Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce, Industry &Technology John Tsang on Friday called upon the 148 WTO members to demonstrate their global vision and individual courage to make a success of the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Hong Kong in mid-December.

Tsang, also chairman of the MC6, made the call while addressing the last General Council meeting of the WTO in Geneva, according to a Hong Kong government press release.

Tsang assured WTO members that preparations for the ministerial conference are now complete.

"What we cannot do is guarantee success; we cannot do your work for you. Success is something for which we have a collective responsibility," Tsang said.

Tsang said the conference will not be just an occasion for stocktaking.

"We will be fully engaged in serious negotiations," he said. " We will aim to ratchet up the extent and quality of our convergence, and set the platform for the next stage of our preparation towards the conclusion of the (Doha) Round by the end of 2006."

Using an aeronautical metaphor, Tsang said the aim is to emerge from the meeting refueled, re-charged and with a clear flight plan for the final leg of the flight--the conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda by the end of next year.

Tsang also announced the names of six ministerial colleagues to help him facilitate negotiations in core areas. They are Pakistan's Humayun Khan, Kenya's Mukhisa Kituyi, South Korea's Hyun Chong Kim, Norway's Jonas Stor, and Chile's Ignacio Walker.

Source: Xinhua