Foreign Affairs and External Trade Minister, Jeremiah Manele has presented the Solomon Islands case at the LDC conference in Doha to seek an extension to its graduation preparation from Least Developed Country status. Minister Manele told delegates that the country was scheduled to graduate at the end of 2024, but wants more time to prepare for its smooth transition graduation strategy. He said the country’s preparatory process was disrupted by multiple shocks, including COVID-19, civil unrest, climate change variations, recent wave of strong earthquakes and the Russian Ukraine conflict.
Minister Manele said in short, Solomon Islands has lost the period, granted by the United Nations General Assembly. “We now have a time bound roadmap with milestone to finalize our Smoot Transition Strategy beginning this year going forward into 2027′ Manele said.
In the past 10 years, only four countries have graduated from the list of LDCs. 16 others are on different stages of graduation readiness. In the Pacific region, Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu are still in the LDC category.
