GENEVA, Feb 10 (KUNA) -- According to a new report released Tuesday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Least developed countries (LDCs) are facing an unprecedented employment challenge with job creation emerging as the defining constraint for their development strategies.
These countries will need to create around 13.2 million jobs every year between now and 2050 to absorb new entrants into the labor market, the report added.
For her part the UN Trade and Development Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said during a press conference held in Geneva that although services play an increasingly important role globally they are not on their own an automatic pathway to structural transformation or prosperity for least developed countries.
She noted that services now account for around half of economic output in the average LDC and are often presented particularly in the context of digital transformation as a new development pathway.
However she added that the evidence-based analysis in the report questions whether services can deliver sustained growth better jobs and rising incomes without productivity gains and strong linkages to other productive sectors.
Grynspan also stressed the more volatile global economy marked by slowing growth weak investment, rising debt pressures, geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions are increasing internal challenges for those countries.
She stressed that the central challenge for least developed countries today is not participation in the global economy but ensuring that such participation is equitable and sustainable.
Grynspan welcomed the recent renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) by the United States describing it as an example of how predictable rules-based market access can underpin investment and job creation particularly in labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and apparel agriculture and natural resource-based products.
She also noted that despite being among the fastest-growing segments of global trade LDCs account for just 0.16 per cent of global exports of digitally deliverable services.
She explained that this reflects persistent gaps in digital skills connectivity and technological capacity leaving the benefits of the digital economy largely outside least developed countries.
Grynspan emphasized that closing digital divides strengthening capabilities and actively supporting services exporters are essential if LDCs are to compete in modern services and translate growth into broad-based development.
She stressed that services can support structural transformation only when they raise productivity, are linked to manufacturing agriculture logistics and trade, and are backed by investments in digital infrastructure reliable energy education and skills development. (end) imk.aai