Commitment to linking landlocked countries to growth of region

Hosted by the government of Laos, in cooperation with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) and other UN agencies, the three-day consultation brought together representatives from the 14 Euro-Asian LLDCs, development partners, the private sector and civil society.

In closing remarks, Noeleen Heyzer, a UN under-secretary-general and Escap executive secretary, said that with the support and cooperation of transit countries and the international community, LLDCs of the region not only could realise their full development potential, but could also play an important role as land bridges and hubs connecting countries through land-transport corridors.

She highlighted Escap’s vision of an international integrated-intermodal transport and logistics system in Asia, combining the Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway networks together with the network of dry ports, linking LLDCs to high-growth coastal areas in corridors of prosperity.

However, she underscored that for LLDCs to achieve their full development potential, when putting in place trade and transport facilities for these corridors, people-centred development must be at its core, so that there is prosperity for all.

The review identified five broad priorities for the global review and the debate about the post-2015 development agenda, including a focus on job-creating and inequality-reducing growth, by strengthening education and vocational training, nutrition and health, gender empowerment and social protection; and on diversification of their economies in favour of value-adding products to reduce their vulnerability to commodity-price shocks. 

This could also include the development of services sectors such as tourism, information and communications technology services, energy production and transmission, education and health, finance and banking that are not dependent on the access to sea, for the  creation of  incomes, jobs and exports.

The Vientiane Outcome Document also cited trade facilitation, highlighting the need for the World Trade Organisation accession of LLDCs on easy and expedited terms, transit and transport facilitation by neighbouring countries, enhanced and better-quality flows of overseas development assistance, aid-for-trade and foreign direct investment, and capacity-building support for productive and trade-capacity development and climate-change mitigation. The Vientiane Consensus will be placed at the 69th session of Escap’s Commission in Bangkok from April 25 to May 1.