Bangladesh gets three more years before LDC graduation

The United Nations General Assembly has approved Bangladesh's request for a three-year extension of its preparatory period for graduation from the least developed country (LDC) category, moving the deadline from 24 November 2026 to 24 November 2029. The decision, adopted on Thursday, followed a proposal introduced by Uruguay on behalf of Bangladesh. The 81st UNGA session, chaired by its president Khalilur Rahman, also approved Nepal's request for a three-year extension.

The extension will allow Bangladesh to retain LDC-related international support measures and trade preferences during the additional preparatory period, giving the country more time to address structural weaknesses and strengthen export competitiveness. Bangladesh has been in the LDC category since December 1975 and met all three graduation criteria — gross national income per capita, the human assets index and the economic vulnerability index — in the consecutive reviews of 2018 and 2021.