LDC, UN experts draw bleak picture of impact of globalisation on poor communities
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
ISTANBUL, July 10 (AFP): Representatives from the world's least developed countries and UN experts drew a bleak picture of the impact of globalisation on poor communities at the start of a two-day conference here yesterday.
"Paradoxically, as some countries get more integrated and prosperous, others get more marginalised and isolated," Harriet Schmidt, director of the UN Office for developing countries, told the gathering.
"This is the sad reality for the least developed countries (LDCs). While globalisation has, over the last 30 years, expanded trade, increased economic output and created unparalleled wealth in global terms, the LDCs have failed to reap its benefits," she added.
According to UN-set criteria, 50 countries qualify as the world's least developed nations, compared to 25 in 1971.
Thirty-five are in Africa, 10 in Asia, five in Oceania and one in the Caribbean. Among them are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Sudan and Mauritania.
They account for 12 per cent of the world's population, and attract less than two per cent of global foreign direct investment, most of it in the sectors of oil and gas exploration and mining.
The picture is even worse in trade: the share of LDCs in world exports fell from 3.0 per cent in the 1950s to 0.7 per cent in the 2000s while their share in agricultural exports dropped from 3.3 per cent in the 1970s to 1.5 per cent in the 1990s.
"If the global force of globalisation continues on the path of the last 30 years, it will completely sweep away the LDCs," Schmidt said.
Documents drawn up by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) list domestic factors such as illiteracy, lack of infrastructure, urban explosion and desertification that have prevented LDCs from taking advantage of globalisation.
"Paradoxically, as some countries get more integrated and prosperous, others get more marginalised and isolated," Harriet Schmidt, director of the UN Office for developing countries, told the gathering.
"This is the sad reality for the least developed countries (LDCs). While globalisation has, over the last 30 years, expanded trade, increased economic output and created unparalleled wealth in global terms, the LDCs have failed to reap its benefits," she added.
According to UN-set criteria, 50 countries qualify as the world's least developed nations, compared to 25 in 1971.
Thirty-five are in Africa, 10 in Asia, five in Oceania and one in the Caribbean. Among them are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Sudan and Mauritania.
They account for 12 per cent of the world's population, and attract less than two per cent of global foreign direct investment, most of it in the sectors of oil and gas exploration and mining.
The picture is even worse in trade: the share of LDCs in world exports fell from 3.0 per cent in the 1950s to 0.7 per cent in the 2000s while their share in agricultural exports dropped from 3.3 per cent in the 1970s to 1.5 per cent in the 1990s.
"If the global force of globalisation continues on the path of the last 30 years, it will completely sweep away the LDCs," Schmidt said.
Documents drawn up by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) list domestic factors such as illiteracy, lack of infrastructure, urban explosion and desertification that have prevented LDCs from taking advantage of globalisation.