Laos will graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Country (LDC) category this year. Doing so not only achieves a national aspiration from the 2000s but also marks the end of a decades-long categorisation that has framed the country as “poor”. Laos will surpass three ASEAN Member States that remain as LDCs — Cambodia, Myanmar and Timor-Leste — and 44 countries that are still classified as such. In January 2026, Laos set a long-term development goa…
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