September 24 this year. Alan Woolf, Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), visited Almaty, where he delivered a lecture at the University of International Business (UIB). The main theme of the lecture was the role of the WTO in the rapidly changing modern world. The WTO is an important platform for discussing such topical issues as the growth of protectionist measures restricting trade, financial crisis, electronic commerce, environmental protection. WTO member countries come to understand that modern realities require the Organization to provide flexible and timely solutions. In this regard, more and more WTO member countries, as never before, show the political will to institutional change in the above issues.

In his speech, Alan Wolf stressed the active participation of Kazakhstan in the work of the WTO. Despite the fact that the country is a young member of the WTO, Kazakhstan makes a significant contribution to the work of the WTO, in particular, to the work of the Organization for Technical Cooperation.

This year, Kazakhstan led the negotiating group on the further reform of the WTO rules on trade in services. The service market has tremendous potential for growth in trade, therefore, liberalization of trade in this area can give an impetus to the economic growth of all WTO members.

The Deputy Director General on behalf of the WTO thanked UIB for a fruitful partnership in the implementation of the WTO Regional Trade Policy Course for the countries of Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. More than 70 civil servants took part in regional courses and increased their knowledge in this field.

In conclusion, he noted the special role of Kazakhstan in the international trade system in connection with the election of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference as the country. The Ministerial Conference is the highest governing body of the WTO, which makes the most important decisions affecting the trade policy of virtually all countries of the world.

Source : https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/economy/press/news/details/10911?lang=kk