GABORONE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Africa's landlocked countries are locked out of global trade and the global response to COVID-19 and climate change and efforts are needed to help them address trade and development challenges, Assistant Minister of Agriculture of Botswana Molebatsi Molebatsi said Monday.

Molebatsi made the remarks at the United Nations high-level Africa Regional Review Meeting of the Vienna Programme Action for Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) for the decade 2014-2024 hosted in Botswana.

"LLCDs countries are still marginalized from global trade due to long distance to the seas, cumbersome transit challenges and limited transit infrastructure," Molebatsi said.

Molebatsi's comment came as 16 countries gathered in Gaborone to identify appropriate policy measures and concrete action-oriented recommendations at the national, regional and global levels, which should aim at addressing the special challenges of LLDCs and accelerating their sustainable development progress over the next decade.

"The recommendations from the meeting will contribute to the preparations for the Third UN Conference on LLDCs to be held in 2024 in Kigali, Rwanda," said Molebatsi, adding that the Rwanda conference will formulate and adopt a renewed framework for international support to address the special needs of LLDCs. Enditem

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