Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday discussed his government’s plan to strengthen the economy as the Kingdom’s readies itself to join the post-pandemic gold rush.
The pandemic struck the Kingdom’s main engines of growth hardest. The tourism, construction and garment industries jointly contributed to more than 70 percent of gross domestic product growth and employed about 39 percent of the workforce in 2019.
Speaking at the PG4 (Partnering for Growth and the Global Goals 2030) Seoul Summit in South Korea, the Prime Minister’s speech focused mostly on the issue of sustainable development.
However, he stressed that governments must adapt to multilateral frameworks to ensure that cooperation is at the heart of sustainable economic development after the pandemic.
“We need to pay more attention to the following: continuing to promote and support the principle of globalisation through the opening up of international trade to promote trade and economic growth,” Hun Sen said.
Cambodia has entered several free trade agreements during the pandemic and signalled that more may be ratified soon, including one with South Korea by the end of the year.
The yet-to-be fully ratified Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is perhaps the most substantial.
Simulations conducted by the Brookings Institute predict that the pact will add $209 billion annually to work income globally and $500 billion to world trade by 2030.
Cambodia’s real gross domestic product growth is anticipated to reach up to 0.56 percent as a result of the RCEP, according to an article titled “The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and Its Potential Impact on Greenhouse Gas Emissions” in the Journal of Environmental Protection.
“GHG [greenhouse gas] emission impact results show that the RCEP is likely to ‘increase’ the total among of GHG emissions in the 16 RCEP members and the world. We observe increases in the amount of CO2 emissions in the non-agricultural sectors in each economy,” the paper said.
It did, however, add that Cambodia is anticipated to benefit the most under the deal – “the increases in Cambodia are the highest across total exports (8.96 percent) and total imports (10.31 percent],” the report said.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
