Angola prepares for removal from UNCTAD list of LDCs

19 July 2012

The Angolan government is in the final stages of preparing a report of the measures to be adopted in order to remove the country from the list of the least developed countries, the secretary of State for Cooperation, Exalgina Gamboa said according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

In a statement issued Wednesday UNCTAD said that together with other United Nations agencies support would be provided for reviewing and improving measures that would lead to Angola’s removal from the list of least developed countries.

Gamboa is expected to present the Angolan government’s report in the next regular session of the UNCTAD department for Trade and Development, held in Geneva from 17 to 28 September.

At its 14th session last March the United Nations Commission for Development Policy concluded that Angola had the necessary pre-requisites to be removed from the list of least developed countries given that it has a per capita gross national income of two times the required minimum.

The category of least developed countries was presented by UNCTAD at the end of the 1960s in order to focus international attention and to put systems in place to reverse the deteriorating conditions of the most vulnerable countries in the international community.

Forty eight countries are currently on the list – 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia-Pacific and 1 in the Caribbean – and so far only three countries – Botswana in 1994, Cape Verde in 2007, and the Maldives in 2011 – have been removed from the list.

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