HONG KONG, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce,Industry & Technology Joseph Wong has welcomed a statement bythe APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade on the Doha DevelopmentAgenda.

    The statement reaffirmed the strong commitment of membereconomies to work towards a successful conclusion of the round byyear's-end, according to a government press release on Friday.

    Wong said the statement points to the need to agree on themodalities in agriculture and non-agricultural market access bythe end of June, which is critical to move the Doha round forward.

    At the APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade session, Hong Kongindicated its keen interest in the negotiations in the Servicesand Rules areas.

    "On Services, we are ready to follow the agreement at the HongKong Ministerial Conference last year and will put forward ourimproved offer by the end of July. We hope our trading partnerswill do the same," Wong said.

    "On Rules, in particular anti-dumping, we will continue tonegotiate in earnest and agreed to improve the current rules sothey will facilitate rather than frustrate trade and that whateverbenefits arising from improvements to market access will be fullyrealized," he added.

    Wong pledged Hong Kong will play a constructive role in thenegotiations and that it and other economies will stand to benefitsignificantly from a successful conclusion of the round. Enditem