WT/MIN(13)/ST/39  
5 December 2013  
(13-6683)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR MAHBUB AHMED  
SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF COMMERCE 
BANGLADESH  
I congratulate you, Mr. Chair, on your election. It is my privilege to thank the people and 
Government of Indonesia for making excellent a rrangement and the gracious hospitality extended 
to us since our arrival in this attractive city of Bali. We welcome His Excellency Mr. Roberto Azevêdo as Director General of the WTO and express our thanks to him for his 
dynamic and active leadership in engaging the entire membership in discussion for the possible 
Bali Package consisting of three pillars. Before I go to my deliberations, let me express Bangladesh’s full supports to the statement made by the coordinator on behalf of the LDC Group.  
 
As a founder member of the WTO, Bangladesh is committed to the multilateral trading system and has always been very active in advancing it. We  firmly believe that WTO with its development 
emphasis has stimulated the less developed countries' economic development through increased 
trade and will continue to do so in future. Despite a wide range of formidable challenges Bangladesh has so far accomplished outstanding successes in terms of accelerating her GDP growth rate, alleviating poverty, integrating wi th the global economy and achieving significant 
progress in various socio-economic indicators . The overarching goal of recently adopted 
Perspective Plan of Bangladesh is to take the country forward through achieving the MDGs. In our 
journey towards achieving this goal, trade has been playing a very crucial role. We strongly believe 
that a rule-based multilateral trading system with increased market access opportunities in trade 
in goods and services will help us achieving this goal.  
The Doha Development Agenda was launched with an ambitious work programme and a strong 
determination to focus on development. Over the last five years we have not witnessed much progress in DDA. Nevertheless, during the last two Ministerial Conferences we could address some 
of the pressing needs of the least developed countries. We were encouraged to observe that since 
April 2013 all members have been constructively engaged in discussions with an aim to come up 
with a deliverable in the areas of trade facilitati on, agriculture and development. We have before 
us a number of documents as a Bali Package with various degree of support from the WTO 
membership. We expect that a package will be adopted in this Ministerial.  
 As you are aware, LDC Ministers have adopted a Declaration on 2
nd December urging the Members 
to adopt the decisions on the LDC issues. Bangladesh calls upon all WTO members to adopt those 
d e c i s i o n s .  W e  u r g e  M e m b e r  c o u n t r i e s  t o  d r a w  u p  a  p o s t  B a l i  r o a d  m a p  o f  f u t u r e  a c t i v i t i e s  f o r  advancing Doha development agenda keeping deve lopment as the centerpiece in all elements.  
 
We appreciate Members' supports for further extens ion of TRIPS Waiver for LDCs. It will give us 
further space to develop and enhance capacity to comply with TRIPS obligations.  
Trade-related capacity building is very crucial for Bangladesh and LDCs. While we appreciate 
efforts of the international community, we feel that EIF and Aid for Trade initiatives need to be strengthened. 
 WT/MIN(13)/ST/39 
 
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  I take the opportunity to welcome Yemen as new member of the WTO. We look forward to 
welcoming more countries in our family.   Finally, let me express my sincere thanks to all Members for their relentless efforts to move 
multilateral trade agenda forward and uphold the credibility of the WTO system.  
  
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