Economy to Grow 3-4 Percent in 2010: Gov’t

Wednesday, 16 December 2009 02:09 DAP-NEWS

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Cambodia’s economy will increase about 3-4 percent in 2010, a senior financial officer said on Tuesday.

Secretary of State of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Kong Vibol said in a press conference at the Phnom Penh Hotel that “the agricultural sector rose 4.3 percent, the industrial sector rose 8.6 percent, and food and beverages increased about 13.1 percent.”

Larry Strange, director of the Cam-bodian Development Research Institute (CDRI), said that “the agricultural sector is a solid base to boost Cambodian economy.” But Cambodia depend on funds from donors to improve, he added.

“In future, Cambodia will improve business, infrastructure, tourism,” Larry said.

Kong Vibol said the downturn of 2009 has driven exports down.

“The Cambodian government strategy is to reduce the poverty and aim to stay in positive growth while the global economic crisis is still on.”

“Cambodia has two ways to solve its problems; create new jobs and revenue for Cambodian poor families.”

National Economist for the UNDP Lim Sovannara said that tourism, construction, marketing fix assets and garments have taken a hit, with exports down 23 percent in the first 8 months.