Press/218
10 April 2001
Hong Kong, China donates 1 million Swiss francs to the WTO for developing country technical assistance

The Government of Hong Kong, China, last week, contributed chf 1 million to help finance WTO technical assistance activities in favour of developing countries.

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This voluntary contribution by Hong Kong, China will be used to conduct technical assistance courses and seminars on trade policy issues and WTO rules. The contribution will be spent over a period of two years and will be principally directed at economies in the Asia-Pacific region.

In welcoming Hong Kong, China's contribution, WTO Director-General, Mr. Mike Moore said: “I would like heartily to thank Hong Kong, China for its generous donation. This donation will be used to assist developing Members of the WTO better to participate in the work of the organization. As Members continue to prepare for the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference to take place in Qatar in November, technical assistance for developing Members is vitally important.”

Ever since its creation in 1995, the WTO has been collecting voluntary contributions of this kind to help poorer countries participate actively in the WTO and take advantage of the new opportunities in international trade offered by the WTO Agreements. These funds are administered by the WTO Secretariat.