The head of the European Union ( EU) Commission said in Hong Kong Monday that China and China's Hong Kong need to play an active role in World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations as both will be major beneficiaries from a successful Doha Development Agenda (DDA) .

While delivering a speech titled "From 'fragrant harbor' to world city: Hong Kong as a beacon for free trade", EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said a successful DDA can not be reached unless all WTO members move forward together.

"It is now time for others, both developed and leading developing countries, to show the same ambition for the DDA," he said.

He believed that Hong Kong, as the host of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organization in this December, will further enhance it's global standing and reputation as "Asia's World City".

He said he was particularly pleased to see that China, the largest rapidly expanding developing country, is also taking steps to play a proactive and supportive role in the WTO negotiations.

It is Barroso's first visit to China as president of EU Commission. Hong Kong is the last stop of his five-day official visit. He had visited Beijing, Shanghai and Macao before he arrived in Hong Kong.