Bangladesh is going to host a three-day regional conference to assess the progress and find out the financing gaps to graduate from the least developed country category to middle income one, officials of the Economic Resources Division said. ERD, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs will jointly organise the conference to be held in Dhaka on October 28-30, they said.
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‘Bangladesh along with some other countries has already made commitment to graduate from LDC to middle income country by 2020,’ a senior official of the ERD told New Age on Sunday.
Now, the government needs to estimate the financial resources needed to meet the gaps for graduation and identify the international and domestic sources to raise the required resources, he said.
Twelve LDCs from Asia and Pacific region which committed to graduate to middle income countries will attend the meeting, officials said.
The countries will discuss the recently updated criteria for graduation and recommend key policy measures in resource mobilisation and utilisation, they said.
At different sessions of the conference, the progress and challenges encountered by the LDCs of the region in their efforts to graduate from their LDC status will also be discussed.
They will also assess the progress made in key areas such as achieving sustained economic growth, reducing poverty and inequalities, investing in social and physical infrastructure, diversifying exports, mobilising and effectively utilising development finance, fostering human resources development and improving institutional capacity.
Officials said that there were three indices such as gross national income, human asset and economic vulnerability for graduating from LDC category.
The current per capita income threshold is US$ 1,190 set by the United Nations which the country has already achieved.
But the threshold is reviewed every three years and the next review period is 2015 when the threshold may be increased, officials said.
Bangladesh is very close to the criteria of human asset index, they said.
But the country has slightly lagged behind in economic vulnerability index and that is also achievable if political situation remains stable, they said.
The government has also prepared a graduation strategy for coming out from the LDC category and a high-powered committee led by cabinet secretary was formed to oversee and guide the implementation of the strategy, they added.
Policy makers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, East-Timor, Bhutan, among others, will attend the meeting.
According to the United Nations, there are 48 countries in the LDC category.
UN has a plan to graduate at least 24 countries from LDC category.
Bangladesh, however, will lose a set of trade benefits if it graduates from LDC category, officials said.
Bangladesh currently gets duty-free and quota-free duty benefits under GSP from many advanced countries and regions including European Union. It also gets concessional loans and grants from international lenders and development partners.
-With New Age input
