The Minister of Trade and Industry, Cooperatives and Marketing, Mr. Popane Lebesa says the Multilateral Trading System (MTS) has contributed to the growth of world economy.

Mr. Lebesa said this when officially opening the meeting of Senior Officials of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Group of the WTO, which prepares for the major meeting of the WTO LDCs' Trade Ministers at the National Convention Centre on Wednesday.

Mr. Lebesa, who is also the current Chair and Coordinator of the LDCs, said MTS has enabled a number of developing countries to boost their economic and social development, however noted that the benefits have not been evenly spread as they have by-passed many developing countries, particularly LDCs.

'The evidence of this is the income distribution across the world, which is still skewed in favour of some countries,' he said.

He appealed to participants to ensure attainment of the developmental objective, bearing in mind that trade contributes to income generation and can be a tool for socio-economic development.

The Minister further said the meeting has presented LDCs with an opportunity to collectively strategise on how to ensure realistic prospects in participating in the multilateral trading system.

He also observed that there are several issues in both agriculture and Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) that still need to be clarified, adding that, "It is incumbent upon all the participants to contribute to the process in a manner that would be beneficial to the LDCs".

Mr. Lebesa urged the participants to be cognisant of the fact that millions of people in LDCs are dependent on the two sectors for their livelihood and in particular agriculture as it offers significant economic benefits for many developing countries.

A three day LDCs Trade Ministers' Conference has brought together representatives from 36 LDCs of which 28 will be represented at the Ministerial meeting on Thursday.

The outcome of the Ministers' meeting will be a Declaration and guidance to officials which could be used as a basis for consultations at the WTO.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Mr. Pakalitha Mosisili will officially open the ministers meeting on Thursday.

Source: LENA 27/02/2008