12 Asia-Pacific LDCs join Dhaka conference today

A three-day regional conference will start in Dhaka today to identify the sectors that need more investment to flourish and help 12 least developed countries graduate to middle-income nations.

The event will also focus on financial deficits of Asia-Pacific LDCs and ways to find new domestic and international investors to reach the goal by 2020.

The Economic Relations Division in association with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs will organise the event at Sonargaon Hotel.

Fifty-five policymakers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Solomon Islands, East Timor, Tuvalu and Vanuatu will take part in the event.

The participants will discuss the ways to identify the financing challenges and develop the strategy to get the status of a middle-income country, ERD Secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin said.

The countries will also discuss the recently updated criteria for the middle-income country status and recommend key policy measures in resource mobilisation and utilisation, Mejbahuddin said.

Participants will analyse the progress in achieving sustained economic growth, reducing poverty and inequality, investing in social and physical infrastructure, diversifying exports, utilising development finance, fostering human resources development and improving institutional capacity, he said.

A country needs to progress in three indices, including gross national income, human asset and economic vulnerability, to become a middle-income country.

“The current per capita income threshold is $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,” he said.

Bangladesh is very close to the criteria of human asset index, he said.

But the country is currently lagging in economic vulnerability index, which is also achievable by 2020, he 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, according to the ERD.

There are 48 countries in the LDC category. The UN has a plan to graduate at least 24 countries from least-developed group.

Bangladesh will not lose trade benefits currently it gets from many advanced countries, if it gets the status of a middle-income country, Mejbahuddin said.