The Bali outcomes opened up critically important possibilities for the LDCs in general and Bangladesh in particular, the International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh said in its news bulletin yesterday.

The decisions taken at the ninth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation in Bali may come as a relief for the low-income countries, including Bangladesh, as they try to trade out of poverty, ICCB said.

The three-day event beginning on December 3 has created a new benchmark for the faltering Doha Development Round, according to the chamber.

Implications of the decisions relating to trade facilitation should be examined in right earnest to understand the potential for Bangladesh, it said.

Operationalisation of the least developed country (LDC) service waivers holds the maximum potential for Bangladesh as it may radically change the employment situation in the country, the chamber said.

A high-level meeting dealing with requests from the LDCs regarding opening up certain service sector to the LDCs on a priority basis is to be convened soon, it said.

“Bangladesh has to be ready for that with its request proposals by then. In this connection, one has to do in-depth studies so as to identify the supply-side capacity of the country, and prepare necessary plans and programmes for human resource development.”

The Bali decisions package has three important components: agriculture and cotton, trade facilitation and development.

The third component— development— contains three sets of decisions having direct relevance for the LDCs, including DF-QF, rule of origin (RoO) of exports, and operatio-nalisation of the waiver accorded to export of services from the LDCs.

Streamlining of the RoO of manufactured exports by the preference giving country had been a longstanding demand of the LDCs.