LDCs face structural, market and climate challenges: Foreign Secretary Rai

KATHMANDU: Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai has said deep‑rooted structural impediments, limited access to international markets, widening digital divides, resource constraints and increasing climate‑related impacts are among the challenges facing the least developed countries (LDCs).

Rai made the remarks on Tuesday at the High‑level Meeting on Forging Ambitious Global Partnerships for Sustainable and Resilient Graduation of LDCs in Doha, where he spoke as chair of the Global Coordination Bureau of the group of LDCs.

He called for robust global solidarity and ambitious partnerships to ensure the smooth, sustained and irreversible graduation of the LDCs, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Rai also addressed a session entitled High‑level Ministerial Dialogue on strategic pathways for navigating sustainable graduation amid a challenging global development landscape and unlocking new opportunities. He highlighted key areas — agriculture, hydropower, tourism, manufacturing, ICT and human capital — that hold “immense potential” for Nepal’s economic transformation despite the difficult global context, and expressed Nepal’s keen interest in working closely with development partners, the UN system and the international community for sustained graduation.

In the afternoon, he paid an inspection visit to the Embassy of Nepal in Doha, instructing embassy officials to protect and promote Nepal’s national interest and to make every possible effort to deliver the best services to Nepali migrant workers in Qatar.

The Foreign Secretary is on a three‑day visit to Doha to participate in the High‑level Meeting jointly organised by the Qatari government and the UN Office of the High Representative for the LDCs, the Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island States (UN‑OHRLLS).