China hopes the World Trade Organization seminar will accelerate the Doha round, said Yi Xiaozhun, Chinese assistant minister of commerce in Beijing Monday.

Yu spoke during the opening ceremony of a WTO seminar for Asia and Pacific senior government officials, the first WTO regional activity undertaken by China.

The recently-concluded fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, failed to address some concerns of the developing member countries and to meet targeted results due to heavily divided positions, said Yi, adding that it was "a really discouraging outcome."

He expressed the hope this seminar would be conducive to reviewing the progress that has been made and the issues that had not been solved.

As a member of the large developing community, Yi noted, China shared fundamental interests with others.

"We are ready and willing to exchange views with other developing members and learn from each other through technical cooperation and capacity building activities under the WTO framework."

It was beneficial not only for safeguarding the common interests of the developing members, but also to maintain the stability of the multilateral trading system and promote its balanced development, he said.

Twenty-nine senior trade officials from WTO member states and observers from the Asia-Pacific region are attending the six-day seminar. They are expected to discuss a new round of negotiations and seek opportunities for members to compromise.

The seminar, at the joint sponsorship of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the WTO Secretariat and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, opened in March 31but was suspended by the outbreak of the SARS epidemic.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2003)