. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/85 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6076) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM 
 
Statement by his Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah
 
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade  
   I would like to thank the Chairman, and th e Chief Executive, the Executive Council and the 
people of Hong Kong for receiving us with such courtesy and hospitality.  Thank you very much 
indeed.  It is a pleasure to be here in one of our region's most famous centres of business, commerce 
and international trade.   May I also take this opportunity to add my own welcome to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and 
the Kingdom of Tonga on becoming Members of the World Trade Organization.  
 What this meeting means to us can be very briefly put. 
  Brunei Darussalam is a small country and our in fluence naturally reflects that.  Like all our 
colleagues, our concern is to do what we can to help this meeting reach a successful conclusion.  
Above and beyond that, however, we value the World Trade Organization for its own sake. 
 
 We see it as one of the most important pillars of  world order.  For us, it reflects our people's 
commitment to multilateralism.  By this, we mean  sharing experiences, learning from each other and 
working together in partnership.  We mean di alogue and negotiation no matter how difficult and 
frustrating the process may be and, above all, we mean diplomacy, compromise and consensus.  So, 
we come here to support this way of working out the very complex problems of world trade. 
 
 In this spirit, we have two simple hopes.   The first concerns the technical aspects of international trade negotiations.  
 We respect their complexity and the politi cal framework within which they are set.  
Recognizing this, we are encouraged that there has been progress made in the negotiations in Geneva.  
Like all developing nations, we would like to see th is meeting build on that success and make further 
progress towards completing the Doha Round.  We therefore hope that the framework I have mentioned will find room for the equa lly complex principle of "fairness". 
 
 We use the term "fairness" because that is the one our people constantly use.  In using it here, 
we also express our second hope for this meeting.   We hope that this meeting will increase our peop le's confidence in multilateral action in many 
other essential areas. 
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  We believe such confidence will only come if  the Doha Development Agenda becomes far 
more than just an "agenda".  By this, we mean r eal and visible "development" and by "development", 
we mean changes that improve day-to-day lives in the developing world.   We fear a situation emerging that amounts to "every country and every region for itself".  In 
developing nations, this would aff ect long-term peace, stability and security.  It could lead to many 
social and political problems.   So, our second hope is a very important overall one.  
 We hope to leave this meeting able to assure  our people that the work of the WTO can offer 
them confidence in multilateralism and world order.   For us, this confidence is as important as the de tails of any specific negotiations and we will 
do all we can to work with fellow Members to strengthen it. 
 
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