Two sectors key to Cambodia achieving middle-income status by 2030

• 21 November 2019
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Cambodia has set itself the target of progressing from a low-income to a middle-income country by 2030 with an aim of achieving similar status to Thailand or Malaysia today in just over 10 years.

At the 2^nd Asia Pacific Summit on 19 November Samdech Techo Hun Sen said that, “now, Cambodia is making further efforts to become an upper middle-income nation by 2030 and to become a high-income nation by 2050”.

The kingdom has been a low middle-income country since 2015. According to the World Bank’s classification, low middle-income economies are those with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of between US$1,026 – US$3,995, and high-income economies are those with GNI between US$3,996 – US$12,375.

Cambodia’s 2030 upper middle-income target requires the country to invest in two key sectors; human capital, and infrastructure, Norman V. Loayza, lead economist of the World Bank’s development research group, told Xinhua last year.

Cambodia has received US$5.3 billion in loans from the China Development Bank. The loans have been provided to support the development of major infrastructure projects such as the Lower Sesan Hydropower II, the Phnom Penh-Sihanouk expressway, and 25 other major infrastructure projects.

Through this development financing, the Cambodian people in general, benefit from the results of investment, especially in the construction, real estate, and tourism sectors.

According to the World Bank’s 2018 Human Capital Index, Cambodia ranked 100th out of 157 countries, or only seven places above Myanmar, and lower than all other countries in the Southeast Asia region.

Human capital refers to the country’s performance in educating and training citizens to develop skills for competitiveness in the job market. Cambodia still needs to vigorously invest in human capital in preparation for becoming an upper middle-income nation by 2030, and a high-income economy by 2050.

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