LDCs must participate more in world economy

The least-developed countries, including Bangladesh, should re-evaluate their domestic policies to improve investment climate to better integrate with the global value chain, analysts said yesterday.

“You have to improve your investment environment. If you just stick there with traditional issues you will miss the opportunities,” Longyue Zhao, director of China Centre for International Development, said at a seminar in Dhaka.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung jointly organised the event, which focused on the issues of the LDCs following the ninth World Trade Organisation ministerial meet in Bali in December last year.

Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of CPD, said a final product now is not manufactured in a single country; it is made in many countries in an integrated manner.

Many countries are going for plurilateral agreements, which are agreements among more than two countries but not a great many, bypassing the WTO.

Meanwhile, Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of CPD, said LDCs also need to take steps to narrow down the differences within the group and identify specific concerns on trade facilitation matters.

Bangladesh should reduce tension with its African counterparts for duty-free and quota-free access for apparel in the US market, he said.

“Partnership with other LDCs is needed so that we can do our homework and be really prepared and safeguard our interests and concerns,” he said while presenting a paper titled 'World Trade Organisation in the post-Bali Phase: Whither LDC issues'.

Rahman said coalition building and partnerships will matter in advancing the interests of LDCs, now 49, in post-Bali negotiations at the WTO headquarters in Geneva in the run-up to the tenth WTO ministerial meet.

Of the 49 LDCs, 34 are not WTO members and the degree of openness of their economies has been on the rise. At present, 59 percent of their GDP come from the exports of goods and services. These countries account for 1.4 percent of global GDP, said Rahman. Many trade-related issues of priority interests to the LDCs have continued to remain under discussion but unaddressed over the past years, according to the CPD executive director.

Whilst the LDC package in Bali was a progress, not much has happened in the last one year, he added. Zhao said a lot of new issues have come up since the launch of Doha Round. At the same time, many opportunities have also opened up.

Developing countries and LDCs may need to change, re-evaluate their issues to determine the most important ones, he said.

Taking the reality under consideration, a new round of talks may be initiated through a quick but meaningful conclusion of the Doha round of negotiations, Bhattacharya said, adding that it has to be concluded by safeguarding the interests of LDCs.

CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan; Chairman of Washinton-based Cordell Hull Institute Richard O Cunningham; and Chair Professor of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations Anwarul Hoda, also spoke.