International Desk

Director-General (DG) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Bangladesh is a country which has decentralised lots of supply chains as they have created an environment by building tech parks.

“New opportunities for developing economies arise from efforts to diversify global supply chains, from reductions in trade costs through digitalization, which are creating new opportunities for services-led growth, and from efforts to de-carbonize the global economy, which are creating new sources of comparative advantage in regions abundant in renewable energy sources, and are increasing the demand for certain critical minerals, deposits of which can be found in developing economies,” she said.

The WTO DG said this at a recent press briefing at WTO headquarters.

She mentioned that improving local workforce skills, infrastructure, the business climate and the competitiveness of local supply chains helps attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and maximize its benefits to the local economy.

“More and better trade is the path of bringing people and places from the margins to the mainstream of the global economy. Trade policy alone is insufficient to achieve this goal. Complementary domestic policies are necessary to make trade – and the wider economy in general – work for everyone,” she added.

Responding to a question, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said countries, like Bangladesh and Nepal, will continue to get same benefits for some times even after the graduation from the least developed country (LDC) in 2026.

In the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference, held at Abu Dhabi, between February 26 and March 1, the ministers of member countries agreed to continue the trade benefits to a graduated LDC after its graduation, she added.