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Trade and economy

Commonwealth Secretary-General attends WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva  

The Commonwealth Secretary-General, The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC, joined Ministers from across the world in attending the Opening Session of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) at the WTO headquarters in Geneva on 12 June 2022. The Secretary-General attended as a special guest of the Conference Chair, Kazakhstan.
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Commonwealth Secretary-General hails long-lasting partnership with East Africa ahead of CHOGM

Governments and the business community across the Commonwealth are set to meet for the first and largest in-person gathering at the Commonwealth Business Forum, held alongside CHOGM in Kigali later this month. Ahead of the Forum, the Commonwealth Secretary-General addressed members of the Eastern Africa Association reaffirming the Secretariat’s commitment to supporting member governments, businesses, and the people in East Africa as they unleash their full potential
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Commonwealth helps The Gambia implement National Export Strategy

Last month, the Commonwealth Trade Competitiveness team together with the Gambia’s Ministry of Trade and the Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GiEPA) held a two-day exporters’ stakeholder forum aimed at identifying the most efficient ways to ensure the successful implementation of the Gambia’s National Export Strategy (NES) for 2021-2025.
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A new programme of action for Commonwealth LDCs

The Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA), which ran from 2011 to 2020, set out a vision and strategy for sustainable development in least developed countries (LDCs) by seeking to overcome some of their persistent development challenges. This report takes stock of the progress made and the challenges encountered by the Commonwealth’s 14 LDCs during implementation of the IPoA. At the dawn of a new programme of action in 2022, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the resurgence of new variants of the virus, the report also looks ahead to opportunities to address the special needs of Commonwealth LDCs and improve their trade and development prospects over the next decade.