Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, head of the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other international organisations, has affirmed that Vietnam together with ASEAN member states and other WTO members support and congratulate Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her election as WTO General Director.

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai (Photo: VNA)

Addressing a special session of the WTO General Council held online on February 15, Ambassador Mai stressed that Vietnam will closely with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and believed that she has enough qualifications to helm WTO through present challenges and achieve targets of the multilateral trade system.

At the event, Okonjo-Iweala expressed her hope to work with member states to shape and carry out necessary policies to reboot the global economy which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

When taking office as the seventh WTO General Director on March 1, Okonjo-Iweala will become the first woman and the first African to be elected as a WTO leader.

She used to serve as Finance Minister of Nigeria and former Managing Director of the World Bank. As Chair of the Global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), she is also a global financial expert, an economist and an expert on international development with over 30 years of working experience across the world.