UNCTAD released the “Least Developed Countries Report 2018: Entrepreneurship for Structural Transformation” in Geneva on November 20. The report stated that from Afghanistan to Zambia, governments in the world’s most disadvantaged countries must prioritise dynamic enterprises and enact policies to help them thrive, create jobs, innovate and transform the economy. Subtitled ‘Beyond Business as Usual’, the report looked at the conditions for creating and growing high-impact businesses in the least developed countries (LDCs), a group of 47 nations that included most of sub-Saharan Africa, some Asian countries, and several island states. The group qualified for preferential treatment in world trade and climate change arrangements due to chronic disadvantages that left them among the world’s poorest nations.
“The report establishes a more active stance for the state in steering the emergence of dynamic and transformational local entrepreneurship,” said UNCTAD Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi. He added, “By encouraging policymakers to value the benefits of entrepreneurship, this report makes an invaluable contribution to efforts to add value to the least developed countries’ implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
