The program is co-sponsored by China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), the WTO Secretariat and the Asia Development Bank.

Shi Guansheng, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the launching ceremony that the establishment of the program marked China's debut in undertaking a regional role among WTO members, as well as the WTO working with regional development banks to provide technical assistance to its developing members.

Multilateral trade negotiation was becoming increasingly complex and technical, Shi said. It was pivotal for developing members to increase their technical capacity in trade negotiations to protect their legal rights and interests and become involved in the new international rule-making process.

Setting up the training courses was considered one of the WTO's strategies to help build up its developing members' technical capacity for participating in the multilateral trading system, Raymond Krommenacker, the regional coordinator for Asia and Pacific countries in the WTO, said at the ceremony.

Twenty-nine senior trade officers from WTO members in the Asia-Pacific region are due to take the courses, studying the maintenance and development of multilateral trade systems, stimulation of foreign trade and development of a national economy.

Krommenacker said the setting up of the advanced training courses in Beijing was "a positive illustration of the building of the strategic partnership and synergies" between the WTO and its developing members.

The first courses on trade policy studies are due to begin in April 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2002)