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Export and domestic demand expansion, import substitution and inclusion of agriculture in the international trade could effectively help the least developed countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh achieve poverty reduction goals, said a report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
"Increasing exports do not necessarily lead to poverty reduction. The availability of external resources, export expansion and increased domestic resource mobilisation and removal of international trade constraints are important for poverty reduction", said UNCTAD in its 'Least Developed Countries Report 2004' that was simultaneously released in Dhaka and elsewhere in the world Thursday.
Launching the report at a press conference on behalf of the UNCTAD, Research Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Mustafizur Rahman said as the theme of this year's report was linking international trade to poverty alleviation, the LDCs should undertake trade liberalisation attaching priority to poverty alleviation.
CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan, Executive Director Debapriya Bhattachariya, Ananya Raihan, Fahmida Akhter and Fatema Yousuf, among others, were present on the occasion.
Mustafizur Rahman said the LDCs could reap huge benefits through regional trade and south-south cooperation.
Debapriya Bhattachariya said Bangladesh has achieved a remarkable success in removing gender disparity. As a member of the LDCs, Bangladesh's achievement in primary education and child mortality reduction is also laudables, he said.
But poverty and hunger are the two major areas where Bangladesh has not been able to achieve any major success, he added.
The report suggested adopting a development approach to make international trade work for poverty reduction with three pillars including formulation and implementation of post-liberal development strategies within the LDCs, which include trade as a central component and increased international financial and technical assistance for developing production and trade capacities of the LDCs.
It also suggested undertaking measures to improve the international trade regime, including issues that go beyond the scope of the WTO, to reduce international constraints on development in the LDCs.
The report said the implicit strategy of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) prepared by many LDCs seems to be 'export-led growth with a human face' but if international development assistance ignores the need to meet basic human needs the countries will end with a deepening debt problem.
"The LDCs can strengthen the links between international trade and poverty reduction by mainstreaming both trade and development into their poverty reduction strategies," it observed.
Referring to market access preferences as an important instrument to help the LDCs overcome their marginalisation in the world trade, the report suggested further improvements to the existing initiatives, particularly by extending their product coverage, simplifying rules of origin and making them more stable and predictable.