BD needs 10 more years to get developing country status: CPD

FE Report | Published: November 28, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Despite progress in various socio-economic indicators, Bangladesh still needs about 10 more years to get the status of a developing country, said Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) distinguished fellow Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya.
Although Bangladesh aims at making an exit from LDC (least developed countries) Club in 2021, the CPD fellow indicated that it would take some more time as the country needs to concentrate more on some key areas of economic vulnerability and human assets index to achieve the status.
According to Dr Depapriya, the country needs to work more vigorously to reduce its economic vulnerability and enhance human assets along with lifting of per capita income to rise above the status of LDC.
 "Although LDCs excelled in economic growth during the last decade, quality of livelihood did not significantly improve which, in turn, undermined progress towards achieving the MDG targets," he said while addressing a press briefing on Thursday.
The CPD organised the press briefing at the city's CIRDAP auditorium to launch the LDCs Report 2014 -- Growth with Structural Transformation: A Post-2015 Development Agenda. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) prepared the report.
CPD Research Fellow Mr Towfiqul Islam Khan presented the report highlighting the state of economic development in LDCs, opportunities and challenges of these countries.
CPD Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman and Research Director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem replied to queries from the press.
The list of LDCs is reviewed every three years by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, based on recommendations by the Committee for Development Policy.
A country will qualify for graduation from LDCs if it meets the graduation threshold of at least two of the three criteria - per capita income, human asset and economic vulnerability -- during the period covered by at least two consecutive triennial reviews of the list.
Although Bangladesh reached the per capita income threshold, it still lags behind in terms of economic vulnerability as well as human assets. Quoting UNCTAD report on LDCs, Dr Debapriya said, Bangladesh needs to pursue economic and human development simultaneously to graduate from the status of LDC as well as meet the requirements of the post-2015 development agenda.
Since 1971, only four LDCs-Botswana, Cape Verde, the Maldives and Samoa-moved to the group of developing countries.
Equatorial Guinea and Vanuatu are scheduled to be taken out of the list of LDCs in June 2017 and December 2017 respectively.
According to UNCTAD report, the next review will take place in 2015 and potential candidates for graduation are Angola and Kiribati.
At present, 48 countries are designated as LDCs.
For smooth transition for graduating from the list of LDCs, the UNCTAD report suggested for putting more emphasis on generating income and employment, structural transformation through increased industrial productivity and good governance in order to reduce economic vulnerability that persistently holds back LDCs including Bangladesh from generating enough momentum to graduate.
The UNCTAD report also recommended LDCs to prioritise resource mobilisation for public and private investment, industrial and sectoral policies to channel resources into most productive sectors and activities and macroeconomic policies which foster economic development.
The LDC report also addressed the reasons for the LDC Paradox - the failure of most LDCs to meet most of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets despite record economic growth since 2000.
Explaining the LDCs' drawbacks, Dr Debapriya said their economic vulnerability did not decrease despite better growth.
According to him, Bangladesh's development among the LDCs is remarkable due to improved growth, remittance inflow, enhanced food security and resilience to environmental disaster etc. But the country lags behind in primary areas such as income and employment generation, diversification of existing exportable items, low per capita income due to large population etc.
As a result, Bangladesh cannot go beyond the low wage-low productivity-low income cycle, noted Dr Bhattacharya.
He, however, added that becoming a middle income country also does not mean graduating from the LDC group because it requires improving on social indicators which many LDCs failed to achieve despite generating high income and growth through exporting natural resources and tourism promotion.
Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman also underscored that Bangladesh cannot meet the post-2015 goals without addressing human and economic development altogether because development in the 21st century is not linear, there are qualitative changes in the age of globalisation.
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