Source: AKP
Cambodia is well-prepared to work with all stakeholders to undertake tasks aiming to achieve the “ASEAN Community Vision 2025: Forging Ahead Together” for long-term peace, security, stability and prosperity for all nations in the region, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen told the participants at the opening ceremony of World Economic Forum on ASEAN.
“Cambodia is a small economy with high level of openness. This is a prime reason that Cambodian have attached great importance to regional integration and connectivity. As a result, Cambodia’s economy is regarded as one of new emerging economies as well as one of the most successful post-war countries, which is based on robust economic growth on average of about 7.6 percent per annum from 1994 to 2016 and has maintained macroeconomic stability, attained manageable inflation, well-manage public debt, achieved remarkable poverty reduction as well as increased GDP per capita 4.5 time, from US$288 in 2000 to US$1,302 in 2016. Indeed, trade has played a crucial role toward development of Cambodia’s economy. Becoming a member of ASEAN Community and World Trade Organisation has promoted Cambodia’s linkages with regional and global value chains and production networks. For the medium-term, Cambodia’s economic growth is forecast to be robust with growth around 7 percent per annum,” he stressed.
In order to achieve its long-term vision, becoming upper middle income country by 2030 and high income country by 2050, Cambodia will unwaveringly and actively continue implementing open economic policy through devoting a greater deal of efforts on linking and integrating of all sectors into regional and global economy, speeding up structural reforms as well as to upgrading institutional capacity and human resources, he further said.
Moving forward, he added, Cambodia is envisaging a trend of technology advancement. Similar to other countries in the region, Cambodia is rapidly absorbing advance technology, particularly in new industry sector and among youths. In 2016, mobile phone penetration was more than 125 percent of total population and internet penetration was 47 percent while in 2008 mobile phone penetration was only 25 percent and internet penetration was merely 0.13 percent. The new era of technology is an opportunity for Cambodian youths to speed up development with greater momentum.
In this context, the RGC has been paying great attention on youth and technology development, especially through the reform of education system and training with great focus on promoting skill development in science, technology, engineer and maths (STEM) as well as promoting entrepreneurship and soft skills for life long training. Moreover, Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025 has re-oriented our efforts and open for private sector engagement with an aim of supporting technology sector development in Cambodia, he underlined.
“In this spirit, I appeal to all business people to join hands with the Royal Government of Cambodia to create a favourable environment for nurturing and developing this potential sector. Cambodia is optimistic and we are of the view that ‘Asia Century’ will definitely enable ASEAN to lead not only in driving economic growth but also developing technology sector,” said the Cambodian premier.