Accra, Dec. 20, GNA- Ghana and UNCTAD has signed the Host country Agreement for the twelfth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XII) to be held at the Accra International Conference Centre from April 20 to 25, 2008. Mr Joe Baidoe-Ansah, Minister of Trade, Industry and Private Sector Development signed for Ghana while Mrs Lakshmi Puri, Acting Deputy Secretary-General, for UNCTAD. A press release issued by the UNCTAD said the signing took place at the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Ghana on December 18, 2007. It quoted Mr Baidoe-Ansah as saying that it would be a great honour for Ghana to host the twelfth session of the UNCTAD, ant that it would also reflect the leadership role the country has played and continues to play on the world stage in the dialogue and debate on trade and development.

The Minister said "UNCTAD twelfth will be the first major UN conference ever to have been held in Ghana, and indeed the whole of West Africa".

"The need for an efficient and effective planning and organisational machinery is absolutely critical". The government has been working very closely with the UNCTAD secretariat to that end, the statement said. The Minister emphasized that the signing of the Host country Agreement reaffirms the full commitment of the government of Ghana to the successful organisation of the conference. According to the release, Mrs Lakshmi Puri, stated that UNCTAD XII represents a historical moment in the life of Ghana's development. "The conference would enhance Ghana's capacity to organise major conferences and summits, and will see the country's emergence as a conference destination on a global scale. The UNCTAD XII theme, "addressing the opportunities and challenges of globalisation for development", is at the heart of all governments' preoccupations, particularly in African and other developing countries, as to how to maximize the benefits of globalisation and minimize its cost, it said. It said, given that the commodity economy is an important focus of the twenty-first century, UNCTAD XII would identify policies that could be implemented at regional and national levels to help

reach markets and to overcome market access barriers. UNCTAD, the UN focal point for trade and development and related issues in the field of finance, investment and technology, holds its Ministerial-level conference every four years to set the organisation's priorities and guidelines for action. The conference is UNCTAD's highest governing body and also includes a high-level debate on current issues involving trade, investment and development.