. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(09)/INF/5 
23 October 2009 
 
 (09-5258) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Seventh Session Geneva, 30 November-2 December 2009  
 
  
SEVENTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
 
Information Circular No.5
 
 
Documentation - A Greener Approach 
 
  In line with the ambition, as articulated by bot h the Director-General and the General Council 
Chairman, to strive towards a down-scaled and mo re cost-effective Ministerial Conference at the 
Centre International de Conférences de Genève (C ICG) from 30 November to 2 December, a series of 
measures will be introduced to ensure an envir onmentally greener and ecologically more responsible 
meeting.  In the past, the use of paper in Ministerial Conferences has been massive; documents circulated during some of them represented a tota l of as much as 4 million pages. A combination of 
factors makes the Seventh Ministerial Conference a real opportunity to  discontinue the use of large 
amounts of paper and avoid a waste of resources, thus  contributing to a further greening of the WTO's 
activities.   With the Conference being held in Geneva , where the majority of Delegations have 
Permanent Missions, there is less need to install a full-scale paper-based system at the CICG, which 
has severe space constraints. A limited service simila r to the documentation counter in front of CRI 
and CRII will operate on the first floor of the Conf erence Centre. For those delegations that do not 
have offices in Geneva, provision will be made for a dedicated working area equipped with computers 
and printers at the CICG.   Documentation issued in advance of the Confer ence will be made available to Delegations in 
the usual manner, including at the CWR.  The offici al records of the Plenary as well as the Working 
Sessions will be made available after the meetings  as official WTO documents in all three official 
languages as per normal practice.   During the Conference, it is expected that th e volume of documents to be distributed will 
considerably less than at past conferences.  Do cuments will be made available through the on-line 
documentation service.  Documents Online  will be updated several times daily throughout the 
Conference, starting 30 November 2009 at 09.00 (CET ).  In addition, last-minute documents will be 
posted immediately in Hot off the Press  on the Members' website.  However, there will be no 
pigeon-hole system at the CICG. For this approach  to be successful, the active co-operation of all 
Delegations is indispensable. To facilitate the u se of portable electronic equipment to consult 
documents in the CICG, specific measures are bei ng taken to ensure that Wi-Fi connections are 
adequately boosted.  WT/MIN(09)/INF/5 
Page 2  
 
   All public documents emanating from the Minist erial Conference will also be posted in the 
Ministerial section of the WTO Website at http://www.wto.org
.  Ministers' Plenary statements will be 
posted there immediately in their original language a nd form, and translated versions will be available 
as soon as possible.  In this respect, delegations are re quested to transmit statemen ts to the Secretariat, 
in advance of delivery of the statement by the Minister, via e-mail to the following address:  
statements@wto.org . 
  In adopting this greener approach to the 7
th Ministerial Conference WTO Members will be 
sending a signal of environmental and financial responsibility to the worl d and delegations are 
thanked in advance for their cooperation and understanding. 
 
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