Landlocked countries should increase their initiatives around integration in order to attract investment and boost their economies, assistant Agriculture minister, Molebatsi Molebatsi has said. Speaking this week at the High-Level Africa Regional Review Meeting to address challenges facing Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), Molebatsi said as a collective, landlocked countries have been experiencing a decline in their participation in international trade while at the same time facing difficulties from rising global inflation.

Sixteen landlocked African countries met in Gaborone this week as part of a greater endeavour to explore ways out of the trade hurdles impeding LLDCs from fully enjoying the benefits of international trade. Despite global technological improvement in sectors such as transport, LLDCs continue to face structural challenges to accessing world markets.

As a result, landlocked countries continue to lag behind their maritime neighbours and overly depend on them for trade facilitation and enhancement.

“Our countries are still marginalised from global trade due to the long distance to the sea, cumbersome transit challenges, and limited transit infrastructure,” Molebatsi said.

“We have also in recent years noticed an increase in debt and increase in employment.

“African countries have identified integration as a means of bolstering trade patterns to favour them.

“These integrational efforts include investing in infrastructure.” High Representative of the United Nations for Least Developed Countries, Rabab Fatima said LLDCs are in dire need of efficient modes of interconnectedness such as networks, ports, and railways as these factors are the core of sustaining the life of any economy. “Unfortunately, landlocked countries often suffer inadequate infrastructure, hindering their potential for socioeconomic advancement,” said Fatima. She further said the rampant levels of poverty and stalled growth of economic growth globally are a warning that needs a speedy response from landlocked countries.

“Poverty levels in LLDCs are still higher than the world average.

“Gross Domestic Product growth amongst LLDCs has shown much slower progress than required, from 1.4 percent in 2015 to 2.2 percent in 2021,” Fatima said.

She, however, said Botswana remains a beacon of hope, worthy to be paraded to other African countries as an example, citing the construction of the Kazungula Bridge, a landmark project completed in 2020, as the epitome of efforts to enhance regional connectivity.

“Given the depth and breadth of the challenges that LLDCs are facing, a key priority now is to support these countries to regain lost momentum and build resilience against current and future shocks,” Fatima said.