UN grants Bangladesh 3-year deferment on LDC graduation
Representational image: Collected
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has granted Bangladesh and Nepal an extended three-year preparatory period prior to their official graduation from least developed country (LDC) status.
Following formal requests from both governments seeking additional time to execute major sector-wide reforms, the UNGA passed the decision during its 81st session in New York after extensive deliberations on Friday.
The BNP government transmitted its request letter to the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) on 21 February, exactly two days after assuming office on 19 February.
In its resolution, the UN acknowledged the severe hurdles confronting Bangladesh amid heightened risks from recent international conflicts and associated supply disruptions in global energy markets.
The resolution established an extended preparatory window running through 24 November 2029, citing uncertainties in global trade, lingering external shocks, and persistent domestic vulnerabilities, reports BSS.
The UN noted the UNCDP’s assessment that, although current frameworks do not treat domestic political transitions as formal grounds for extending preparatory timelines, the unique complexity of Bangladesh’s recent political transition merits special consideration, particularly because domestic factors exacerbate external shocks and constrain government response capacity.
The resolution urges Bangladesh to advance and maintain critical domestic reforms throughout the extended preparatory window while executing a national smooth transition strategy alongside UN agencies, bilateral partners, regional allies, and multilateral trading entities.
Bangladesh must also provide annual progress updates in its regular reports to the UNCDP. After receiving Bangladesh’s letter, the UNCDP established a specialized assessment panel during its 28th plenary session at UN headquarters in New York this February, leading the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to recommend further higher-level discussions at the UNGA.
Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir recently stated that both the G-77 nations and the European Union (EU) backed Bangladesh’s plea during extensive debates at the 81st UNGA session.
This three-year deferment offers critical relief to local exporters by shielding them from an average tariff of 12.50 percent on Bangladeshi goods. Local business leaders had actively pressed the government to delay graduation to secure adequate preparation time for a seamless transition.
Under this extension, Bangladesh will maintain duty-free market access across key export destinations until November 2029 and 38 countries and trading blocs grant duty-free preferences to Bangladeshi merchandise exporters under LDC status, covering 73 percent of the nation’s total export volume.
Bangladesh was originally scheduled to graduate this year after qualifying across all three UN criteria - per capita gross national income (GNI), the human assets index (HAI), and the economic vulnerability index (EVI) - during two consecutive triennial reviews conducted by the UNCDP since 2018, following an earlier two-year extension granted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to data from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Bangladesh’s GNI per capita reached $2,684 in the 2024 triennial review, accompanied by scores of 77.5 on the HAI and 21.9 on the EVI, surpassing qualification thresholds across all three metrics.
Although Bangladesh meets all graduation criteria, managing the complex transition and sustaining past development gains remains the central challenge for the country, which stands as the world’s largest LDC and the primary beneficiary of international support measures.
The report highlighted that this transition unfolds amid political uncertainty and a prolonged economic crisis, placing decades of progress under severe strain.
The UNCDP issued its final graduation recommendation during its second triennial review held on 22-26 February 2021, after Bangladesh first met all three criteria in March 2018. Under UN regulations, an LDC must fulfill at least two criteria across two successive triennial reviews to qualify for graduation, and Bangladesh remains the only nation to meet all three criteria simultaneously.
In 2019, Bangladesh’s GNI per capita stood at $1,827 against the $1,222 UN threshold, while scoring 75.3 on the HAI (exceeding the 66 threshold) and 27.3 on the EVI (staying below the 32-vulnerability threshold).
