Cambodia

There are numerous experiences of contracting out in the health sector throughout the developing world as well as in post-conflict and fragile states. The health sector has provided leadership at the global level of government contracting out services to the non-government sector, and is an excellent starting point for fragile states in the process of rebuilding their country’s infrastructure and work force and regaining the confidence of their citizens.

Cambodia’s 1993 Constitution guarantees equal rights to men and women in all areas of society, and the country has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). But despite additional national laws and government initiatives that promote the well-being and empowerment of women, their implementation remains poor.

In 2007, Cambodia acceded to the UNCAC and signed the ASEAN Memorandum of Understanding for Preventing and Combating Corruption (SEA-PAC).It has been a member of the APG since 2004. The Cambodian legal system consists of mainly continental civil law elements but also includes legislative acts, royal decrees, sub-decrees, circulars, orders and customary law elements. Cambodia’s criminal bribery offences have not been externally reviewed.

This chapter considers how and if economic reform in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV) has reduced poverty and income inequality. It opens with a brief introductory section that puts CLMV in a regional context and outlines the themes the chapter addresses. The section on the CLMV experience of poverty and inequality – country by country – examines each country in turn, sketching its history from independence, its experience of war, and its transition from a centrally planned people’s democracy to a market economy in the 1980s and 1990s. In this respect, Myanmar is an exception as it is only now ushering in its first tentative reforms. Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, however, have effectively rebuilt and reaped the benefits. Their export-driven economic growth has been strong. Cambodia and Viet Nam have diversified their economies away from agriculture and both are currently fostering eco-tourism and new green industries. All three have reduced poverty – Viet Nam by half. Income disparities, however, persist between men and women, urban areas and rural regions, and ethnic groups. Inequality has actually widened in Lao PDR. CLMV have much to do to ensure development is inclusive and sustainable: further build infrastructure and institutional capacity, widen equitable access to education and employment, make the business environment investor-friendly, invest in human capital, nurture small and medium-sized enterprises, weed out corruption. The section on CLMV countries briefly compares the four countries and their performance in reducing poverty and inequality. Myanmar is a constant exception, principally because so little data are available. However, the final section “Conclusion”, also applies to Myanmar: economic growth does not of itself deliver equally shared benefits for all.

Cambodia lags behind many of its regional neighbours in terms of overall development, but growth has been rapid over the past decade because of increases in trade, tourism and foreign direct investment (FDI). It is still dominated by agriculture and garment manufacture, and employment growth has helped to reduce poverty. There is little technological sophistication and innovation has played an insignificant part in economic development, as many factors conspire to undermine firms’ capacity to become competitive and innovate. The country’s fragile infrastructure is a deterrent to inward investment, its information and telecommunications infrastructure is expanding but still at an early stage of development, and its legal and financial institutions are not geared towards innovative entrepreneurial activity. As a consequence, Cambodia’s innovation performance is weak. There is very little expenditure on R and D, the number of researchers is low, publication levels are modest, albeit growing, and patenting is extremely rare. Current policies focus on product diversification, trade expansion and efforts to increase FDI. There is no explicit focus on science or innovation policy, though general improvements to the business environment are likely to improve framework conditions for innovation. The establishment of an Accreditation Committee for degrees awarded by higher education institutions (HEIs) and a National Training Board to oversee the development and implementation of a national plan for vocational education and training should also improve the quality of educational provision and strengthen the human resource base. The relative immaturity of the country’s innovation system suggests that it is too early for innovation to be at the heart of its short-term plans for development. Continued expansion via trade and inward investment and efforts to upgrade the general business and educational environments must take priority. But there is tremendous scope for short-term plans to be informed by long-term visions that prioritise actions likely to facilitate the country’s eventual transition to a modern, innovation-oriented economy. This will call for an approach to policy formulation that emphasises the co-ordination of seemingly disparate policies towards a common goal. In particular, the further development of the educational sector will need to prioritise science, engineering and entrepreneurship; industrial policy will need to prioritise cluster developments, spillovers and product diversification that involves the manufacture of higher value-added goods; and science and innovation policies will need to move towards centre stage if a suitable infrastructure for scientific and innovative activities is to emerge.

While the Emerging Asian region has positioned itself well to weather short-term economic volatility, it is imperative to ensure that the new growth and development strategies of countries in the region do lead to sustainable growth over the longer term. To this end, there must be structural policy reforms to ensure sustained and robust productivity growth, the cornerstone of every nation’s economic growth and competitiveness. The reforms should also target upgrading of economic activities to ensure that the region’s economies can remain competitive participants in global value chains in the face of changing domestic and external conditions.

Cambodia joined the IRTAD Group in 2010. It benefits from a twinning programme with Handicap International, Road Safety for All and SWOV (The Netherlands’ road safety research centre) to review and audit its road crash and victim information system (RCVIS). RCVIS has been progressively developed since 2004 by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health, with the technical support of Handicap International. Most of the data are available from 2004 onward.

This chapter presents the most recent crash data for Cambodia, as well as an update on the Cambodian road safety strategy and recently implemented safety measures.