缅北禁地

Honorable Mr. Molebatsi Molebatsi, Assistant Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Botswana and the Chair of the Global Coordination Bureau of the Group of LLDCs,

Dr. Gladys Mokhawa, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Botswana and the Chair of this meeting

Excellencies, Distinguished participants, and dear Colleagues,

Good morning.

I am honoured and  very pleased to welcome you to this regional review meeting on the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries.

At the outset, I wish to express my deep appreciation to the Government and the people of Botswana, for their warm hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for this meeting.

I thank the Government of Botswana for its outstanding leadership in steering the Group of LLDCs.  

I also take this opportunity to thank UNECA for their strong support and collaboration in organizing this meeting.  We greatly value our partnership. 

I also thank the 缅北禁地Resident Coordinator Zia Choudhury and the UNCT for their excellent support in organizing this meeting.

The Africa Regional Review Meeting of the VPOA is the first of the three regional reviews, which is being held as part of the preparatory process for the Third 缅北禁地Conference on LLDCs to be held next year in Kigali

This meeting would essentially be setting the stage for the other two regional meetings (in Asia and Latin America) and creating the necessary momentum for an ambitious outcome of the 3rd 缅北禁地Conference for the LLDCs.

This is the first time, an LLDC Conference is being held in Africa.  And I am delighted that we are starting the preparatory process here in Gaborone. 

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,

The aim of this meeting is two-fold. We wish to undertake a comprehensive review of the implementation of the VPOA in the Africa region; and reflect on the challenges, opportunities and lessons learned.  We will also focus on how we can best utilize the experiences and lessons learned to make the next POA more ambitious and action oriented, taking into account the current priorities of the LLDCs.

As you are aware, the United Nations undertook a Midterm Review of the Implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action in 2019.

The review revealed that while some progress was achieved, it was not commensurate with the scale required to ensure full and effective implementation of the VPOA and achieve the SDGs.

To address that situation, the 缅北禁地General Assembly adopted an ambitious “Call for action to accelerate the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action”.  

However, the COVID-19 pandemic came right after that, upending all efforts to reverse the situation.  The pandemic had devastating impacts on the LLDCs. Their decades of development gains were reversed. And it jeopardized the shared ambition to accelerate the implementation of the VPOA, the 2030 Agenda, and Africa’s Agenda 2063.   

As we meet today, the world continues to fight against the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is further aggravated by the cascading and interlinked global crises,  and climate emergency.

The outlook is indeed bleak.

Yet we shouldn’t lose hope.

Historically, major crises often generated new opportunities and innovative ideas. We should be able to utilize these difficult moments to mobilize further global support and solidarity to chart a transformative agenda for the LLDCs for the next decade.
 
Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,

The progress of implementation of the VPOA in the past 9 years has been mixed.  

We have witnessed some important progress. And also, some setbacks. Poverty levels in LLDCs have declined but are still higher than the world average. It now stands at 23% (2022).  

The GDP growth of the LLDCs has shown much slower progress than required, from 1.4% in 2015 to 2.2% in 2021.

The LLDCs continue to remain marginalised in global trade.  Their share of global merchandise trade remained stagnant at 1% since the adoption of the VPOA. And their merchandise exports continue to be concentrated on primary commodities, with very little value addition.

The LLDCs share of service exports remained only around 0.2%.  And this situation became worse during the pandemic.  The tourism sector, which is one of the main contributors in this area, suffered the most. It is still operating below the pre-pandemic level.[1]

Over and above this, the LLDCs continue to face high trade costs.

According to WTO, “trade costs that LLDCs face on manufacturing are about 1.4 times higher than the trade costs for coastal countries”[2].

Addressing high trade costs remain fundamental to integrating the LLDCs into global trade. Over the years, LLDCs and their transit neighbours made some progress in trade facilitation measures, such as establishment of one-stop border posts; coordinated border management; national single windows; and information portals; etc.

Yet LLDCs lag  behind in the implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. According to WTO data, progress on implementation of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement in LLDCs is about 34.7%. And for African LLDCs, it is even lower, at only 30%.

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues, 

There are, however, some good news.

The region has made notable progress in achieving efficient transit.

The development of both rail and road infrastructure as well as establishment of ‘One Stop Border Posts’ has led to reduced transit times.

For example, the development of the Djibouti–Addis Ababa corridor, reduced transit times from 4 days in 2010, to 12 hours in 2019. LLDCs have also become more active participants in regional initiatives for facilitating trade and transit such as Tripartite Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme; African Continental Free Trade Area; and Infrastructure Development Initiatives in Africa.

Various efforts have also been taken at the continental, regional and subregional levels, such as the Programme for Infrastructure Development for Africa; Trans Sahara Highway; etc.

The Kazungula Bridge, a joint project between Botswana and Zambia, is an exemplary success to pave the way for enhanced regional connectivity.

On regional integration, the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area ushered in a new era of hopes and aspirations for increased intra-regional trade.

Yet LLDCs’ still face major challenges in their transport infrastructure, which is characterized by missing links and poor maintenance.

There are also pressing challenges in their efforts to improve energy infrastructure and access to energy. In African LLDCs, access to electricity increased from 24% in 2014 to 37% in 2020. Although, this is much below the global average of 89%. The lack of access to energy remains a major impediment to their industrial development and economic diversification.

ICT connectivity and its use also remain low in LLDCs.  The use of the internet in the African LLDCs is only about 35%.  High costs of internet and transit challenges associated with accessing submarine cables are primary reasons for such a slow progress in this area.

Excellencies, Colleagues,

Clearly, the targets and aspirations of the VPOA, the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 are far off-track.

We must double-pace our efforts to turn things around. The 3rd LLDCs Conference provides us with an opportunity to do that.

As we engage in the next two days, and in the coming months, our primary goal should be to ensure that the next Programme of Action for the LLDCs is more ambitious and truly transformative. We must learn from our past success and failure and scale up best practices.

I know that it will be the prerogative of the Member States to determine the key priorities for the next POA.

However, based on the recent reports, studies, and discussions, allow me to highlight a few specific points:

First, infrastructure development and maintenance continue to remain critical for the land-locked countries to overcome their geographical and other structural constraints and fully leverage their potentials.

We have already seen some encouraging progress in the region to build sustainable and resilient infrastructure with a view to enhancing connectivity and facilitating trade and investment.

Yet there exist burgeoning gaps.

The new programme of action provides us an opportunity to mobilize more global support and multistakeholder partnership to close these gaps.

We need new and concrete initiatives to further strengthen infrastructure in the LLDCs, especially in transit transport, ICT, and energy sectors, as well as, related soft infrastructure about associated policies and frameworks.

Enhanced regional cooperation is going to be critical in this regard, especially to build an efficient and seamless transportation network of roads, railways, and ports, with a view to transforming these countries from land-locked status into land-linked.

Second, the technological and digital divides are the key impediments that stand on the way of the LLDCs to achieve the SDGs and set on course to a rapid and ambitious development trajectory. 

It will be critically important that the new programme of action considers enhancing research and development capacity-building of the LLDCs to harness the power of STI to achieve the SDGs.

Enhanced access to technologies, including the frontier technologies, will be critical in this regard.

Third, international trade is a critical driver to achieve the SDGs. In order to build the trade capacity and address persistent challenges that the LLDCs have been facing, they need scaled-up access to aid for trade, full implementation of the trade facilitation agreement, reduction of trade cost, and support for building trade capacities in MSMEs, e-commerce, and diversification of goods and services.

Fourth, prioritizing policies and initiatives that promote structural economic transformation in the LLDCs will be critical.

The LLDCs have manifold challenges to structural transformation, which include infrastructural, human resources, and investment constraints. They need enhanced support to move to higher production frontiers in regional and global value chains.

Fifth, the LLDCs are facing serious challenges due to extreme climate-related events, including storms, cyclones, flooding, heat waves, droughts, melting glaciers, landslide etc. Their needs and priorities must be further integrated into the global climate discourse.

We need to strengthen the systems that can help LLDCs to effectively reduce climate risks, by adaptation and resilience building measures. There should be well-functioning, multi-hazard early warning systems, national risk information systems, and reliable data.

Finally, financing for development will be the sine-qua-non to advance a successful development agenda in the LLDCs for the next decade, especially to ensure that the new POA accelerates the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

The LLDCs need enhanced financing from all sources, including from domestic sources, bilateral and multilateral donors, IFIs, RDBs and MDBs, as well as South-South and Triangular Cooperation, and other sources of innovative and blended financing.

They also need more support and solidarity to address the debt problems and ensure long-term debt sustainability.

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues,

As we prepare for next year’s Conference, the stake for Africa is very high. Half of the LLDCs are from this region. And this is the first time, that the LLDC Conference is being held in Africa.

We must leverage this once-in-a-decade opportunity for mobilizing enhanced global support and solidarity to strengthen partnerships to bring about transforamtive changes in the lives and livelihood of  533 million people in the world’s 32 landlocked countries.

Given the depth and breadth of the challenges that LLDCs, especially the African LLDCs are facing, a key priority now is to support these countries to regain lost momentum of the SDGs implementation and build resilience against current and future shocks.

To that end, we should aim to create the broadest possible coalition of partnerships between LLDCs, their transit neighbors, development partners, the UN, and other stakeholders.  And I am very pleased to see that we have representatives from all stakeholders and partners in this room, especially from the transit countries and partner countries.

The outcome of this meeting will be an important input to the preparations for the Third 缅北禁地Conference on LLDCs to be held in Kigali in June 2024.

I wish you all a very productive and successful meeting. 

I thank you.