The issues to be discussed in the two-day conference include agriculture, market access, non-agricultural market access, trade facilitation and services.

The mini-ministerial of World Trade Organisation is expected to be able to devise a common platform for the participating countries for negotiations in the forthcoming Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference, scheduled for December 13-18 in Hong Kong.

"Bangladesh is expected to play a significant role in the conference to protect the common interest of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in particular," said a commerce ministry statement here yesterday.

It said Bangladesh will focus on duty-and quota-free market access to the developed as well as developing countries, including temporary movements of natural persons.