Trade and Industry Ministers from the poorest countries have arrived in Siem Reap in tandem to seek solutions to the common problems they are facing in integrating their economies into the global trading system, said a press release obtained in Phnom Penh on Tuesday.
The ministers will be joined in the coming two days by donors and development agencies active in trade at the regional and global levels, said the release from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
This year's Least Developed Countries (LDC) Ministerial Conference is organized jointly by UNIDO and WTO and hosted by the government of Cambodia from Nov. 19 to 20, the release said.
One of the main topics is "Aid for Trade" (AFT), a package of incentives designed to help overcome structural and resource constraints of least developed countries in exchange for more speedy trade reforms, it said.
"Our mission is to support our member states' efforts to become more firmly integrated in the world economy through greater and fairer trade. The LDCs especially face strong productive capacity challenges posed by globalization, challenges that must be addressed for continuous growth of trade and equitable development among nations," Kandeh Yumkella, Director General of UNIDO, was quoted as saying.
The WTO is coordinating efforts to boost "Aid for Trade," which will increase the capacity of developing countries, enabling them to better take advantage of the benefits arising from greater trade opening, it said.
This "supply-side" approach is essential for more open international trade that can lead to greater prosperity for the poor, especially if it targets key export sectors such as the food- processing and textile industries, it said.
The meeting will also provide an opportunity to discuss the Doha Development Round of global trade talks, which would make world trade rules more equitable for the poorest countries and provide them with greatly increased market access opportunities, it said.
Among the items already agreed in the Doha round are provisions which would remove rich country barriers on at least 97 percent of exports from the poorest countries and would result in deep and expeditious cuts in trade distorting cotton subsidies in rich countries, it added.
