| Statement by H.E. Ambassador Sun Zhenyu at WTO General Council Debate on Aid for Trade |
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| Friday,November 23,2007 Posted: 04:18 BJT(2018 GMT) |
| From:Chinese Mission Article type:Original |
Mr. Chair,
China highly appreciates the efforts made by Director-General and the WTO Secretariat in initiating and facilitating this very first Global Review of Aid for Trade. We would like to thank the Chairman of CTD and Deputy Director General for their reports.
China fully supports the WTO Aid for Trade initiative and values highly the opportunity of the last two days of genuine and interactive dialogue to successfully take stock of what we have done at national, regional and multilateral levels. China also appreciates all the comments and suggestions made by participants on China’s effort in regard to aid for trade.
China, as a developing country, fully understands the difficulties confronting other developing countries in their pursuit of development. Although China is an aid recipient country, ever since 1950s, we have been providing various forms of assistance, at the same time, to the best of our ability, to other developing countries, particularly the least developed countries (LDCs). Recent highlights of our aid activities include: duty-free and quota-free market access to products that LDCs have the ability to export, covering 93% of their total exports to China; focus on supply side constraints of other developing countries through assistance to large construction projects such as roads, ports and factories; and the scale-up of training programmes to personnel of other developing countries to share our experiences of economic and trade development, since 2003, with over 4000 people of other developing countries through 197 courses and workshops in trade-related areas, another 30,000 people from developing countries and Least Developed countries will receive technical training by China in the next 3 years.
Mr. Chair,
Aid for trade is a rather complex undertaking, the success of which calls for persistent joint efforts by all parties concerned. As for the way forward, China would like to offer some preliminary food for thoughts.
First, China believes that it is necessary to build on what has been achieved so far while filling the gaps of the existing approaches through innovative and practical ways and means to ensure better delivery in the future.
Second, stable and predictable flow of financial resources is vital for the aid for trade work to sustain and thrive. This definitely calls for fresh inputs and initiatives. Developed countries and donor agencies, both bilateral and multilateral, should take the lead, while developing countries, declaring themselves in a position to do so, will take on shared but differentiated responsibilities and make contributions that are commensurate with their level of economic development.
Third, aid-for-trade programmes could be effective only when the ownership lies with the recipient countries. Aid for Trade must be carried out in line with the trade policy objectives of the recipient countries which identify key areas of concentration for aid-for-trade programmes and national priorities such as capacity building and infrastructure.
Fourth, monitoring and evaluation are important instruments to ensure that our action will lead to the intended goals with desired results. In order to achieve desired results, we should try to make the process simple and manageable with a view to reducing the unnecessary administrative cost, especially for developing Members. Furthermore, the level of satisfaction of recipient countries and local people should be taken as the most important criteria in measuring effects of aid for trade work.
Fifth, partnership is another key word in keeping aid for trade running smoothly. In this regard, WTO, as an international trade organization, will and can play a unique role through monitoring and evaluation in mobilizing aid for trade through co-ordination with other agencies.
Mr. Chair,
Last but not the least, as pointed out by quite some Members during the review and by Deputy Director-General Valentine this morning, it is the outcome of successful Doha Round negotiation that will deliver the most wanted “public goods” for all WTO members, i.e. a fair, rule based and development friendly global trading system and better market access for all WTO members, particularly for the developing and the least developed members. This is the very soil on which the tree of aid for trade can grow and flourish.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
(Geneva, 21 November 2007) |
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