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Published on February 27, 2021
The United Nations Committee for Development Policy has recommended Bangladesh's graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status along with Nepal and Lao PDR.
Taffere Tesfachew, chair of the CDP subgroup on LDCs, shared the decision of recommendation at a briefing last night after the second triennial review of the LDC category of UN CDP.
The 5-day review meeting began on February 22.
Bangladesh has met, for the second time, all the three eligibility criteria for graduation involving income per capita, human assets, and economic and environmental vulnerability.
Myanmar and Lao PDR also met the graduation criteria for the second consecutive time. Nepal met the criteria in 2018. The UN CDP however deferred the decision on Myanmar and Timore-Leste to the 2024 triennial review.
The UN panel deferred recommending Myanmar for graduation due to concerns on negative impacts of the state of emergency declared by the military on the country's development trajectory and graduation preparation.
After the recommendation by the UN committee for Bangladesh to become a developing nation, the proposal will be sent to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for endorsement in June.
The UN General Assembly is scheduled to approve the proposal in September this year.
In view of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, the CDP recommended that Bangladesh and two other countries get five years, till 2026, to prepare for the transition to a developing country instead of three years.
Bangladesh was well ahead in the gross national income (GNI) criterion: its per capita income was nearly $1,827 in 2020 against the threshold of $1,230. In the Human Assets Index (HAI) criterion, the country's score stands at 75.3 points, well above the requirement of 66. In the Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI), a country's score has to be less than 32. Bangladesh's score is 25.2 points.
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