Kazakhstan backs WTO ministerial decisions

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Ministers and heads of delegations of 40 World Trade Organization Member States held a meeting on investment facilitation issues during the Eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, the Kazakh MFA press service says.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo and Chinese Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan made welcoming speeches highlighting the importance of investment for strengthening the world trade and for the global economic development goals.

The Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the WTO, Ambassador Zhanar Aitzhanova, was one of the major speakers at the event. She noted that acceding to the WTO, our country assumed the obligations to facilitate the creation of a favorable regime for foreign investors and the attraction of highly qualified personnel by investors. In particular, Kazakhstan guarantees the transparency and predictability of licensing requirements and procedures for the implementation of entrepreneurial and investment activities.

Following the meeting, the heads of the delegations approved the Joint Ministerial Statement on Investment Facilitation. The document supports the adoption of the Ministerial Decision on Investment Facilitation, which calls for the initiation of substantive discussions on the issue within the WTO platform, at the current WTO Ministerial Conference.

On December 11, at the meeting on the Domestic Regulation for Trade in Services, Ms. Zhanar Aitzhanova also expressed Kazakhstan's support for the adoption of the Ministerial Decision on the Domestic Regulation for Trade in Services during the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference.

The new document is aimed at further negotiations on the draft WTO Rules on Domestic Regulation for Trade in Services to improve the licensing system for service activities. The WTO Member States will seek to adopt it during the next WTO Ministerial Conference in 2019.