Bangladesh fulfilled all criteria, by latest UN assessment, for entry into a higher phase of socioeconomic development through graduating from its LDC status.
Officials said following Friday's announcement by the world body, Bangladesh will formally graduate from the LDC (Least Developed Country) category as a nation by 2024, subject to further reconfirmation.
The country scored the threshold marks by way of meeting all three criteria for graduation at a triennial review that took place during the 20th plenary meeting of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) of the United Nations in New York.
Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Masud Bin Momen, in a letter to the Principal Secretary and the Secretary of the Economic Relations Division, informed the government of this historic event, sources at the Prime Minister's Office told the FE.
Lao PDR and Myanmar are the two other countries that met the graduation criteria for the first time along with Bangladesh.
Chief of the Committee for Development Policy of the UN Roland Mollerus is excepted hand over a note verbal to the Bangladesh Permanent Representative to this effect at a formal ceremony to be held in New York.
The CDP measures LDC category on the basis of three criteria: per-capita income, human-asset index, and economic-vulnerability index.
To be eligible for graduating out of the world's poor-country club, a country must reach threshold levels on at least two of these three preconditions, or its GNI per-capita must exceed at least twofold the threshold level.
When it comes to Gross National Income, Bangladesh's GNI per capita, as per the World Bank Atlas method, is US$1272, well above the threshold of US$ 1230.
Meanwhile, in the Economic Vulnerability Index, where the score needs to be 32 or a little less, Bangladesh attained 24.9, whereas in Human Asset Index, the country already scored 72, well above the minimum requirement of 66.
As such, Bangladesh is set to be one of the first LDCs to graduate on the basis of all three criteria.
As per the current provisions, a country needs to be eligible in two consecutive CDP reviews before any recommendation is made. Therefore, Bangladesh will have to meet these same criteria again in 2021 to be recommended by CDP for graduating from the LDC status by 2024.
The same UN plenary meeting in the US city also found Bhutan, Kiribati, Sao Tome and Principe and Solomon Islands having met the graduation criteria for a second time, meaning that they will formally graduate from the LDC category in 2021, three years ahead of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Vanuatu and Angola will graduate in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
In Dhaka, the UN decision came as a reconfirmation of already- planned government programmes for celebration of the occasion. At the culmination is a formal ceremony on March 22 when the recommendation letter from CDP will be handed over to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Earlier, a mission from the Secretariat of the UN Committee for Development Policy visited Dhaka in mid-October. During the visit, the mission confirmed that the country would meet the three criteria for graduation at the next CDP review.
Experts have long noted that the country shedding its LDC status may give rise to potentially important economic costs due to withdrawal of GSP facilities from the European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia and other markets.
It has also been noted that as Bangladesh is expected to graduate concurrently from both the United Nations and the World Bank classifications, options for concessional financing will also die off.
Earlier in January, the government formed a ten-member high-powered national taskforce to implement the roadmap for the country's graduation.
Up till now, a total of five countries have graduated from the LDC status. These are Botswana, Cape Verde, the Maldives, Samoa and Equatorial Guinea.
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