Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday that his government has mainly focused on retaining a sustainable economic growth and setting out strategies to ensure the gradual alleviation of poverty, according to a spokesman.
Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2014 4:00am
Cambodia says focusing on maintaining growth, poverty alleviation
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday that his government has mainly focused on retaining a sustainable economic growth and setting out strategies to ensure the gradual alleviation of poverty, according to a spokesman.
The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with the United Nations agency representatives to Cambodia led by Claire Van der Vaeren, resident coordinator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to Cambodia, Eang Sophalleth, a spokesman for Hun Sen, told reporters after the meeting. “Besides maintaining a stable economic growth, the Cambodian government has set out action plans to ensure poverty reduction and to prevent people, who have already escaped poverty, from falling back into poverty,” he quoted the prime minister as saying at the meeting.
Hun Sen said education and social welfare remain the priority sectors.
According to the government’s figures, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to reach 7 percent, or 16.7 billion U.S. dollars, in 2014 as GDP per capita is projected to hit 1,130 U.S. dollars.
Poverty rate in Cambodia has declined to 19.8 percent in 2011, down from 29.9 percent in 2008.
For her part, Claire Van der Vaeren hailed Cambodia for its efforts to deepen reform of the education sector and reported to the prime minister on activities and achievements that the UNDP- Cambodia has implemented and achieved in 2014, particularly in the fields of education, gender equity, social welfare, and human rights.
