Mon, 25 Sep 2017 12:30:54 +0000
By Sandra Machima
SOCIAL and economic development agenda for Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) has continued to face major challenges in the absence of resilient transport infrastructure, says Foreign Affairs minister Harry Kalaba.
He said the challenges had continued despite having implemented the Vienna Programme of Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the Paris Agreement.
Mr Kalaba said this when he opened the annual ministerial meeting of Foreign Ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries alongside the United Nations General Assembly that was held in New York recently.
In a press statement released by Zambia Mission first press secretary in New York Wallen Simwaka, Mr Kalaba said the social and economic development agenda of LLDCs had continued to face challenges because of lack of resilient transport infrastructure.
Mr Kalaba said the LLDCs in the Vienna Programme of Action called for enhanced structural economic transformation, value-added trade facilitation and improved regional integration and transit policies.
“Three years into the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action, the LLDCs still face major obstacles to development. The social and economic development of LLDCs as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI) shows that development challenges continue to persist in most of the LLDCs,” he said
He said LLDCs also faced high transport and trade costs and as such, their exports remained uncompetitive on the global market.
“Our share of global market remains low and has been on the decline apart from exporting commodities with low value addition and technology content,” Mr Kalaba said.
Zambia is the chair of the 32 LLDCs and the theme for the annual meeting of Foreign Ministers of the LLDCs is: “Accelerating the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
The Vienna Programme of Action is a new and holistic declaration centred upon addressing the challenges faced by landlocked developing countries and aims to contribute to the eradication of poverty stemming from landlockedness, through the implementation of specific actions in the priority areas.
Mr Kalaba also said global exports for the LLDCs had remained low and regrettably on the decline as well as uncompetitive on the global market.
