Bangladesh to table resolution for LDCs at UNESCAP for smooth transition support

Bangladesh will table a resolution at the ongoing 74th UNESCAP ministerial session at Bangkok to reaffirm its call for support from international community for Asia-Pacific LDCs for their smooth and sustainable graduation.

Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the UNESCAP and Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem said she would be tabling the resolution on Tuesday.

She was speaking at a high-level event on the sidelines on Monday to showcase Bangladesh’s recent eligibility for graduation from LDCs status last March as well as to highlight its sustained socio-economic successes over the past decade under the political leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.

State Minister for Finance MA Mannan thanked Bangladesh’s bilateral and multilateral development partners on behalf of the prime minister and underlined that graduation of the LDCs of the Asia and the Pacific should be coupled with appropriate package of trade, FDI and aid measures and benefits to be phased out gradually as per the development needs of the LDC concerned. 

The Embassy of Bangladesh in Bangkok, UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Office and UNESCAP jointly organized the event where Asia-Pacific leaders highly praised Bangladesh for its extraordinary socio-economic successes leading to its LDC graduation eligibility,  the embassy said.

State Minister Mannan chaired the event at a high-level panel discussion titled, “Breaking the inequality trap towards a sustainable LDC graduation: Perspectives from Bangladesh and the region”.

Panelists included Fiame Naomi Mataafa, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa, a Pacific  country that has already graduated from LDC in 2011, Ly Thuch, Senior Minister of Cambodia, an ASEAN LDC that is being considered for graduation eligibility in 2021,  Kobsak Pootrakool, Minister of Thailand, an MIC that is targeting to come out Middle Income Trap,  Secretary of State for Economic Affairs of the Laos People’s Republic, an ASEAN LDC that has successfully completed its second triennial review for LDC graduation and Dasho Sonam Tshong, Foreign Secretary of Bhutan, a landlocked South Asian LDC that has successfully completed its second triennial review for graduation in 2023.

Hongjoo Hahm, Deputy Executive Secretary of UNESCAP,  Valierie Cliff, Deputy Regional Director of UNDP Asia Pacific Regional office and Manuela Francisco, Head of Trade and Development for Asia-Pacific of the World Bank also spoke on the occasion.

A Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh Nahida Sobhan presented the key note paper at the side event.

The sideline event was attended by leaders of delegations and ambassadors and permanent representatives of more than 40 UNESCAP member states as well as heads of UN specialised agencies and civil society representatives from ASEAN countries.

In their statements, all graduating LDCs sought continuation of GSP and ODA benefits for additional years even after their graduation to prevent graduated countries slide back to economic vulnerabilities, the embassy said.