Vienna, 13 August 2008 - In recent years, many Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have achieved encouragingly high rates of economic growth, partly due to the commodity price boom, and also to their being able to avail of trade preferences. However, their relative achievements are clouded by the fact that commodity dependence does not provide a sound basis for sustainable growth and that, overall, they still face many constraints which stifle their efforts to achieve economic transformation and thereby be more meaningfully integrated into the global economy. For these countries, transformation can only result from a positive response by the productive sector, macro-economic stability, and enhanced capacities and capabilities to participate effectively in the global value chain.
Against this backdrop, the LDCs Ministerial Conference, which was organized by UNIDO in collaboration with the Group of 77, and held in Vienna from 29 to 30 November 2007, explored at length how the opportunities emerging from such new instruments as Aid for Trade (AfT) and Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) could be used to help LDCs to transform economically.
UNIDO, in close collaboration with the World Trade Organization (WTO), will hold a two-day Workshop in Kigali, Rwanda, from 8 to 9 Septembers 2008, to deliberate on how to translate AfT into concrete actions, aimed at expediting the industrial transformation of LDCs.
The Kigali Workshop is a preparatory process for the Conference of the Ministers of Industry from the LDCs, which will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from 19-20 November, 2008.
The Kigali Workshop underscores UNIDO’s commitment to the AfT and EIF programmes and provides a participatory mechanism for reviewing the practical issues of UNIDO’s programme of assistance to LDCs. The Workshop will offer a technical peer review mechanism on the practicality of UNIDO’s programme of assistance for LDCs in the implementation of AfT and EIF. It will bring together high officials from selected Ministries of Industry, high-level technical representatives and experts in the field of trade and industrial policy, as well as representatives from UN Agencies and special bodies, multilateral organisations, regional development finance institutions, and donor organizations.
Apart from the UNIDO’s concept for mainstreaming AfT and EIF in its development support, and a comprehensive supply-side approach, delegates to the Kigali Workshop will deliberate on UNIDO’s prioritized areas of support, including agribusiness, and private sector development. In this context, the EIF pilot programmes prepared by UNIDO for eight LDCs (Benin, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, and Yemen) will be presented and discussed. The experiences of Cambodia and Rwanda in respect to the DTIS process, will be shared with other LDCs.
Donor organizations invited to the Kigali Workshop will have the opportunity to illustrate how they have helped LDCs in trade-related productive capacity building, and what their future plans are. UN agencies, Regional Commissions (e.g. ECA and ESCAP), multilateral organizations, and regional development finance institutions (e.g. the AfDB and the ADB) will also present details of their programmes.
Based on the discussions at Kigali, recommendations will be made, inter alia, of support programmes which will form the subject of discussions at the Siem Reap Ministerial Conference. On endorsement by the Ministers present at Siem Reap, the recommendations will be adopted through a Declaration, which, in turn, will form the basis of, and be integrated into, UNIDO’s Comprehensive Supply-Side Approach.
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Fatou Haidara
Director, Special Programmes Group
UNIDO
Vienna International Centre
P.O. Box 300, A-1400 Vienna
E-mail