Lots need to be done for sustainable transition from LDC: UN official

Meeting all three criteria for graduating from LDC by now, Bangladesh will most likely graduate formally to the next level of development when the UN reviews the country’s status in 2021.

Saying this, a top regional official of the United Nations, however, pointed out that the country needs to do a lot more to attain a sustainable transition from the status of least developed country (LDC) to a lower middle income country.

“There are still a lot of challenges. There is the challenge of climate change, of job creation, of urbanisation and inequality,” Haoliang Xu, UN assistant secretary-general and UNDP regional director for Asia and the Pacific, told a media briefing at the UN Women office in Dhaka on Sunday.

He mentioned that among those who made graduation possible in recent times, Bangladesh is a major country with 160 million population that meets the graduation criteria. Only five nations made such transition in the past 40 years, he added.

“This week we are celebrating Bangladesh meeting the criteria for development which is a milestone. UNDP and many agencies have been involved in Bangladesh’s development since its independence. We are very proud to have been able to support the government and the people of Bangladesh in achieving this milestone,” said the UN official.

Referring to the move towards a developed country by 2041, Haoliang Xu insisted that Bangladesh’s economy needs to diversify and the country needs to invest in research and development, to develop its technology sector and increase it competitiveness. “But we have every confidence Bangladesh will achieve this goal,” he said.

The UN official added, “Bangladesh has achieved a very good level of human development. Social indicators are better than many of the neighbouring countries. Bangladesh didn’t achieve all MDGs (UN Millennium Development Goals), but did achieve some critical MDGs.”

The UN official also raised the issue of education, saying, “We have to look at the education system so that it does not only produce students with the traditional kind of knowledge of math, language skills and so on, but also entrepreneurship skills, critical thinking, innovative thinking, and leadership skills.”

Dwelling on the Rohingya issue, Haoliang Xu said, “We are all in this together to ensure the humanitarian needs are met... We recognise that this large influx of this refugee population also has an impact on the lives of local communities... There is the impact on the environment, deforestation. This is very visible.”

The UN is concerned about the humanitarian aspect of the crisis and impact on the local communities, he added.

In reply to a question about apprehension of losing benefits for graduation from the LDC status, he said as Bangladesh entered the next stage, the UN would be assessing the impact of graduation from LDC. “There still is a lot of time to prepare.”

“LDCs are not the best place for investment. Institutions are not strong. The perception of LDCs is not positive. Being a normal developed country will send a strong message that Bangladesh is on the right track, it is the right place for investment,” the UN official said.

He also emphasised the need for improving the quality of institutions, of governance, to invest in infrastructure.

Asked if gender-based violence had any impact on the development process, he said “Bangladesh has made significant strides in gender equality when it comes to income, women labour participation in the economic sector, there are positive advancements in gender empowerment. Gender-based violence is not unique to Bangladesh. The political leadership and the civil society need to address this. They have to be intolerant of gender-based violence.”

The UN assistant secretary-general, Haoliang Xu, arrived in Bangladesh to attend the LDC graduation ceremony and also to visit the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.