New York, September 29

The summit of the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) concluded on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)’s 70th session today that was participated by the heads of state and governments.

On the occasion, UN Under-Secretary General Gyan Chandra Acharya presented a review on the progress and challenges faced by the LLDCs, which constitutes of 32 countries.

The conference reviewed the earlier objectives and deliberated on the upcoming strategies for achieving the goals. The landlocked countries have been facing a host of challenges that include territorial access to sea and remoteness and isolation from international markets.

The conference primarily focused on implementation of the right to transportation envisaged by the Vienna Conference and consolidating regional support and creative economic transformation.

In the backdrop of passage of post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals in the ongoing UNGA session, the LLDC conference underscored the necessity of expansion of support from the international community to the least developed and landlocked countries for sustainable development.

Addressing LLDC conference, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, stressed on focusing on economic diversification, creative transformation and strengthening worldwide and regional cooperation to link landlocked countries.

Minister Pandey further emphasised on creating an environment for creating employment and for investment in infrastructure and production sector of the landlocked countries, increasing export by mobilisation of the local resources and implementing the Vienna Programme of Action with an extensive viewpoint.

Underlining the importance of the role of transportation among neighbouring countries, Minister Pandey called for development of necessary infrastructure for the same and expansion of opportunities for easing freight facilities.

The first LLDC conference was held a decade back in Almaty of Kazakhstan. On November 3 and 4, 2014 the group endorsed the Vienna Programme of Action for the LLDCs.