Luanda - The three-year moratorium granted by the United Nations to Angola, for its graduation from the category of Least Developed Country (LDC) to that of Medium Income, requires speed from the Angolan authorities in preparing the technical conditions to enable the promotion in February 2024.
For the next three years, the Angolan Government will be working with the United Nations system and its main trade and development partners in the preparation of its National Transition Strategy (NTS).
Within this framework, the UN Economic and Social Department will prepare the prior assessment of the graduation impact, while the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development will deal with the country's Vulnerability Profile.
NTS aims to facilitate the elaboration of transition strategies and to identify measures and actions with a view to realizing the vision of transforming Angola into a socially and economically viable country, as well as studying ways to avoid sudden reductions in technical assistance and the advantages related status of LDCs.
The prior assessment of the impact of graduation serves to examine the potential impacts of graduation resulting from possible changes in international measures to support LDCs, including preferential access to export markets and increased contributions to multilateral organizations.
The resolution on this matter, negotiated in New York since December 2020 and adopted by consensus, last week, by the 193 UN member states, recognizes the economic difficulties that Angola is going through to diversify its economy, due to the fall of the oil price, the main export product, aggravated by the health crisis of Covid-19.
The fact that the national economy remains “highly vulnerable” to external shocks due to fluctuations in the oil market and continues to experience a persistent economic recession, aggravated by Covid-19, led the Government to take diplomatic action to convince UN member states to accept its request to extend the term for graduation for the country.
The graduation of Angola from the category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to that of Medium Income Countries (MIC), which was scheduled for February this year, has been rescheduled for February 12, 2024.
The resolution of the General Assembly (A / RES / 75/259) "decides to grant Angola, exceptionally, an additional period of preparation of three years, before its effective graduation date".
