‘Losses after graduation are offset by new opportunities’

Ashish Shah, director at the International Trade Centre (ITC), on Nepal's challenges and opportunities as the country is scheduled to graduate from LDC by 2026 and the ICT’s plans to support it during the transition.

Ashish Shah is director at the International Trade Centre (ITC) and currently looks after the Division of Country Programmes. Prior to joining the ITC, he worked first at the International Labour Office in Geneva and then at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Shah is a member of the EIF (Enhanced Integrated Framework) Board, to which he brings more than 20 years of international and United Nations experience in the field of trade promotion and development. His experience in providing strategic advice on trade development issues and engaging in high-level policy dialogues with stakeholders in Africa, Asia and the Arab region has been put at the service of the least developed countries (LDCs) to develop and diversify their export bases. In an email interview with the Post, Shah talks about Nepal's challenges and opportunities as the country is scheduled to graduate from LDC by 2026 and the ICT's plans to support it during the transition. Excerpts :