Doha, March 05 (QNA) – Participants in the first session of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries stressed that the ‘Doha Program’ to assist the least developed countries is the cornerstone of new partnerships which the least developed countries aspire to build and have at the international level. Under the slogan “A New Generation of Partnerships for Progress,” the session celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Group of Least Developed Countries.
During the session moderated by HE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, the participants pointed out that the least developed countries in the world today are in a race against time to achieve the goals of sustainable development by 2030, noting the need for a new global partnership in the remaining years to ensure that these 46 countries benefit from social, economic and environmental development.
In this context, HE Rabab Fatima, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, said the next decade begins with a new strategy under creation here in Qatar through the ‘Doha Program’, which will help these countries to avoid shocks in the challenges they face, as work is being done during this plan to increase by two times the volume of exports of these countries along with other measures.
Recalling the historical stages that the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have gone through since 1971 and the United Nations General Assembly efforts to attract special international support for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the United Nations family, she said the international community has, since then, put in place concrete and quantifiable support measures for LDCs in official development assistance, trade, climate change, technology transfer and related areas.
The UN official stressed hopes to continue supporting the most fragile countries in the world, especially since the global development landscape has changed in the past fifty years, noting that ongoing crises such as the Coronavirus pandemic, climate change and conflicts threaten to reverse many years of hard-won progress in least developed countries.
HE Vice President of the Republic of Benin Mariam Chabi Talata said the least developed countries are at the forefront of receiving the shocks and challenges facing the current era, especially since their contribution to the international gross domestic product does not exceed 2 percent, and by 1 percent in world trade.
The Vice-President of the Republic of Benin stressed that the exit of the least developed countries from this category is a priority, and everyone is working towards this end, stressing that the Doha Program of Action falls into this category, while calling for studying the mechanisms that limited the exit of countries from the least developed group and enabling them to resilience and facing challenges in the horizon of 2030.
HE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Nepal Narayan Kaji Shrestha said achieving low rates of development is not only due to structural problems in the least developed countries, but it also lies with the global economic system, pointing to the need for moving forward in building a new generation of partnerships in order to achieve progress, Here (the Doha Program) represents the new direction, he said.
The Nepalese official stressed the need for greater cooperation from the international community in order to establish a new generation of partnerships.
HE President of the Republic of Slovenia Natassa Burke-Mussar stressed the importance of science and technology in lifting challenges and problems facing the least developed countries, calling for the need to adhere to the implementation of what is agreed upon in order to help the least developed countries, while recalling the support provided by the European Union to many segments in this category, especially youth and women. (QNA)
Source: Qatar News Agency