& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

LDCs must place agriculture on top of dev agenda: UNCTAD

Star Business Report
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) says poor nations must put agriculture on top of their agenda in their guest for development and poverty reduction
"A strong and well-developed agricultural sector is a means to broader developmental ends, is how Ruben Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, puts it in his summary of the Least Development Countries. 1997 Report. released globally yesterday
Ricupero conducted the global launch of the report in Dhaka, the first time outside
Geneva. the UNCTAD headquarters The choice of Dhaka, as he said, was due to the country s contribution to the cause of LDCs in the past many years and also to the fact that Bangladesh is the largest among 48 UN-designated LDCs
While the UNCTAD chief hailed the growth performance of LDCs in genera). Bangladesh, the spokesman for the group, came In for criticism for at least on one count — reforms
"The largest LDC. Bangladesh, has not performed as well as might have been hoped This is partly due to de
lays in the implementation of economic reforms." he said in his overview to the report
Flanked by Minister for Commerce and Industries To-fael Ahmed and senior officials from the government and UN agencies. Ricupero told the launching ceremony that the report would provide a backgrounder to the high level meeting on Integrated Initiatives for LDCs' Trade Development scheduled for late next month in Geneva.
"This meeting will directly address the concerns and circumstances of the least developed countries in the post-Uruguay Round context, and is a welcome sign that the specific Issues facing LDCs are finally moving up the international agenda." he said.
The world's most improver-ished nations will have to prioritise their often neglected agricultural sector if they want to attain, and then sustain high growth rates, the UNCTAD said, making agriculture the principal theme of this year's report.
Agriculture is the most important economic activity in the LDCs. It says, pointing out that it provided about a third of their collective GDP and employed two-thirds of the labour force at the beginning of the 1990s. But its performance has failed to keep pace with population growth, it said.
A dynamic agricultural sector will make for healthier populations with higher nutritional intakes, it said. And, by increasing rural incomes, it will also lead to an expansion of domestic markets, according to the report.
The UN agency stressed that a strong agricultural policy was
also a key to an Integrated poverty alleviation strategy, given that the poorest people in the LDCs tend to live in rural areas.
Five issues were focused as those of importance to the LDCs: The causes of agricultural sector stagnation: the impact of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, the question of food security; environmental aspects of agriculture in the LDCs. and rural credit markets.
Institutional and economic reforms were the other main theme.
"The determined efforts to implement economic policy reforms have led to improved economic performance in about half the least developed countries." the UNCTAD report said.
The performance of many LDCs remained relatively robust in 1996, despite generally unfavourable commodity prices and stagnating external resource flows, which testifies to the progress of these economies, it said.
The report said the external economic factors facing LDCs was expected to be fairly stable in the short term but peace, se
curity and good governance would be crucial if the economic recovery already begun in some LDCs was sustained.
Growth among the world’s least developed countries remained "relatively -robust" at an average of 4.7 per cent in 1996. compared with 5.2 per cent in 1995. according to preliminary estimates in the 1997 Report.
The crisis governance, state failures and internal conflicts were the other three themes of the report.
"Urgent action by the international community to help LDCs tackle the widespread problems of economic and social regress, state failure and internal conflicts in LDCs should be a priority," the report said.
Tofael Ahmed regretted that the LDCs were not getting the duty free access of LDC goods despite promises from the developed countries.
He mentioned that a high level meeting on the integrated initiatives for LDCs trade development would be held in Geneva on October 27-28 where the issue of zero duty access would be discussed.