Cambodia was appointed as the president of the poorest countries

Tin Sokhavuth



Cambodia was appointed as President of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland. The mandate is for one year, from mid-February 2017 to mid-February 2018.

According to the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, during the handover ceremony, a wooden hammer, symbol of the LDCs' leadership, was given to Cambodian Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak, by Mr. Lazare Maurice Sethoueto, Beninese Minister of Industry, Trade and Handicraft.

In his speech at the handover ceremony, Mr. Sorasak told participants that Cambodia has done significant achievements by keeping economic growth at the rate of 7% for almost two decades, and by reducing poverty rate to 13.5% by 2016. He also mentioned about Cambodian support to other countries member of LDCs such as Timor Leste and Ethiopia in term of experience sharing.

“We need to engage very actively and use our double efforts so that our interests are taken on board,” said Mr. Sorasak. “To achieve our priorities, LDCs need to be united and have ONE VOICE,” he added.

As for Mr. Sethoueto, former chairman of LDC Group Coordinator 2016, Cambodia will need to finish pending works initiated by Benin such as Incorporating LDCs' requests on the policy support for Fishery sector as well as Duty-Free-Quota-Free market access for LDCs; Embarking soft-negotiation for trade and services, etc.

Last month, Minister Sorasak told reporters that Cambodia was ready to encourage countries member of LDCs to incorporate e-commerce in their economy to adapt to the fast paced global business. It is also a strong recommendation from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Besides e-commerce, the minister would like also to encourage countries member of LDCs to digitalize their tourism and agriculture sectors by following Cambodian experiences and successes.

According to the UN, LDCs represent the poorest countries in the world. Their population is about 880 million people, about 12% of the world population. But their GDP represents only 2% of the world GDP.

LDCs are characterized by their lowest socio-economic development due to the lack of human resource and good governance. As a result, there is a big difference between rich and poor in those countries. On the other hand, conflicts, political instability, and/or governance crisis happen very often in LDCs.

"These constraints are responsible for insufficient domestic resource mobilization, low economic management capacity, weaknesses in programme design and implementation, chronic external deficits, high debt burdens and heavy dependence on external financing that have kept LDCs in a poverty trap," wrote the UN on its website.

The organization of LDCs was established by the UN General Assembly in 1971 in order to gather supports for the development of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged countries member of the UN.

As reported by the UN, LDCs comprise 48 countries, the newest member is South Sudan. 34 member countries are in Africa, 13 in Asia and the Pacific, and 1 in Latin America.

The UN added that despite some successes in development, LDCs are still far from meeting the international development goals such as The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for example.

"Hunger and malnutrition are widespread with dire consequences for the large vulnerable populations," wrote the UN.