Declaration of Rabat urges for support of LDCs development efforts

Participants in the extraordinary ministerial conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) called on Wednesday developed countries to support their development efforts and live up to their commitments vis-a-vis LDCs.

Foreign ministers or delegates of 49 least developed countries meeting in Rabat, capital of Morocco that chairs the G-77 and China, called developed countries "to increase their contribution to funds destined to the struggle against major diseases," and invited international organizations "to support as a priority the programs of technical cooperation with LDCs."

Recalling the commitment made by the International Community at the Doha Ministerial Conference of the WTO (World Trade Organization), the Declaration of Rabat called for addressing the marginalization of LDCs in international trade and assisting them fully integrate into the multilateral trading system.

The G77 member states and China were further called to take, within the South-South cooperation, solidarity measures in favor of the LDCs in the fields of trade, finance and technical assistance. An appeal was made to "developed countries to make concrete efforts toward the target of 0.7 percent of gross national product as official development assistance to developing countries."

In the same vein, participants praised Morocco's initiatives in favor of LDCs, notably the cancellation of the debts of African LDCs to the Kingdom and the opening of Morocco's markets to their products without tariffs.

At the closing ceremony of the two-day conference, Moroccan foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Mohammed Benaissa, said the "Rabat Declaration" does not only reaffirm the major concerns of LDCs and recall the international community's commitments to them, but also adopted a package of recommendations that are likely to give a new dynamic for the creation of favorable conditions for a genuine economic boost in LDCs.

The encounter, that ended on Wednesday, is part of the new dynamic that Morocco, in its capacity of the Group of 77 (G-77), intends to apply to the South-South cooperation and the re-launching of the development of LDCs within an international context marked by globalization and economies' interdependence.