+

It’s official: Nepal will remain LDC; Bhutan to get developing country status

Kathmandu, March 16

Experts conducting the United Nations triennial review of the least developed country (LDC) category for 2018 have decided to accept Nepal’s request and withhold its graduation from the group.

A meeting of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) has, however, decided to recommend  BhutanKiribatiSão Tomé and Príncipeand Solomon Islands for graduation from the category. “Never before have so many countries been identified and recommended for graduation at a single review by the CDP,” the committee said in a statement,

The committee said that although Nepal and Timor-Leste also met the criteria for graduation, they were not recommended for graduation at this time, due to economic and political challenges. “That decision will be deferred to the next CDP triennial review in 2021.”

Bangladesh, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Myanmar met the graduation criteria for the first time but would need to do so for a second time to be eligible for consideration, said the committee.

Nepal had officially requested the UN to not withhold its graduation just ahead of the meeting, which reviewed the status of each LDC and forwarded recommendations to the UN General Assembly. The official word is that Nepal does not want to graduate because it fears it may lose foreign aid if it graduates. Authorities say that the economy is still vulnerable to various threats, including natural disasters.

A country has to meet three criteria to graduate: at least $1,242 Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, above 66 score on the Human Assets Index (HAI) and below 32 score in Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). In 2015,  Nepal had achieved an HAI of 68.7 and EVI  and EVI of 26.8.

Nepali authorities say that the country’s GNI per capita is just $862 in 2017, and it with that level of income, the country can’t sustain the HAI and EVI growth.

React to this post

Conversation

New Old Popular