June 15: Nepal has met the minimum required criteria to graduate to the status of developing country with mid-level income from the category of Least Developed Country (LDC), according to the state-owned national news agency RSS. In this connection, preparation is being made to get the final proposal endorsed from upcoming General Assembly of the United Nations.    
RSS reported that 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 later this year.    
Chief of the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York, Amrit Rai told RSS that 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 country 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,” RSS reported Rai. “Earlier, we had asked to put on hold the proposal for graduation due to the devastating earthquake. Now it is entering into the phase of endorsement,” Rai clarified.    
Nepal is in the list of eligible countries for graduate to developing country after meeting the two among the three criteria – per capita income in Gross Domestic Product, human asset index and economic and environmental vulnerability index.    
According to RSS, it requires three years for developing complementary plan of action for the transitional management following the endorsement of the graduation decision. However, heeding the request, UN has given Nepal an additional two years until 2026 owing to the troubled times caused by coronavirus.