Washington DC, June 14: Nepal has met the criteria to graduate to the status of developing country with mid-level income from the category of Least Developed Country (LDC). In this connection, preparation is being made to get the final proposal endorsed from upcoming General Assembly of the United Nations.

The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has principally given a consent to present the proposal in the upcoming UNGA for endorsement. The UNGA is taking place on September this year.

Chief of the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York, Amrit Rai said a meeting of the UN’s ECOSOC held recently in New York also recommended Nepal being eligible to graduate to the country of mid-level income from the present status of low income and is presenting the proposal for endorsement in the upcoming UNGA.

“Out of three stipulated criteria for graduation we had fulfilled two in 2015 and 2018 which paved our way for graduation”, permanent representative Rai told RSS. “Earlier, we had asked to put on hold the proposal for graduation citing devastating earthquake at the moment. Now it is entering into the phase of endorsement”, he clarified.

Nepal is in the list of eligible countries for uplift after meeting the two among the three criteria – per capita income in Gross Domestic Product, human asset index and economic and environmental vulnerability index.

It requires three years for developing complementary plan of action for the transitional management following the endorsement of graduation decision. However, heeding the request, UN has given Nepal the timeline of 2026 by adding two consecutive years owing to the troubled times brought out by coronavirus.

Likewise, the UN Committee ‘Policy for Development’ had also recommended Nepal as a capable country for graduation last year.