Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed yesterday said Bangladesh is expected to come out of the list of least developed countries to become a developing nation in March this year.

“Bangladesh has almost met the three criteria to become a developing country,” Ahmed told reporters after a meeting with the visiting former director general of WTO, Pascal Lamy, at his secretariat.

The three criteria are: per capita income, human assets and economic vulnerability indexes of the United Nation's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that reviews the list of LDCs every three years and makes recommendations on the inclusion and graduation of eligible countries.

According to the UN's graduation thresholds set at the triennial review in 2015, gross national income (GNI) per capita of a country has to be $1,242 or above. Bangladesh's GNI per capita rose to $1,610 at the end of fiscal 2016-17.

The GNI per capita is the value of a country's final income in a year, divided by its population. It reflects the average income of a country's citizens.

On the other two indexes -- human assets and economic vulnerability -- a country has to score 66 or above and 32 or below respectively.

According to the commerce minister, Bangladesh's score in the human assets index stood at 70 and in the economic vulnerability index 26, meaning the country meets all the criteria.

Ahmed hoped the ECOSOC will consider Bangladesh's graduation from the LDCs in its next evaluation meeting to be held in March this year.

"And, Bangladesh will become a developing nation in 2021 when the country will celebrate its 50 years of independence," said the minister.

Ahmed also talked about the generalised scheme of preferences or GSP, a duty-free benefit provided by the European Union to LDCs. When a country graduates from LDC, the EU gives it “GSP plus” facility that allows vulnerable developing countries to pay fewer or no duties on exports to the EU.

He expects that after the graduation the EU will offer Bangladesh GSP plus facility. He also sought Pascal Lamy's cooperation in this regard. Senior officials of the commerce ministry were present at the meeting.

According to the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), which is a subsidiary body of the ECOSOC and responsible for reviewing the status of LDCs, its recommendations are not exclusively based on the criteria scores. The committee said complementary country-specific information (impact assessment and UNCTAD vulnerability profile) and the views of the government are also taken into account.

The graduation thresholds, as determined by the committee, must be met for any two of the three criteria in two consecutive triennial reviews.

Alternatively, the GNI per capita of the country is at least twice the graduation threshold in two consecutive triennial reviews (income-only criterion).

A CDP mission in mid-October confirmed Dhaka that the country is likely, for the first time, to meet the three criteria for graduation at the next CDP review in March 2018.

It said Bangladesh, the largest LDC in terms of population and economic size, looks likely to leave the LDC category by 2024, propelled by better health and education, lower vulnerability and an economic boom.