UNCTAD / GRYNSPAN PRESSER LDCS

As services take on a growing role in least developed countries, UNCTAD is launching its latest Least Developed Countries Report to assess whether this shift can deliver inclusive and sustainable development. UNCTAD / UNTV CH

• Video Length: 00:02:08
• Production Date: 10 February 2026
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT - UNCTAD
• Subject Topical: LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES; EMPLOYMENT; ECONOMICS
• MAMS Id: 3534047
• Parent Id: 3534047
• Alternate Title: unifeed260210f

Description

STORY: UNCTAD / GRYNSPAN PRESSER LDCS
TRT: 02:08
SOURCE: UNCTAD / UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 FEBRUARY 2026, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD:
“We are launching the UN Trade and Development Report on the least Developed Countries. It examines whether services can deliver sustained growth, better jobs, and rising incomes.”
4. Med shot, podium, briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD:
“Least developed countries face unprecedented employment challenges. Between now and 2050, they will need to create jobs for around 13.2 million new labor market entrants every year, making employment creation a defining constraint for development strategies.”
6. Med shot, journalists, photographers in the briefing room.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD:
“The benefits of the digital economy growth are happening largely outside the least developed countries.”
8. Close up, journalist in the briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD:
“What we are saying is this is an opportunity, but services will contribute to transformation only when they are able to rise productivity. This happens when services are linked to manufacturing, to agriculture, to logistics and to trade. And it requires skills, infrastructure, digital connectivity and supportive investment policies.
10. Wide shot, briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD:
“Get it right, and services can support better jobs, stronger exports and more resilient economies. Get it wrong, and existing asymmetries will deepen and social and economic benefits won't happen.”
12. Various shots, briefing room

Storyline

As services take on a growing role in least developed countries, UNCTAD is launching its latest Least Developed Countries Report to assess whether this shift can deliver inclusive and sustainable development.

At a press briefing in Geneva today (10 Feb), Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan outlined why services are not a shortcut to prosperity and why their transformative potential depends on strong links to manufacturing and agriculture, investment in digital skills and infrastructure, and supportive trade and investment policies.

The report shows that despite the rapid growth of services, LDCs remain largely excluded from the most dynamic segments of global trade, particularly digitally deliverable services.

“Services can be a driver of structural transformation,” Grynspan said, “but only if they are part of a coherent development strategy and supported by a global environment that expands opportunity rather than deepens exclusion.”