Expanding and diversifying productive capacities will better position least developed countries (LDCs) to tap the financing and e-trade opportunities that will underpin their Covid-19 recovery. This was a recurrent theme in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Least Developed Countries Report 2020, which cautioned however that the international community must first rally with resources, policy space and better international support measures.

Least developed countries (LDCs) receive only 6% of the private finance mobilized globally through blended finance, and even then funds are concentrated in a handful of LDCs while ‘last mile’ countries, sectors and businesses miss out.

Photo: An apparel worker at a garment factory that reopened amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Myanmar was already moving to get its businesses online. With COVID-19, they were able to speed things up.

A roundup of recent news on the global pandemic, covering issues facing some of the world’s poorest countries – and what they are doing

Digital system set to streamline procedures for trade from LDCs to the EU

New tech uses present challenges – and a host of opportunities – for the world’s poorest countries