Kathmandu: Minister for Commerce and Industry Ram Krishna Tamrakar today said that international community should assist the least developed countries (LDCs) to free them form their present state of poverty and social exclusion.
Tamrakar said that globalisation, despite having advantages, posed significant challenges to LDCs adding that it should aim at freeing humanity from the state of hunger and poverty as well as from the fear of exploitation.
“Poverty is perhaps the biggest challenge for the (LDCs) which cannot be solved without the support and assistance from the international community,” Tamrakar said inaugurating the three-day UNCTAD regional expert meeting for LDCs in Asia and the Pacific here this morning.
Tamrakar appealed to the multilateral agencies and industrialised countries to assist the LDCs in enhancing their supply capacity and provide them an unrestricted market access.
Executive Secretary of the Third UN Conference on the LDCs Anna Kajumulo Tibaikuki said that the ultimate requirement for the sustainable development of LDCs and their beneficial integration in the global economy lay in the structural transformation of LDCs economies.
Resident Representative of United Nations Development Programme Dr. Henning Karcher said that the process of globalisation needed to be monitored, managed and controlled to protect the weak and those who are already marginalised.
Stressing on regional co-operation, Karcher said that empowerment should be the starting point of any successful poverty alleviation strategy.
European Commission (EC) ’s representative Mario Ferrucci said that LDCs should get special attention adding that EC was determined to developing country specific poverty alleviation strategies.
Shedding light on the problems facing the LDCs, ESCAP representative Aynul Hasan said that the Council was committed to help them out.
From the Chair, National Planning Commission vice-chairman Prithvi Raj Ligal stressed on time-bound commitment to lead the LDCs on the path of development. Despite global efforts, the number of LDCs grew from 41 to 48 during the last three decades.
Although LDCs constitute about 13 per cent of the world population, their share in world imports was only 0.6 per cent and 0.4 per cent in export. These shares represent declines of more than 40 per cent since 1980. The total export earnings of LDCs is less than that of Ireland. The meeting is one of the three meetings UNCTAD is organising as part of the preparatory process for the Third United Nations Conference on LDCs to be hosted by the European Union in Brussels in May 2001. The first meeting was held in Addis Ababa, Ethopia, last week for English-speaking African LDCs. The third expert level meeting is to be held in Niamey, Niger for French-speaking African LDCs and Haiti from April 18-20.
The main objectives of these meetings are to provide an opportunity for experts to exchange views on the socio-economic developments in LDCs during the last decade, as part of the review of programmes in the implementation of Programme of Action for the LDCs for 1990s, and make recommendations for enhancing the potential of sustainable development of LDCs and their progressive and beneficial integration into the global economy and international system.
NPC member Dr. Shankar Sharma hoped that the meeting would be instrumental in devising new strategies to produce better results in the LDCs.