead with ourpreparatory work in full steam."

According to him, the preparations for MC6 are being overseen by a co-ordination office set up under the Trade and Industry Department and involve the Economic and Trade Office in Geneva as well as other key departments in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

"We shall also work very closely with the WTO membership and the WTO Secretariat to stage a conference which is successful in both substantive and logistical terms," Tsang said.

The General Council of the WTO has been meeting very intensively in Geneva in the past week to take stock of the ongoing negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda and to decide on the next steps to take forward the negotiations. MC6 will be a key milestone in these negotiations, which will be conducive to the broad and balanced development of the multilateral trade regime.

Source: Xinhua