The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, New York

Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed on Wednesday urged the surplus developed countries to do more to rein in the rising food price.

"In many LDCs where poor households spend nearly 70 percent of their income on food items, a sharp increase in food price has a strong adverse effect on the incidence of poverty and human development," the Foreign Adviser said.

He demanded that the developed countries must increase food aid to avert humanitarian crisis in many LDCs.

He was speaking on behalf of the 50 Least Developed Countries at the UN Thematic Debate on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the UN headquarters here.

A large number of ministers and senior officials are attending the two-day thematic debate organised by the President of the General Assembly. The Foreign Adviser said that global warming and climate change were also adversely affecting the achievement of the MDGs by many LDCs. "The increased risk of floods and droughts caused by climate change will lead to huge losses in agricultural production, which will further impede MDGs achievement," he added. The Adviser said, "the post-2012 agreement must not stifle development potentials of the LDCs. We must ensure that their development is sustainable and environment-friendly. We strongly feel that like the Adaptation Board, there should also be a Technology-transfer Board."

He further stressed that the developed countries and the developing countries in a position to do so must grant meaningful duty-free and quota-free market access to all products from all LDCs, unilaterally and without discrimination.

"This should be done by the end of 2008, pending the conclusion of the Doha Development Round," Dr Chowdhury added.