1.   In the run up to the 4th UNLDC Conference to be held in Istanbul, Turkey on May 9-13, 2011, Government of India is hosting an India-LDC Ministerial Conference on “Harnessing the positive contribution of South-South Cooperation for development of Least Developed Countries” in cooperation with the United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Land Locked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) on February 18-19, 2011 in New Delhi. Thirty Five Ministers from all the 48 Leased Developed Countries (LDCs) will be participating in the Conference along with the Permanent Representatives (PRs) to the United Nations in New York of all the 48 LDCs. The Conference will also be attended by the Secretary General of UN-OHRLLS, other senior UN officials and by several Observers.

2.   The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) represent the poorest and weakest segment of the international community, characterized by poverty, structural weaknesses of their economies and severe capacity constraints in institutional and human resources. In order to generate international attention and action on ameliorating the socio-economic condition of the LDCs, the First United Nations (UN) Conference on the LDCs (UNLDC-I) was organized in Paris in 1981. This was followed up by UNLDC-II and UNLDC-III Conferences in 1990 and 2001 respectively. The UNLDC-III adopted the Brussels Declaration and the Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA) for LDCs for the decade 2001-2010.

3.   The importance of the India-LDC Conference emanates from the following facts: (i) the LDCs comprise the most vulnerable section of the global community. Their number has gone up from 25 in 1971 to 48 in 2011 which is a matter of great concern; (ii) Sustained global growth and stability will remain a dream if economies of the LDCs continue to be underdeveloped and their natural and human resources remain untapped, preventing their overall socio-economic advancement; (iii) In recent times, South –South cooperation has come to be recognized as a powerful instrument in facilitating the process of capacity building, institutional and physical infrastructure within the South, which includes every LDC.

4.   The global economic canvas is rapidly getting transformed with developing countries like India significantly contributing to the process of global growth as important producers, traders and consumers of goods and services. Developing country exports now account for over 40% of the global merchandise exports and outbound FDI from developing countries is also on the rise. The LDCs receive over 40% of total FDI from developing countries. In addition, emerging economies are seen as increasingly important sources of development finance for LDCs.

5.   During the course of the Conference, India will also be highlighting its own national instruments of mutually beneficial South-South cooperation that are in the forefront of assisting the LDCs – (i) Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC), (ii) Duty Free, Quota Free (DFQF) regime for LDCs’ exports to India, (iii) Africa E-connectivity Project and (iv) Government of India’s credit line programme. Under the ITEC Programme initiated in 1964, India annually provides 5000 slots in various disciplines and subjects to representatives of a 158 countries many of whom are also the least developed. India also has been active in the development of the infrastructure in LDCs and India’s private sector has been particularly active and the cumulative value of investment, FDI, from Indian private sector entities into LDCs is in the tune of about 35 billion US dollars. In the current ongoing multilateral trade negotiations under the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Round, India has been pressing for a development oriented outcome of these negotiations and in that context India has also been working towards getting the LDCs a particularly favourable deal or outcome. The cumulative value of India’s lines of credit that have been extended to the LDCs is in the order of about 4.3 billion US dollars.

6.   The Conference would provide the participants with an opportunity to brainstorm on the issue of how South-South Cooperation could contribute to the development of LDCs. The Conference would identify key initiatives and provide policy recommendations on how to harness the resources of the South and leverage their contribution to the development of LDCs in the coming years. This would feed as an important input to the Istanbul Conference in May 2011. Further details about the Conference can be seen at http://india-ldc.nic.in/.