Hun Sen Lauds Gains

Khmer Times/Pav Suy

Sunday, 27 September 2015

Prime Minister Hun Sen addresses a plenary meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Saturday. Reuters/ Carlo Allegri

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – In a series of meetings before the annual session of the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Hun Sen highlighted Cambodia’s achievements as the world body set new targets to eradicate poverty and save the planet.

Those achievements included “complete” peace, political stability, security and better public order as well as poverty reduction, he said in New York.

“In the past two decades, Cambodia has achieved a proud evolution, especially in maintaining full peace, strong political stability, security and better public order as well as a high economic growth at an average rate of 7.7 percent per annum,” the prime minister said.

“On this basis, the poverty rate dropped quickly from more than 53 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2013, making Cambodia achieve its millennium development goals on poverty reduction and a number of social issues before 2015.”

Protesters Rally

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were a series of targets aimed at reducing poverty. They have now been replaced by the more ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – 17 targets aimed at reducing poverty, protecting the environment and ensuring prosperity, with a deadline of 2030.

Cambodia is one of the few countries that outperformed its MDGs.

But as he spoke, hundreds of Cambodian- Americans stood outside the UN headquarters  to protest against him.

They held placards demanding he quit over land conflicts, human rights abuses and misusing the courts to arrest opposition activists. They also said there was no development under his leadership.

“Our success today is that we can make our voice heard to the delegation of the Royal Government of Cambodia that they need to hear the demands of our fellow Cambodians,” said Touch Vibol, the fundraising chief of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in the US.

Cambodia’s ambassador to the US, Chum Bunrong, said the protest was relatively small. 

“I see the scale of the demonstrations becoming smaller and smaller. It’s not like before, because the Cambodians living in America understand Cambodia, making the opposition smaller,” he said.

Cambodia will move from being a low income country to a low-middle income country next year because it had surpassed its MDG targets, Mr. Hun Sen said.

“Cambodia is leaping towards the next step of development that is rising to become a low-middle income country in 2016. In this sense, the Cambodian government understands that the 17 SDGs that were set out based on MDGs are truly appropriate in the Cambodian context in continuing to strengthen the achievements in the last 15 years,” he said.

“And it is also important to support the transition of Cambodia in entering the initial phase of becoming a middle income country.”

According to the UNDP’s 2013 Cambodia Annual Report, acquiring the middle income status is a major accomplishment, but it also brings new challenges.

Good and Bad

Experience has shown that the transition tends to be accompanied by rising inequalities, socio-economic exclusion and increasing degradation of the environment and natural resources.

“This is just the rating of economic status,” said Ou Virak, a social and political analyst.

“However, there are also some disadvantages from this rating. Those disadvantages include the loss of aid and assistance from donor countries.

“As long as our country’s economy is performing well, we should not pretend to be poor to get aid from others.”

Mr. Hun Sen also asked developed countries to give more help to developing countries so they could reach their SDGs.

“Cambodia would like to request the continued support for an additional period of time to the weaker countries to be successful in reaching the next step of development in order for those countries to compete internationally, through the offering of finance for official development,” he said.

But Mr. Virak said: “We don’t have any mechanism for using the aid efficiently. That is why it leads to failure ... because there is a lot of corruption.”

Mr. Hun Sen also focused on Cambodia’s huge problems with landmines and unexploded ordnances after decades of conflict.

More than 97,000 people have been killed or injured since 1979, according to Heng Ratana, director-general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC).

Mr. Hun Sen wanted demining for affected countries included in the SDGs.

“Mining is a universal issue,” Mr. Ratana told Khmer Times.

“Other countries like Afghanistan and Laos also face the same thing. 

“Mines are not just about personal security, the issue also affects the development of a country, including the construction of roads, schools and other kinds of infrastructure.”