On the morning of August 22, 2023, attending the first session of the 7th legislature of the National Assembly, which fully voted to approve the composition of the new Council of Ministers, led by HE Kitti Tesaphibal Bindit Prime Minister Hun Manet, including 10 Deputy Prime Ministers, 21 senior ministers and 30 ministers, Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, Member of the Kandal Constituency, answered questions from journalists on what would be his most satisfying and/or disappointing feelings of the past leadership.
Samdech Techo said, “leadership is always a satisfying or disappointing matter. What would be (my) disappointments. I do not talk about satisfaction, because I could not finish even if I spend one full day to talk about it […] my last disappointment is that Cambodia used to have a (stable) economy and advancing with the growth of more than 7% per year, but Covid 19 has slowed the growth of the Cambodian economy, bringing the poverty rate we once reduced to below 10% to jump back up. The almost US$ 4 billion in savings that I wished to have used, avoiding dependence on foreign loans, to build infrastructure was lost in the fight against Covid-19.” “There are some other disappointments, but not big ones. The big thing is the frustration that while the country is moving forward, instead we have lost the momentum because we are losing the amount of money that we have saved for infrastructure to accelerate the economy and reduce poverty. This is my biggest disappointment in the last stage” Samdech Techo stressed.
