Greater regional connectivity through integrated and terrestrial networks is vital to effectively linking Asia’s 12 landlocked development countries (LLDCs) to the region’s infrastructure networks, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said today.

Asia’s landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) need a stable investment-friendly and competitive macro-economic policy framework, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said Tuesday, calling for action to promote economic diversification in order to reduce volatility of economic and export growth.

The international community must aid the world’s landlocked developing countries (LLDC) in pursuing their goals for greater economic development to transition from being landlocked to “landlinked,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon advised today, noting that only through comprehensive improvements in trade would such nations be best prepared to tackle the post-2015 agenda.

Ahead of a major United Nations conference on landlocked development countries (LLDCs) set for later this year, delegates at a high-level meeting in Mongolia have called for the immediate ratification of an agreement which will help boost trade and make it easier for these countries to participate competitively in global markets.