Bangladesh has urged the advanced economies to fulfill their “unmet promises” in the areas of duty-free and quota-free market access and other trade benefits to LDCs to help countries recover from the Covid-19 pandemic shock.
Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Ambassador Rabab Fatima made the appeal at a virtual panel discussion held in New York on Tuesday.
Titled ‘Accelerating infrastructure investments for a sustainable and resilient recovery and restoring trade’, the discussion was held at the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development is being held from 12-15 April.
The ECOSOC - Economic and Social Council - is at the heart of the United Nations system to advance the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental. According to the UN, it is the central platform for fostering debate and innovative thinking, forging consensus on ways forward, and coordinating efforts to achieve internationally agreed goals. It is also responsible for the follow-up to major UN conferences and summits.
The Bangladesh mission in a statement said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal led the Bangladesh delegation and delivered a pre-recorded statement at the special segment of the Forum held on 12 April.
Bangladesh also participated in the Special High-level Meeting with Bretton Woods Institutions, WTO and UNCTAD on Tuesday.
At the panel discussion, Rabab Fatima said the lack of infrastructure, especially in the areas of ICT, health, and education was acutely felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Therefore, it should be our urgent priority to build adequate infrastructure in all these areas.”
She highlighted the critical importance of digital infrastructure for providing vital services to people and urged the developed countries “to ensure much needed technology transfer to LDCs and other vulnerable countries”.
She also underscored the importance of ensuring fast recovery from the pandemic as well as better resilience against current and future shocks.
In this regard, she called for the integration of the disasters and climate change issues into investment decisions to build long-term sustainability and resilience.
She underlined the weaknesses of the global supply chain infrastructure and said further improvement of trade infrastructure including in the areas of transit, transportation, and shipping was needed.
In this regard, she put specific focus on the grants and long-term concessional financing in infrastructure investment, public-private financing, blended financing, south-south and triangular cooperation.
