Geneva, Dec 16 - Today Malaysia was given the privilege to chair the Plenary Session of the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference. Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry, believes that the choice of Malaysia to chair one of the plenary session is a clear recognition of Malaysia’s efforts to advance the WTO agenda.
 
The WTO was formed in 1995 to promote multilateral trade liberalisation and enforce global trade rules. Malaysia is a founding Member of the WTO. This Ministerial Conference is especially historic due to the accession of Russia, Samoa, Vanuatu and Montenegro.
 
Mustapa believes that Russia’s accession will open more opportunities for Malaysian exports to Russia and further strengthen bilateral economic relations between the Malaysia and Russia. The accession also shows that the WTO is a truly global institution dealing with trade.
 
Mustapa also took the opportunity to conduct a series of bilateral discussion with its counterparts from countries such as Turkey, European Union, Egypt, Mexico and Canada. These bilateral meetings were focused on discussions regarding ways to enhance trade and investment flows and to reinvigorate the role of business councils.
 
“Greater flows of trade and investment can only occur if there are more business to business (B2B) contacts between countries. Towards this end, business councils need to step up their engagement “, said Mustapa.
 
In one of the meetings, Johaan Ammann, Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Switzerland, informed that a delegation of top Swiss corporate leaders will be visiting Malaysia some time in later part of next year.