Present Situation of the
CMLV Countries
Despite serious attempts for economic development throughout the South East Asian region, there remains a large gap between the CLMV countries and other nations within ASEAN. To achieve the ambitious goal of having an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015, it is essential
to reduce this development gap, which in turn necessitates further reforms in the CLMV countries.
I begin by describing the present economic condition of each of the four CLMV countries and discuss broadly their economic challenges as follows:
Cambodia: Since peace and national reconciliation had returned after the 1991 Paris Accord, Cambodia has enjoyed a broad degree of macroeconomic stability and development. Starting from a very low base, Cambodia is now considered as one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, enjoying double-digit growth rates before the global economic down turn. Growth in 2013 has been estimated by the Ministry of Finance and Economy at 7.6 percent this year, driven by garment exports, agriculture, tourism and construction. The ministry said that the GDP volume would be around 15.19 billion U.S. dollars and GDP per capital would be 1,036 U.S. dollars in 2013. The industry sector is expected to go up by 9 percent this year, agriculture by 4 percent, service sector by 9 percent, hotel and restaurant sector by 14 percent, financial sector by 12 percent, and real estate by 11 percent. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted in April 2013 that Cambodia's GDP growth would be at 6.7 percent, while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) put the country's growth at 7.2 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Despites steady economic growth, the UN Economic