The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has demanded intensified supports of the affluent nations for the least developed countries or emerging economies to enable them attain sustained economic growth.
'Investment and technical assistance from the South enjoy possibility of easier replication and absorption by LDCs. South-South Cooperation should be complementary to similar assistance from our traditional development partners in the North, and not a substitute,' she told the 4th conference on LDCs in Istanbul on Tuesday.
She expected the summit level conference to formulate a new era of cooperation between the LDCs and the affluent Northern globe warning that 'time is running out for improving the living condition in the LDCs while new challenges were emerging with globalisation and climate change'.
'If we wish the Istanbul Conference to be our last attempt to correct the situation, we must give up rhetoric and honour the commitments we make here,' the Bangladesh premier told the conference.
'LDCs achieved good progress in areas such as trade and investment and social development. It looks that some of them will attain the MDGs,' she said and added LDCs could not make similar progress in developing productive capacities, infrastructure building and upgrading the human and social capital.
The premier said the efforts of the developing countries were further affected by sudden increase
in oil and food prices, climate change and the global financial meltdown widening the gap between the LDCs and the developed world.
Moreover, she said, the failure of development partners in meeting their commitments for enhancing support also impeded their growth prospects.
LDCs affected by climate change must receive additional funds on top of ODA, the prime minister said adding, 'We need to agree on additional compensatory support to the LDCs to meet the challenges posed by climate change and external threats.'
Hasina said the fragility of the LDCs, their structural weaknesses and constant economic marginalisation were retarding their development and prosperity.
She said per capita income of LDCs fell from 18 per cent of the global average in 1971 to 15 per cent in 2008. Though poverty reduction shows some progress, people living on less than $2 a day remains almost unchanged at 75 per cent.
In attaining the MDGs, LDCs have been falling behind other developing countries, the prime minister said and added they also experience the same lag in technology and connectivity, and therefore face the challenge of increasing isolation.
'In Bangladesh our aim is to convert our huge population into human asset. So far we have been able to reduce hunger and poverty to some extent,' she said.
Hasina said Bangladesh made good progress in net enrolment in primary education, gender parity, infant and child mortality, immunisation coverage, supply of drinking water, and sanitation and 'since entering office in 2009, we have been refocusing on the pro-poor programmes taken up during our earlier term from 1996 to 2001'.
'We intend to maintain sustained and stable economic growth so that we can graduate from our present economic status to a prosperous and happier level and transform our country into a 'Digital Bangladesh' by 2021,' she added.
The premier recalled that Dhaka last year hosted the Asia-Pacific Regional Review of the Brussels Programme of Action and we discovered gaps and lapses in and deviation from the seven commitments inscribed on the framework of partnership.
'Sadly, the very important seventh commitment to mobilise financial resources through meeting the target of 0.15 per cent or 0.20 per cent of GNI has virtually been ignored thereby largely frustrating the BPoA.'
This conference would, therefore, need to craft a balanced, ambitious and comprehensive Istanbul agreement, she said.
She suggested that the summit should prioritise human resource development at the top of its list emphasising quality education and vocational training, universal health service and population management.
'I would not like to submit a long menu of priorities but
food security, social safety net, trade advantages and protection of environment must feature in any programme,' Hasina said.
The international support architecture would have to be
reconstructed, she said adding it should reflect the spirit of a renewed and enhanced partnership and a broad consensus to ensure graduation of a significant number, possibly half of the LDCs, out of their poverty level.
'The assistance of the development partners would, therefore, need to be enhanced to at least 0.2 per cent of their GNI. Vulnerability of LDCs to external economic shocks as well as natural disasters also demands additional support at time of crises,' the Bangladesh premier said.
She also mentioned some specific areas that merit special focus in the Istanbul outcome documents.
The areas include duty and quota free market entry for all products of all LDCs to all markets and accept flexible rules of origin to ensure a meaningful market access.
Hasina mentioned LDCs needed cost effective, diverse,
clean and affordable energy supply, including new and renewable energy.
The practice of ODA concentrating in social sectors and
extractive industries must be modified to include development of infrastructure, agriculture and education. LDCs fragile economies need continuance of debt relief. Those LDCs which repay debt, and is not HIPC like Bangladesh, should continue to be encouraged with alternative resource flow measures.
About technology transfer, Hasina said multilateral institutions must facilitate affordable technology transfer to LDCs.
The Istanbul Programme of Action should pave the way for LDCs to receive from all sources affordable technology which is important for changing their economic and social conditions, she added.
She said global progress would only be complete when 880 million plus people, engulfed by poverty and underdevelopment, achieve decent and dignified lives. This is only possible with unity and determination of all nations to reverse the process of marginalisation of the LDCs, the prime minister added.
This calls for genuinely addressing their human development gap and overcoming their structural weaknesses.
'Istanbul gives us the opportunity to try out the option. Let us all seize this defining moment and pronounce our collective determination and will. Let us agree on an enhanced, ambitious and do-able global framework for helping LDCs to graduate out of their poverty and misery,' the prime minister said.
Source: New Age
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