The Government on July 30 signed a USD 2 million project with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to help draft a socio-economic development strategy (SEDS) for the next decade.
The project, to run until 2010, will formulate a SEDS for the 2010-20 period by assisting the Planning and Investment Ministry’s Development Strategy Institute in conducting necessary researches and learning international experience.
The strategy will convert broad socio-economic development plans into action programs and activities and aims to fulfill the SEDS goal of “fairer distribution of benefits through integration into the world economy.”
Through this project, UNDP expects to facilitate
However, the country should overcome several challenges to become a middle-income nation by 2010 and to transform from an agrarian to an industrialized and modernized economy, the deputy director said.
These challenges include maintaining high economic growth, controlling inequality and providing social welfare to every citizen, ensuring democracy and access to civic rights, protecting the environment, and coping with climate change to ensure sustainable development.-