This report—the fourth in the current series on annual CMDG reporting—initially briefly examines the progress made on key macroeconomic indicators and then makes an assessment of the progress made on Cambodia’s Millennium Development Goals. It presents progress at both national and sub-national levels and also examines the extent to which inequality mars progress in attaining human development goals. It presents the results of a ‘group-work’ exercise, which lays the foundation for evolving a (synoptic) Acceleration Framework for CMDGs and the way forward.
At the macroeconomic level, while the economy has achieved a 7+ percent growth rate in GDP in the last decade or more, economic activities are concentrated in a narrow band: garment manufacture, construction, tourism and agriculture. Here too, the activity level is ‘shallow’, resulting in small unit value addition. Much of the growth has emerged from a lateral expansion of activities. In the years to come, as Cambodia integrates into ASEAN, human capital, industrialization, infrastructure, private sector investment and such issues will come to assume increased importance. As most CMDG targets require the government to expend more resources on sectors and ministries that concern human development, economic growth and efficient management of public finances, rapid augmentation of public resources is pivotal to success