| inbluevt | Date: Wednesday, 2013/08/07, 7:19 AM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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UNITED NATIONS, Jul 31 2013 (IPS) - The number of “least developed countries” (LDCs), which rose from the original 24 back in 1971 to the current 49, is beginning to shrink – haltingly.
So far, three countries – Botswana, Cape Verde and the Maldives – have “graduated” from LDCs to the status of developing countries.And as economies improve, at least six more countries – Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Angola, Samoa and Equatorial Guinea – are on the verge of leaving the ranks of LDCs by 2015.
But some of them have been reluctant to graduate – and sought postponements – since LDC status provides several benefits, including preferential tariffs on exports and increased development aid.
Still, the growing list of potential “graduates” comes in the midst of a new U.N. report that says inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to LDCs grew by 20 percent last year, registering a record 26
billion dollars.
The strong gains were led by Cambodia, as well as five African countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Mauritania, Mozambique and Uganda, all of them LDCs.
The recently-released World Investment Report 2013, authored by the Geneva-based U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), says growth was led by strong gains in Cambodia (where inflows were up 73 percent), DRC (96 percent), Liberia (167 percent), Mauritania (105
percent), Mozambique (96 percent), and Uganda (93 percent).
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Message edited by inbluevt - Wednesday, 2013/08/07, 7:21 AM |
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