Cambodia considered a successful post-conflict country: PM Hun Sen

via Khmer NZ

Saturday, September 04, 2010

PHNOM PENH, Sep. 4, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that his country is considered as a "successful post-conflict country".

Giving speech at the forum on 2010 Asialink Conversations- Cambodia, Hun Sen said "Cambodia can be considered as a successful post-conflict country," saying the reforms and economic growth plus other development schemes and plans are on right track.

He said, after the post conflict that only ended in late 1990s, and with the support from development partners and the private sector, Cambodia has made giant strides in development in the last decade.

With the return of full peace in 1998, a sense of confidence and pride pervades the country, a feeling that bodes well for birth prospects for economic growth and job creation and a concrete vision of a promising future.

"Since then, the Cambodian economy has undergone a dramatic and rapid transformation. Economic growth during 1999-2003 averaged 8. 8 percent, and although official development assistance(ODA) continued to finance growth, foreign direct investment (FDI) particularly investments in garment and tourism, was key to promoting growth," he said.

Hun Sen said that with the implementation during the last 5 years of the public financial management reform program, government revenue more than doubled from 2,220 billion riels (553 million U.S. dollars) in 2004 to 4,928 billion riels (1.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2009.

In 2009, the gross domestic product experienced a positive growth, though very small, as agriculture and services sector maintained robust growth, he added.

On the per capita income, Hun Sen said since 1993, Cambodia's gross domestic product (GDP) increased fourfold from 2.4 billion U. S. dollars in 1993 to 10.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, and during this period, per capita income has more than tripled from 229 U.S. dollars to 739 U.S. dollars.

The prime minister also expressed his optimism over the Asia's growth despite global economic recovery remains fragile.

"Although the global recovery remains fragile, we can see the positive signs of the recovery of the world economy," he said, adding "We expect growth in Asia excluding Japan in 2010 to be around 7 percent."