Cambodian senior official today shared some insights to the Policy Dialogue on the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2022 organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).
This policy dialogue also serves as a venue to discuss major development challenges that Cambodia is currently facing and available policy options to address them, said H.E. Ly Thuch, Senior Minister and President of National Committee of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (NA-ESCAP).
Over the past two years, he continued, the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has damaged the socio-economic progress in developing countries achieved under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
H.E. Ly Thuch said at present, the region and the world are continuing to face increasingly acute challenges with complicated and unpredictable manner to the development, including geo-political rivalries, military, trade and technological wars, climate change, monetary policy tightening etc. These factors have been causing changes in the global economic architecture and disrupting the globalisation trend, which has significantly reduced the global value chain and productivity.
“In this circumstance, we must adhere to the spirit of openness and support for the multilateral trading system as well as strengthen multilateralism, especially promote the openness for international trade and reduce trade barriers, particularly on strategic commodities such as food, medicine, and energy, in order to foster sustainable economic growth and enhance the resilience of regional and global value chains,” he underlined.
Taking this rare opportunity, H.E. Ly Thuch briefly informed the participants about the Covid-19 situation and recent economic development in Cambodia. Under the guidance and leadership of Samdech Techo Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, as of today (July 25, 2022), the Royal Government has achieved the vaccination rate of more than 94 percent of the total population of 16 million. On socio-economic front, the Royal Government of Cambodia has been formulating and implementing concrete policy measures to attract additional foreign investments by building infrastructure and improving the transportation system – both soft and hard, improving trade facilitation, developing human resource, setting up IT and digital system as well as developing financial sector.
In particular, he stressed, the Royal Government of Cambodia has expanded wider exporting markets by establishing various free trade agreements, namely: (1). Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), (2). Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement, and (3). Cambodia-Korea Free Trade Agreement, which will come into effect soon.
Thanks to these openness policies of Cambodia’s total export to other member countries of RCEP totalled US$3.28 billion in the first half of 2022, up 10 percent year-on-year.l, he said.
Overall, these positive developments have transformed Cambodia into a more important and potential centre for production, businesses, and investments in the region, with larger and more competitive exporting markets for investors from all over the world, H.E. Ly Thuch underlined.
Source: Agency Kampuchea Press