A three-day Ministerial Meeting of Asia-Pacific LDCs on Graduation and Post-2015 Development Agenda ended on Friday issuing a 24-point Kathmandu Declaration for Sustainable Graduation of Asia-Pacific LDCs.

The meeting has concluded with emphasis that graduation should not be seen as an end goal, but should rather be regarded as a means to achieve structural change, poverty eradication and economic diversification in the country, while simultaneously contributing to sustainable development goals in an accelerated and effective manner.

 The LDCs have called upon their development partners including donor countries and countries in the South, as well as UN System organizations, international financial institutions, regional development banks and other stakeholders to ensure adequate, effective and timely implementation of all commitments and actions in favor of LDCs to support their efforts towards graduation in the spirit of renewed and strengthened global partnership.

The LDCs have urged the donor community to fulfill their commitment of 0.15 to 0.20 percent of Gross National Income to LDCs on priority basis and review their ODA as agreed in the Istanbul Plan of Action (IPoA) and to allocate at least 50 percent of the ODA and the Aid for Trade disbursement to LDCs taking into account the unique structural handicaps, constraints and severity of development challenges faced by the LDCs.

The Kathmandu Declaration has also urged development partners to fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund as a matter of urgency with a goal of mobilizing US$ 100 billion per year by 2020, increase substantially foreign direct investment flows to LDCs, provide duty free, quota-free market access to LDCs and facilitate and accelerate negotiations with acceding LDCs on the basis of accession guidelines adopted by WTO General Council reports My Republica.

Likewise, they have called for ensuring full cancellation of multilateral and bilateral debt owed by LDCs to creditors, taking concrete actions to promote orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration, ensuring immediate implementations of the WTO service waiver decision and accord special priority and preference in the service sectors and modes of supply of export interests to the LDCs and further ensuring the transition period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO so that LDCs can make full use of flexibilities provided by the agreement as long as they remain LDCs.

The LDCs in the meeting have maintained that productive capacity-building is essential to foster structural transformation for accelerated and inclusive growth, employment generation and poverty eradication and that they should be at the center of national policies and international support measures for graduation and smooth transition.“"We underline the growing importance of regional cooperation and integration in the context of Asia Pacific LDCs especially in the areas of economic cooperation and trade integration; investment promotion, infrastructure connectivity, energy, water, climate change and disaster risk reduction and other relevant areas,” said the declaration.