WT/MIN(13)/ST/32  
5 December 2013  
(13-6675)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR ANAS KHALID AL-SALEH 
MINISTER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
STATE OF KUWAIT  
First of all, I am pleased to extend, on behalf of the Government of the State of Kuwait , our 
sincere appreciation and gratitude to the government of the Republic of Indonesia for their warm 
hospitality and exceptional welcoming. Likewise, I would like to commend the organizers of this 
Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference and the WTO Secretariat  for the outstanding arrangement of this 
meeting.  
 I also take this opportunity to congratulate  Mr Roberto Azevêdo for assuming the post of the 
Director General of the World Trade Organization, wishing him and his deputies  every success  in 
their enormous tasks.  
As well, I seize this occasion to congratulate and welcome the new members to the WTO especially 
the Republic of Yemen, where I am sincerely confid ent of their significant an d positive contribution 
to the goals of this organization.  
Since the Doha Ministerial Conference in 2001, member countries are seeking the accomplishment 
of its ambitious agenda in the fields of Goods, Se rvices and Agriculture negotiations. In addition to 
the agreement on to the decisions related to deve lopment, special and differential treatment to 
developing and Least Developed Countries.  
 We strongly believe in the importance of activating all the resolutions of the Doha Development 
Agenda which should be implemented as a single-undertaking with an emphasis on consensus, and 
I also support the expansion of technical assistance to developing and least-developed countries.  While we do acknowledge the existence of a numbe r of obstacles which prevent member countries 
from reaching an agreement on specific issues, we urge all parties to  do everything in their power  
in order to resolve these issues. We emphasize th e importance of the multilateral trading system, 
which is the best composition for assuring stable and open trade, removal of tariff and non-tariff 
barriers, elimination of trade distortion, and the re alization of growth and economic development.  
 To meet our obligations in the WTO, on one hand, and to correspond with our ambitions to become 
a global financial and commercial hub, on the other, the government of Kuwait along with the 
National Assembly is in the process of developing and improving all Kuwaiti legislations and laws that are related to trade.  In this regard and in order to enhance our business environment and to 
make it more attractive to domestic and foreign investors, we have issued a number of new laws 
and introduced some significant amendments on diverse existing laws. 
 WT/MIN(13)/ST/32 
 
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  Last but not least, I would like to ask all members to support us in two key issues, first recognizing 
the Arabic Language as one of WTO's official languages, as this would significantly increase our participation in works and negotiations of  the Organization, and would support more 
communications and relationships between civil communities within the Arab countries and the 
Multilateral Trading System. 
 S e c o n d ,  w e  l o o k  f o r  y o u r  s u p p o r t  f o r  t h e  r e q u e s t  o f  t h e  A r a b  L e a g u e  t o  b e c o m e  a n  o b s e r v e r  
member in the organization and in the minister ial conference, as this would enable all Arab 
countries to pursue WTO issues, and to contribute to the success of its decisions and agreements.  
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