An online meeting on ‘Reconciliation of Data and Methodology on LDC Graduation between CDP Secretariat and the Economic Relations Division (ERD) took place on 19 November 2020.

National Project Manager of Support to Sustainable Graduation Project Mr. Monowar Ahmed moderated the meeting. Secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division Mr. Mohammad Yamin Chowdhury, Project Director of SSGP Mr. Farid Aziz and high officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to United Nations in New York, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, SSGP and UNCDP participated in the meeting.

Participants in the meeting analysed Bangladesh’s current position in the LDC Graduation indicators and sub indicators. CDP officials also provided a comparative picture of the CDP data and BBS data in each of those sub indicators. They also explained the calculation methodologies and data sources of each of the sub indicators.

Participants in the meeting observed that there were little discrepancies between the CDP data and BBS data. They also opined that the methodology of data calculation for UNCDP and BBS were almost the same. They also observed that Bangladesh is on track to meet the graduation criteria once again during the upcoming triennial review of CDP in February 2021.