Bangladesh finally gets nod to graduate from LDC

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has approved resolution to allow Bangladesh to graduate to the developing country grouping from least developed country (LDC) category 45 years after it was included in the category.

The UNGA adopted the historic resolution at its 76 session, said a press release from the finance ministry.

"This is a historic milestone to the development journey of Bangladesh," said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the statement.

This outstanding achievement has come through the visionary and determined leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said.

"This is the reflection of the progress for more than decade. People of all walks of life is part of this success," he said.

Born following bloody liberation war with abject poverty and food shortage, Bangladesh emerged gradually over the years proving the much-talked about hypothesis regarding Bangladesh as test case of development wrong.

When the UN included Bangladesh in the LDC group in 1975, the country's poverty rate was 83 per cent. The rate of poverty declined over the years and it was 20.5 per cent in 2019-20 before the pandemic devastated jobs and income opportunities for many.

Independent research organisations found that the coronavirus deteriorated poverty situation with which the government does not agree.

Earlier by the end of February this year, Bangladesh became qualified to graduate into a developing nation from an LDC and United Nations Committee for Development Policy (UN CDP) recommended the graduation of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is now scheduled to officially become a developing country in 2026 as the UN committee recommended that the country should get five years, instead of three, to prepare for the transition due to the impact of the Covid-19 on its economy. 

The country has met, for the second time, all the three eligibility criteria for the graduation involving per capita income, human assets index (HAI), and economic and environmental vulnerability index (EVI).

The UN CDP in its second triennial review assessed the economy of Bangladesh and found a strong fulfillment of all three required conditions for the graduation.

Bangladesh was well ahead in the gross national income (GNI) criterion: its per capita income was $1,827 in 2019 against the threshold of $1,222.

In the HAI criterion, the country's score stood at 75.4 points, well above the requirement of 66. In the EVI, a country's score has to be less than 32. Bangladesh's score was 27.3.