Pakistan's Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has flown to Paris to attend the Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), says an official statement. A special invitation was extended to Khan by Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis as Chair of the OECD's 2006 MCM and OECD Secretary General Donald J. Johnston. Khan would participate in the Trade Session of the meeting. The invitation is in recognition of Khan's role as a facilitator during the WTO Ministerial negotiations in Hong Kong last December. The theme of the Paris meeting is “Delivering Prosperity.” The Trade Session will discuss the follow up to the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong. The participants will focus on the final hurdles to overcome in order to meet the July deadline, allowing for a conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations by the end of the year. The participants would also address OECD's work on trade and on underlying trade-related issues, which have an impact on domestic policies such as the work on structural adjustment. Selected emerging and developing economies have been invited to send representatives to some sessions of the meetings.
