"In addition, China should and can represent interests of broad developing countries in the WTO to revise unfair rules of the trade mechanism and add new treaties to benefit the developing world," said Martin Khor, director of the Third World Network (TWN), an influential non-governmental organization.

Khor made the remarks yesterday in Beijing during a workshop about developing countries and the trade organization, which was jointly held by the Institute of World Economy and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, TWN and the United Nations Council of Trade and Development.

Statistics from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation show the actual foreign direct investment (FDI) in China in the first 11 months of this year has increased from 2001's US$43.7 billion to US$49.99 billion, up more than 14 per cent year-on-year.

Ali Mchumo, former Tanzanian ambassador to the WTO, said WTO remains a system full of imbalance between developed and developing economies and there are a number of unfair treaties against developing economies.

Bhagirath Lal Das, a legal professor from India, said China should co-operate with other developing economies to change unfavorable WTO rules.

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2002)