Wealth gap widens for least developed countries

THE wealth gap between the least developed and other countries has widened in recent decades and will go on doing so unless their basic weaknesses are tackled, according to a report for the United Nations. "The 'least developed' condition has tended to generate less development," even though most of the countries concerned had some economic growth, the report said. A total of 48 nations, more than two-thirds of them in Africa, are classified by the United Nations as Least Developed Countries - a rating based on several criteria, including per capita gross national income of less than US$905. The 9-member panel who compiled the report was headed by former Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare and former World Bank President James Wolfensohn. It studied the impact of an action program on LDCs launched at a UN conference in Brussels in 2001 for the ensuing decade. Its recommendations are to be considered at a conference in Istanbul in May, which will adopt a new program for the next 10 years. "We have come to the conclusion that despite some progress on the economic and social front, the gap between the LDCs and the rest of the world, including the low middle income countries, is widening," the 43-page report said. Poor education, health and nutrition, limited infrastructure, dependence on fragile agricultural sectors and a limited range of exports was to blame, the report said. "Unless we address the structural weaknesses that make these countries least developed, we will not reverse their increasing marginalization," it added. The average per capita income in the least developed countries had fallen from 18 percent of the world average 40 years ago to 15 percent by 2008. The gap would widen in future if present trends continued, it said.