29th June 2011, New York, United Nations - The General Assembly unanimously adopted a Maldives-led resolution this morning to extend travel-related benefits to the Least Developed Countries (LDC) that graduate to non-LDC status. Previously, countries that graduated from the LDC list were granted certain benefits for a three-year period after graduation. However, travel benefits, which are granted by the United Nations, were automatically discontinued upon graduation. The Maldives estimates that its travel to international conferences total approximately $70,000 annually. The resolution also calls for continued monitoring and reporting of progress made by LDC graduates in order to improve the system.
The Maldives graduated from the LDC list on 1 January 2011, and is one of only three countries to graduate since the world's most underdeveloped countries were identified in 1971. In the months leading up to its graduation the Maldives expressed both anticipation and anxiety about its transition to non-LDC status. It stated that while it welcomed the fact that graduation represented the Maldives' socioeconomic achievements, it also recognized the precarious nature of the graduation process and stressed the need to strengthen the graduation framework.
In the weeks following its graduation, Maldives' representatives to the United Nations held events and dozens of bilateral meetings where they maintained that although the General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2004 to support LDC graduates during their transition period, it needed to address the oversight in its decision. They maintained that the General Assembly was silent in 2004 on LDC-related benefits extended by the United Nations system. This includes travel benefits, which they argued was significant to small countries, like Maldives, that find it crucial, but economically daunting to participate in international conferences that shape the activities and decisions of the international community. The Maldives introduced its resolution to the Group of 77 and China (G77 and China) in early March. The G77 and China adopted this resolution in late April and introduced it to the General Assembly for adoption this morning. The Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations, H.E. Ghafoor Mohammed, took the floor to make a statement of thanks to the Member States for their unanimous support of the resolution.
He further expressed the fact that the resolution "strengthens the graduation framework for least developed countries by further implementing the 2004 smooth transition resolution which endeavors to ensure that a country's transition from the LDC list is a smooth one." He further stated that "There is still work to be done to ensure that our intentions in 2004 are fully realized for those countries that will graduate in the coming years. The Maldives is committed to continuing to share its experiences as we maneuver through our own transition period over the next three years, and we thank the Member States again for making this possible with today's decision."
In addition to the 131 developing countries represented by the Group of 77 and China, thirty-five developed and middle-income countries cosponsored the resolution. These countries are: Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
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