| The United Nations recognizes two special categories | | | | nondomestic components. The cost of energy and |
| of less industrialized countries, classes of countries | | | | basic infrastructure is also high, and most islands are |
| that face special challenges: the Landlocked | | | | especially vulnerable to natural disasters. SIDS tend to |
| Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island | | | | experience more economic growth volatility than |
| Developing States (SIDS). Because of their lack of | | | | other countries, and are highly reliant on the public |
| access to the sea, the high cost of transportation, | | | | sector. The UN's list of LLDCs is: Afghanistan, |
| and their resulting isolation from the world, LLDCs are | | | | Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, |
| more constrained in their options than other | | | | Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, |
| developing countries. They must move their goods | | | | Chad, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, the Lao |
| through other countries just to reach a port-still a | | | | People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Macedonia, |
| critical trading concern even in the age of the airplane | | | | Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, |
| and the automobile. Sixteen of the 30 LLDCs, just | | | | Paraguay, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tajikistan, |
| over half, are also on the Least Developed Countries | | | | Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Zambia, and |
| list. | | | | Zimbabwe. |
| In many cases, the route to the sea is perilous and | | | | Until the graduation of Botswana, Swaziland was the |
| unreliable, for reasons of terrain, banditry, or both. | | | | only African LLDC which was not also a Least |
| LLDCs spend twice as much of their export revenues | | | | Developed Country. The list of SIDS is American |
| on transport as other developing countries (on | | | | Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the |
| average), and three times as much as developed | | | | Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin |
| countries. It does not help that most LLDCs-as | | | | Islands, Cape Verde, the Commonwealth of Northern |
| opposed to the landlocked countries of Europe-are | | | | Marianas, Comoros, the Cook Islands, Cuba, Dominica, |
| surrounded by other developing countries, and thus | | | | the Dominican Republic, Fiji, French Polynesia, |
| the transportation infrastructure in use to reach the | | | | Grenada, Guam, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, |
| sea is resource-intensive and inefficient. SIDS face | | | | Kiribati, Maldives, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, |
| the opposite problem. As islands, their access to | | | | Mauritius, Montserrat, Nauru, the Netherlands Antilles, |
| resources is narrow, and their transportation costs | | | | New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, |
| extremely high, putting the benefits of economies of | | | | Puerto Rico, Samoa, São Tomé and |
| scale out of reach and making import goods | | | | Príncipe, Singapore, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. |
| prohibitively expensive while simultaneously making it | | | | Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, the |
| difficult to offer competitive prices on export goods. | | | | Solomon Islands, Suriname, Timor-Leste, Tonga, |
| Because of import costs, it is especially difficult for | | | | Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, the U.S. Virgin Islands, |
| SIDS to export manufactured goods that require | | | | and Vanuatu. |