Originally posted in The Business Standard on 25 November 2021
There is a need for assessing what type of practical and pragmatic transition strategy we are preparing to maintain the competency of the economy after graduation
First of all, the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly is actually the recommendation that the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) put forward in February this year.
Usually, the UN General Assembly adopts CDP’s recommendation, if the country concerned does not have any objections to it. And that has happened in this case for Bangladesh.
This indicates that Bangladesh is comfortable in terms of graduating to the status of a developing country in 2026. This is the final timeline for Bangladesh.
There is a lot of talk in Bangladesh about the upcoming LDC graduation and we are pretty excited about it. We have also been talking about many successes in this regard. But on the other hand, we have been asking for more support. We are asking for the continuation of privileges and preferences that we are currently enjoying.
These two ideas do not go together.
On the one hand, we say there has been a lot of development. On the other hand, we ask for help for another 12 years. The government of Bangladesh is giving a mixed message in this regard and I think it should be clarified.
At this point, there is a need for assessing what type of practical and pragmatic transition strategy we are preparing to maintain the competency of the economy after graduation.
The government has created a lot of institutional structures like task forces, subcommittees and many other things. But how all these are strategically related is not yet very clear.
We are only emphasising securing more market access and some waiver for the pharmaceutical industry. But we are not paying much attention to the positive international support measures that are necessary for the diversification of the economy, for enhancing labour productivity, and bringing down the cost of business.
It is high time we moved into concrete policymaking and saw how it is related to our other ambitions such as the SDG by 2030, and becoming a higher income country by 2041.
Debapriya Bhattacharya is Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, and member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy.