Siem Reap To Host LDC Roundtable Trade Meeting

Cambodia’s Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak (right) shakes hands with Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, on January 23 in Davos, Switzerland, at the WTO’s annual meeting. Cambodia has been selected to chair the Global Coordination Bureau of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), with Siem Reap hosting a roundtable meeting to help coordinate the trade interests of 48 LDCs in March, according to Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak. “The members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) were confident in us and chose Cambodia, at the recently concluded WTO annual meeting, to coordinate the LDCs,” Sorasak said at a national workshop on LDCs. “Cambodia has an obligation to coordinate the world’s 48 LDCs to promote their interests in the global economy,” added the Minister. “This roundtable will discuss and search for solutions on a number of issues affecting LDCs. It will also gauge the feelings of LDCs that want to become members of the WTO ... [and] be an opportunity for LDCs to learn from one another, and also from Cambodia.” Sorasak noted that, as an LDC, Cambodia became a WTO member in 2004. “With its positive outcome of socio-economic development, Cambodia has become a role model for other LDCs,” he said. For more on this story, click here.