Home ›› 06 Apr 2023 ›› Editorial
The 5th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC) was held in Doha, Qatar on March 4-9, 2023 with the theme on ‘LDC5: From Potential and Prosperity’. The once-in-a-decade conference is probably the last one for Bangladesh to join as an LDC. Earlier the 4th LDC Conference was held in Istanbul, Turkey in 2011, and the 3rd LDC conference was held in Brussels and hosted by the EU in 2001.
The first two LDC conferences were held in Paris in 1991 and in 1981. It is seen that since the last five decades, these conferences were being held regularly to take stock of the needs of the LDCs and these were hosted by developed countries with a genuine interest to support LDCs.
As in the previous conferences, the 5th one also discussed about the special needs of the LDCs including international trade, investment, financial assistance, foreign debt repayment, technology transfer, safe migration, access to climate finance etc.
Among the outcome of the five-day conference, most important is the adoption of the Doha Programme of Action (DPoA) for the LDCs, a ten-year plan to tap into the potential of LDC. Countries reinforced their commitments to the implementation of the Doha Programme of Action. New commitments to address the impact of Covid-19, return to the pathway to achieve the SDGs, address climate change, and make progress towards sustainable and irreversible graduation.
The measures in the adopted DPoA included the development of a food stockholding mechanism for the LDCs; an online university focusing on STEM education, especially for women and girls; an international investment support centre; a sustainable graduation support facility; and comprehensive multi-hazard crisis mitigation and resilience-building measures.
The 2nd part of the LDC5 included Support to achieve the SDGs, including at least USD 500 billion a year to developing countries, as well as 0.15-0.2% of gross national income (GNI) for official development assistance (ODA) from developed countries. A “new Bretton Woods moment,” including “expanding contingency financing and integrating disaster and pandemic clauses into debt instruments”; and a “revolution” in climate support were on the agenda.
A number of financial packages have been announced to support LDC in coming out of the vulnerable situation, USD 60 million, of which, USD 10 million to support the implementation of DPoA and USD 50 million to build resilience in the LDCs by Qatar. Germany pledges EUR 200 million, Canada committed CAD 59 million, European Commission announced EUR 30 million for sustainable investment in Africa. A new project by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) of USD 80 million in equity to offer green guarantees to businesses in LDCs and to bring down their cost of capital was announced. Saudi Arabia’s announcement of a USD 800 million loan package for the LDCs, among others reflects commitments towards LDCs.
In the outcome document, there were voices to make progress towards sustainable and irreversible graduation, and a sustainable graduation support facility. Also, developed nations announced a USD 500 billion a year to developing countries for official development assistance. All of these created hope for LDCs and graduating LDCs for support. However, mere announcements without proper follow-up will not mean any improvement, Bangladesh as the largest graduating largest LDC has certainly more responsibilities to acquire the benefits of LDC5. A separate GCF with less stringent procedures may bring some benefits for graduating LDCs.
From the discussion, outcome and different deliberations in the conference it appeared that digitization, more emphasis on science and education and climate change issues received priority in all the sessions. Our Prime Minister in all sessions tried to highlight the case of Bangladesh and expected support from the international community for accepting graduation challenges.
A printed book on the preparedness for graduation with momentum: strategies for coping with challenges and tapping opportunities prepared by the national committee on LDC graduation, Prime Minister’s office has also been presented to the conferences. Graduation in Bangladesh matters most both for the international community and for the country itself and thus challenges are also high.
Bangladesh as one of the LDC has utilized preferential market access at a very high rate. The TRIPS waiver has also contributed to the development of Bangladesh, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical industry now meets almost 98 per cent of the local demand at very affordable prices. In addition, Bangladesh exports pharmaceutical products to more than 100 countries. Around one-third of Bangladesh's pharma exports goes to other LDCs, which have no or very limited capacity to produce medicines. Thus, Bangladesh's pharma industry is not only contributing to the domestic public health system but also to other LDCs, which helped countries fight against various diseases, particularly the spread of communicable diseases.
Prime Minister stressed the need for the countries to have incentives and to enjoy international support measures for an extended period, as Bangladesh qualifies to exit from this list in 2026. She asked the UNDP to take lead so that countries which are graduating from LDCs would not lose all international benefits entitled to LDCs at a time. She asserted that Bangladesh is the only country in the LDC category classified among the 50 largest economies in the world, thus graduation success of Bangladesh means a lot.
One of the important events was on Global Partnership for Smooth and Sustainable Graduation: Marching towards Smart Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s role as an LDC has been very clearly pictured in the session from the presentation of the both public and private sectors.
The Smart Bangladesh concept has been developed by the government to create a more sustainable future and inclusive society for citizens by 2041 which will address social and environmental challenges and embed digital hygiene in all aspects of daily life. Smart citizens meaning they are proactive in using digital technologies use technology responsibly and sustainably, smart citizens play a critical role in creating an inclusive society.
Smart government means improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government services, creating a more connected and transparent government by using data and technology, Serving citizens, improving the delivery of public services and engaging citizens in the decision-making process. So it is a huge task, without close international partnership it is difficult.
The private sector of Bangladesh is closely working with the Government for which it needs to extend trade facilitation support services, supportive tax policies, and unlock investment constraints. In that respect, the private sector needs direct support from international organisations. Development partners such as World Bank, UNIDO, EU want to support through concerned Ministries which delays technology transfer and capacity-building support. The private sector also needs more G2P and P2P support from global partners.
Investments in research and knowledge are a must for advancing economies through productive capacity building. Very rightly, the prime minister mentioned that LDCs' average GDP expenditure for research and development remains below 0.6 per cent, and only a handful of them feature in the Global Innovation Index. At the same time, she stressed that the LDCs cannot afford to lag with the advent of the 4IR and thus, she proposed to form an International Forum involving the South-South countries to find the potential and the things to be done for the welfare of the peoples as the developed nations always do not help as per their promise.
In the last two years, the pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war weakened the strength of LDCs, Bangladesh is not an exception, Angola has already withdrawn itself for the transition process, and Salmon Island had to extend the graduation plan for three years more. Lao’s debt risk has steadily increased. The situation of other graduating LDCs has worsened. Bangladesh is also working hard for the extension of LDCs benefits for some extended years.
The writer is CEO of BUILD a Public Private Dialogue Platform. She can be contacted at ceo@buildbd.org
