Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh is in a good position to graduate to a developing nation from the Least Developed Country (LDC) status, according to the annual report of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Among the three indicators of being eligible for such graduation, the country's score on per capita income is $926, human asset index (HAI) 63.8 and economic vulnerability index (EVI) 25.1.
If development continues, the country will be eligible to stay in two graduating triennial review stages-first in 2018 and the second in 2021.
On behalf of the UNCTAD's global launching of the report, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has revealed the findings at a function in the city on Thursday.
UNCTAD in every three years reviews the status of the LDCs and its latest review was in 2015, while the next triennial review is in 2018.
Dr Mustafizur Rahman, CPD's  Executive Director, said, "Bangladesh is in a good position on two indices and it needs to be continued for reaching the eligible level as per threshold in 2018."
UNCTAD in its latest annual report has laid  emphasis on rural development for Bangladesh, the CPD official said, suggesting that the government raise budgetary allocation for agriculture development and increase productivity so that Bangladesh can graduate to a developing nation.
Towfiqul Islam Khan, CPD's Research Fellow, revealed the report.
He said till today only four countries (Botswana, Cape Verde, Maldives and Samoa) and as per the last review Equatorial Guinea and Vanuatu are scheduled to be taken out of the list of LDC in June 2017 and December 2017.
Khan said by the time of 2018 review, Bangladesh has a fairly good possibility to meet both the income and HAI criteria.
Bangladesh's GDP growth is higher than many other countries and in the 2015 fiscal it was 6.5 per cent..
As per triennial review, in 2013, Bangladesh's GDP share was 56.1 percent in service, 16.3 per cent in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing, 10.4 per cent in manufacturing industry and 17.3 in non-manufacturing industry.
In the year 2014,  sectoral employments were 38.6 per cent in service, 18.2 per cent in industry and 43.2 per cent in agriculture.
In agricultural land productivity, Bangladesh tops the LDCs and it ranks fourth employment in industry, 5th in share of agriculture in total employment, 6th in both GDP per capita growth and total debt stock as of GNI.
In foreign direct investment inflow, Bangladesh ranks 7th among 48 LDCs and 15th in real GDP growth.
But the report also shows that Bangladesh ranks the lowest 48th in Land/Labour ratio among 48 LDCs.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, CPD's Distinguished Fellow, said Bangladesh needs to give emphasis on agriculture and rural development in its seventh Five-year Plan.
The budgetary allocation should be increased for better health and quality education, he said, pointing out that
in UNCTAD's HAI criteria Bangladesh still lags behind many LDCs.
But for the next review in 2018 and another in 2021, a lot of time is still in hand and it is possible to meet the required improvement, he added.