Bangla baton passes on to Nepal for LDC Group

The 64th UN General Assembly meet

It is Nepal’s turn to chair the 50-member Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group during the ongoing 64th General Assembly of the United Nations. Bangladesh will hand over the reins to Nepal.
“It’ll help us to raise the issues of the LDCs at the UNGA. We can play a decisive role on behalf of these nations,” said foreign minister Sujata Koirala.
Developed nations, including Britain, want to forge an alliance with the LDCs to press emerging economic giants, like China and India, to make firm commitments for reducing the Green House Gas (GHG) emission.
The LDC Group comprises countries that are most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change due to the increased GHG emission of both developed and developing countries.
The LDC alliance with the developed countries will help mount pressure on China and India, which are one of the major GHG emitters.
The UN and the World Bank have also urged developed nations to shoulder "the moral responsibility".
Bangladesh, the outgoing chair, will seek compensation for LDCs.
As per UN’s charter, the LDCs are those nations that exhibit the lowest indicators of socio-economic and Human Development Index ratings. Ten Asian nations are a part of the LDCs.
Nepal ranks as 115th-largest economy in the world on the basis of its GDP that is over $12 billion.
From 2004 through 2006, for example, Bangladesh was elected by the LDC countries to chair the group. During this period, it was able to bring the disparate group of nearly 50 LDCs from Africa and Asia together under a common agenda and negotiating strategy, which in turn enabled the group to negotiate a special LDC Fund to support adaptation planning in these countries.
The Foreign Minister will also attend another meeting of the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC). Nepal will chair both the LDC and LLDC Groups for three years.
Koirala plans to strengthen the foreign missions, adding that the economic diplomacy was the need of the hour
“My recent visits to both India and China have been successful. I’ve managed to convince the investors in our neighbouring countries to invest in Nepal,” she said.
The government has allocated Rs 50 million for economic diplomacy in this fiscal.
The foreign missions — especially in the West Asia and Malaysia — are under tremendous pressure since the ongoing global downturn led to the job loss for thousands of Nepali migrant workers.

The 10 Asian LDCs:
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Cambodia
East-Timor
Laos
Maldives
Myanmar
Nepal
Yemen

LANDLOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: Facts and Figures 2006
Highlights
Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are widely dispersed around the globe:
15 are located in Africa
12 in Asia
2 in Latin America
2 in Central and Eastern Europe
Despite their location on four different continents, all 31 LLDCs share common problems of geographical remoteness and dependence on trade and transport systems in neighbouring and coastal countries. The location of LLDCs in the interior of continents requires their export and import goods to travel hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers to and from the closest maritime ports. However, transit dependence increases transactions costs and reduces competitiveness in world market. This discourages investors and diminishes the capacity of LLDCs’ to reap benefits from the international division of labour. Not surprisingly, most landlocked developing countries are very poor.
Most of them are far from reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to primary education, infant mortality, access to safe water and the primary goal of poverty eradication. In fact, several landlocked developing countries are even moving further away from reaching these objectives.
For landlocked developing countries, promoting efficient transit systems in order to lower trade transaction and transport costs, in particular, is an important objective. However, the building of supply capacities for goods and services that are not sensitive to distance and a stronger regional trade expansion are also major prerequisites for a more beneficial integration of these countries into the international trading system.
The international community has focused on the specific development constraints of LLDCs for many decades. The United Nations Millennium Declaration urged their development partners to increase financial and technical assistance to LLDCs to help them overcome the impediments of geography. This call was echoed at major United Nations conferences in Brussels, Monterrey, Johannesburg and, particularly in Almaty, which was solely dedicated to the problems of landlocked and transit developing countries.
The 2003 Almaty International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked and Transit Developing Countries and Donor Countries and International Financial and Development Institutions on Transit Transport Cooperation helped forge a global partnership to tackle the economic marginalization of LLDCs. UNCTAD is fully committed to shoulder its obligations for the implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action, including its mid-term review process.
This publication presents key economic, social and trade information on all 31 LLDCs. It helps to understand the development challenge faced by these countries and underlines the need for international assistance to them.