The government moves to measure actual current LDC position of Bangladesh as the nation bids for graduating from the world's poor-country club into the next stage by 2020, officials said.
At a recent meeting at the economic relations division (ERD) the statistics and informatics division (SID) was asked to collect latest information from ministries and departments concerned in line with the LDC (least developed country) handbook to gauge Bangladesh's present position in respect of the three criteria set for graduation.
In the three-year review report 2015, published by the committee for development policy of the United Nations, it has been stated that Bangladesh has passed in only one criterion out of three considered for graduation of an LDC into a higher stage.
The three yardsticks are: per-capita GNI (gross national income), human asset index (HAI), and economic vulnerability index (EVI).
The 2015 review report shows per-capita GNI in Bangladesh at US$926 against the graduation requirement of $1242 or above. In case of human-asset index the country scored 63.8 points while the pass marks in graduation test are 66 or above.
It shows Bangladesh's position in economic-vulnerability index at 25.1 points against 32 or less needed to qualify for stepping into next stage of standing in the comity of nations. Sources said the meeting at the ERD observed that the UN panel might not have considered latest data in case of human-asset index in the 2015 review.
The meeting was told that Bangladesh's progress for graduation from LDC into next stage will be scrutinised at a high-level meeting soon.
Officials said the meeting had discussed Bangladesh's work-plan in line with the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) which chartered out the international community's vision and strategy for sustainable development of LDCs for the next decade with a strong focus on developing their productive capacities.
It highlighted the overarching goal of IPoA which aims to overcome the structural challenges faced by the LDCs in order to eradicate poverty and achieve internationally agreed development goals, with a special focus on MDGs. The IPoA is meant for enabling half of the LDCs to meet the criteria for graduation by 2020.
With this end in view the Istanbul action programme focuses on reducing vulnerabilities of LDCs and addresses new challenges to development, including the effects of the interlinked food, fuel and economic crises and climate change.
In this context, a strong focus is laid on structural transformation through increasing productive capacity.
When contacted, ERD additional secretary Mohammed Abu Taher told the FE Tuesday the government is hopeful that the country would reach the graduation stage by 2020, as targeted in the IPoA.
"Latest data are being collected from the ministries and departments concerned to reveal the country's actual position in LDC criteria," the official said.
To a query he said the government is taking various programmes to overcome the lacking where it feels like staying behind the requisite position set for graduation into next stage.
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