BD fulfilled all criteria for LDC graduation, confirms UN

Bangladesh has met all three criteria to consider for graduation from the least developed country (LDC) to a developing one.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam said the UN's Committee for Development Policy (CDP) confirmed it on Thursday in New York.

A formal letter in this regard is scheduled to be handed over to Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the UN in the New York on Friday.

As per the rules, a country is declared as a middle-income nation if that particular country can fulfil these criteria for three consecutive years.

"We need to maintain this trend and we need to attain these same criteria in 2021," State Minister Shahriar Alam told UNB.

Talking to UNB, Economic Relations Division additional secretary Sultana Afroz said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will make an official announcement of the achievement on March 22.

An international conference will also be held on March 23 at a city hotel, said the ERD official.

The other programmes include display of development works by different ministries at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, nationwide victory processions on March 22, said an official.

Mass people, including government officials, will join the jubilant processions across the country.

To be eligible for graduation the thresholds for at least two of the three graduation criteria (Human Asset Index, Economic Vulnerability Index and per capita Gross National Income) need to be attained.

While a number of LDCs, including from South Asia (Nepal and Bhutan), are expected to be considered for graduation, Bangladesh has the unique distinction of attaining the thresholds for all the three graduation criteria.

According to the UN's graduation thresholds set at the triennial review in 2015, gross national income (GNI) per capita of a country has to be $1,242 or above.

Bangladesh's GNI per capita rose to $1,610 at the end of fiscal 2016-17.

The GNI per capita is the value of a country's final income in a year, divided by its population. It reflects the average income of a country's citizens.

On the other two indexes -- human assets and economic vulnerability -- a country has to score 66 or above and 32 or below respectively.

Bangladesh's score in the human assets index stood at 72.9 and in the economic vulnerability index 24.8, meaning the country meets all the criteria.

Once graduated, Bangladesh will not be eligible for support measures given to LDCs accorded by multilateral institutions such as the WTO.

Special and differential treatment for the LDC members will no longer be available to Bangladesh (in the form of market access, technical assistance, waivers from obligations, protracted implementation period in view of implementing obligations and commitments).