Maldives Works to Gain Support the Least Developed Economies

The Maldives Mission to the United Nations , in collaboration with the UN Office of the High Representative for Least Developed, Landlocked, and Small Island Countries (UN OHRLLS), convened a meeting today to discuss the smooth transition of countries that are identified for graduation from the list of Least Developed Counties (LDCs). Countries that are members of this list are entitled to financial and technical assistance that focus on the development challenges for the least developed economies in the world. Some of these benefits include providing for tariff free exports that are then made capable of competing with the same exports from larger countries that pay higher tariffs – making their goods more expensive than those of LDCs.

The socioeconomic progress of these countries is reviewed every three years. When a country has achieved a certain level of development, the country is identified for graduation from the list of LDCs and many of its benefits are scaled down over a three year period. The meeting held by Maldives aimed to stress the need to phase out all benefits provided to LDCs upon graduation in such a way that it does not disrupt the development programs of graduating countries. Maldives recently graduated from this list on 1 January 2011.

The meeting began with presentations by experts from UN OHRLLS, the Office of the President of the General Assembly (PGA), the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), and the United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which all discussed the history, challenges, and proposals for improving the smooth transition of countries from the LDC list. The panel discussions were followed by a statement delivered by the Permanent Representative of Maldives to the United Nations, Ghafoor Mohamed, who noted that as one of only two countries to graduate from the 49-member list this decade, Maldives’ graduation experience was germane to improving the smooth transition of graduating countries. Ambassador Mohamed warned that the current process was underdeveloped and underprepared to deal with the international community’s goal to halve the list of LDCs in the next decade and urged countries to engage in work to improve the process.

The meeting was attended by sixty delegates from various Missions to the United Nations, and included six Ambassadors representing all five regions.