Will LDC graduation help Bangladesh or not

Mozidur Rahman Biswas :
Part -1

In a historic move, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a resolution to graduate Bangladesh and two other countries from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category. The UN on Wednesday also gave the countries five years, instead of three, to prepare for the graduation to a developing country. Hence, the decision will come into effect on November 24, 2026.
One of the vital questions being identified by the visionary economists, financial experts and prominent business analysts, whether it would be better for a country like Bangladesh to remain in LDC category for more time or not, pursuing what kind of path will help national development enjoying ‘benefits of duty-free access’. They are still arguing this way and that way exploring the better ways and means whether the enjoying benefit, remaining in the LDC category some more time will be better rather than endeavouring for moving ahead to reach a higher category meaning middle income or developing category. This debate was comprehensively dealt with recently at a webinar arranged to identify the merits before finalising Bangladesh’s agenda for the upcoming WTO ministerial meet to be held soon.
Prof Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), pin pointedly raised a question whether sleeping much better would make much happier and enjoyable for a person, will it also be the same meaning for a country? The hidden genesis of the interrogation made it clear that remaining an LDC for more period could help Bangladesh to enjoy the benefits of duty-free access, widening the path of marching ahead in terms of business atmosphere leading to accelerating growth and development?
This question became the central point and was revolving in the minds of speakers who made deliberations in the webinar. BGMEA President Faruque Hassan and Syed Manzur Elahi, the leather industry tycoon specifically mentioned in the webinar, arranged for exploring the methodology before finalising Bangladesh’s agenda for the upcoming WTO ministerial meet. “You hit the nail on the head, as usual,” Syed Manzur Elahi said, before giving his own thoughts on Bangladesh’s preparedness for its journey beyond LDC.
However, Faruque Hassan was quick to respond, in his reply saying: “We are happy to have duty-free access for some more years. But definitely we will have to be ready for graduation in a few years. “Explaining, the apparel industry whizz kid opined Bangladesh needs to negotiate for a maximum transition period to prepare for the post-LDC graduation. “We are competitive, but the problem is that we don’t have the core raw materials,” he said, making his point why the apparel industry needs duty-free benefits to stay competitive as Bangladesh produces only 1 percent of the cotton needed for the sector.
Prof Rehman Sobhan, on the occasion, raised more strong questions: Tell me is there any point in the future where you will say that all right we can be competitive with other developing countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ghana and others who are not LDCs and who are competing in the market. Yet, Faruque Hassan expressed his optimism about gaining more competitiveness by setting up more textile industries and backward linkages if Bangladesh got maximum transition period of duty-free benefits. CPD’s Distinguished Fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman favouring the aid, cited that the apparel industry is already competing effectively “on a same footing” with others in the single largest market- US, where Bangladeshi apparels do not get duty free access.Faruque Hassan also felt that only negotiation entering duty-free and quota-free access will not work any longer, now more focus needs to be given on a bigger agenda-foreign investment, technology, knowledge transfer and financing.
Going back, Prof Rehman Sobhan narrated the history of Bangladesh’s being listed as an LDC, which, he said, was an accident and was possible for relentless efforts made by Prof Nurul Islam, the first deputy chairman of post-independence Planning Commission and then a member of CDP, a UN body that decides on LDC status. That paved the way for Bangladesh’s apparel, leather and other industries to benefit from duty-free access and thrive in exports.
Galvanising the thoughts of the discussion, Prof Rehman Sobhan expressed his opinion saying that there is reason to take pride in graduation as it is a recognition that our economy performed well. “However, we still don’t seem very sure that we are capable of graduating,” he said, citing all discussions being focused on extending the transition period after LDC graduation. In his analytical deliberation he asked another question when actually shall Bangladesh really graduate to reach the expected development goal. Also he stressed on the real graduation that depends on a level of global competitiveness, a country, thus needs to attain to do trade on a same level playing field with other countries. He referred to countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka who have been suffering as developing countries without access to benefits that LDCs like Bangladesh are getting.

(The writer is a Senior Journalist who writes for: Promoting Knowledge based Society, Socio-Economic Transmission, Human Rights and Good Governance).
— To be continued —