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Despite the worldwide economic downturn, Cambodia exported goods to the tune of more than US$7 billion in the first half of 2020, rising nearly 3 per cent year-on-year. This increase is largely due to Cambodia's improved agricultural performance and an increase in volume in non-garment manufacturing exports such as bicycles and electronics. Total industrial output this year is projected to climb by 5.1 per cent if garment, footwear and travel goods exports remain on the recovery track.
At a time when Cambodia also faces the partial suspension of preferential access to the EU market under the 'Everything but Arms' agreement, new international trade and investment initiatives are being brokered in an effort to spur post-COVID-19 economic recovery. As concerns rise in Cambodia about the decline of exports to Japan — falling by nearly 6 per cent this year — the recently signed bilateral free trade agreement with China further consolidates the two countries' close alignment.
China is also experiencing slow growth while major trade partners, including the United States, Japan and Germany, are relocating their production base to Southeast Asia, all of which may bolster Cambodia's exports. The newly established Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is expected to offer a boost to regional economic confidence. Cambodia, a low-cost country in this partnership, can expect increased employment opportunities as the RCEP Agreement allows production to be shared among member states, avoiding red tape and reducing costs and time for companies.
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6- Government and society
In 1981 the Vietnam-backed communist government in Phnom Penh established a government based on a new constitution. That government was opposed by three factions that in 1982 formed a coalition government-in-exile. Though that coalition was unable to rule in Cambodia, it gained international recognition, held on to Cambodia's seat at the United Nations (UN), and was able to negotiate with the Phnom Penh government. In 1991 the government and opposition groups signed peace accords that provided for the creation of a new national government. The UN established a transitional authority to oversee the implementation of the accords, including elections in 1993 that formed a coalition government led by Prince Norodom Sihanouk. A new constitution was adopted in September that restored the pre-1970 Kingdom of Cambodia, though now as a constitutional monarchy and a multiparty liberal democracy. Sihanouk immediately ascended the throne under the new constitution. Under the constitution, the king, who is the head of state, is chosen from among royal descendants by the Royal Throne Council. In 2004 King Sihanouk decided to abdicate, and Prince Norodom Sihamoni was selected to succeed him.
Cambodia's legislature has been bicameral since 1999, with the directly elected National Assembly as its lower chamber and the indirectly elected (by commune councillors) Senate as its upper chamber. Members of the parliament serve five-year terms. Executive power resides with the cabinet, headed by a prime minister—who is chosen by the king, based on the recommendation of the chairman of the National Assembly, from the representatives of the party with the largest number of seats in the assembly. The remaining government ministers are selected from all parties represented in the assembly.
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Local government, at the highest level, consists of provinces and municipalities. Each province (khet) is headed by a governor and is divided into districts (srok), communes (khum), and villages (phum). Each municipality (krong) is led by a mayor and is subdivided into sectors (khan) and wards (sangkat). At each level of local government, a People's Assembly, composed of representatives elected by popular vote, chooses a People's Committee that has formal responsibility within the locality for public administration and security. Within each province, effective control over the armed forces and security units, the civil bureaucracy, and tax collection is in the hands of the governor and provincial officials. The country has a constitutionally independent judiciary composed of lower courts, an appeals court, and a Supreme Court. However, the judiciary has been closely allied with Cambodia's ruling party and often has been suspected of corruption. A nine-member Constitutional Council determines the constitutionality of legislation. It also resolves electoral disputes. The Supreme Council of Magistrates appoints and disciplines judges. There is also a separate military justice system.
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The two most-important political parties in Cambodia are the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). The CPP, proclaimed in 1991, is a noncommunist party descended from the pro-Vietnam and communist Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party that was founded in 1951. The CPP was long the dominant party in national politics. The CNRP was formed in 2012 through the merger of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and the smaller Human Rights Party (founded 2007). The SRP, founded in 1995 as the Khmer National Party and renamed in 1998, grew to be the second largest party and to constitute the official opposition—a role continued by the CNRP. A third party, the United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia (Funcinpec), is composed of the royalist supporters of the former king Norodom Sihanouk and his son Prince Ranariddh (although the latter was removed from the party in 2006). Funcinpec, formerly the second largest party, participated in governing coalitions with the CPP between 1993 and 2006. It subsequently lost its influence in the national political scene. The 1993 constitution provides for universal suffrage for citizens 18 years and older, and all citizens 25 years and older have the right to hold elective office. The number of women holding governmental positions in either the National Assembly or the civil service was small but increasing.
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The king is the commander in chief of the armed forces, called the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), which include the army, navy, and air force. The RCAF was created in 1993 through the merger of the Cambodian government's military forces and the two noncommunist resistance armies; the Khmer Rouge and royalist forces were absorbed into the RCAF in 1999. The army is much larger than the other two branches and is staffed mainly through conscription. In the early 21st century, Cambodia was at peace, but its proportionally large armed forces imposed an enormous burden on national resources. The government has tried to reduce the size of its army by seeking funds from foreign countries to compensate demobilized soldiers, but donors have been reluctant to make such expenditures at the expense of the projects to rebuild Cambodia's infrastructure that have been the main focus of foreign aid. Cambodia has long had an acute shortage of medical personnel, which has been a major obstacle to implementing an effective public health program. Phnom Penh has the country's best health care facilities and trained medical personnel, whereas most rural areas are served only by local infirmaries. Even before the civil war of 1970–75, Cambodia had few doctors, hospitals, or medical facilities. The civil war strained and eroded the fragile structure. The rulers of Democratic Kampuchea moved medical personnel to collective farms and, as part of its policy of self-reliance, encouraged non-Western medical practices based on the use of local herbs.
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Providing adequate health care remained a serious problem. Scarce funds, unsettled conditions in the country, poor sanitation, and a shortage of medicine contributed to high incidences of diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and pneumonia. Adding to that, tens of thousands of Cambodians were maimed by land mines, but only a fraction of them received proper medical attention. However, that issue received widespread worldwide attention, and considerable international effort was made to clear land mines and to provide prosthetic limbs for land-mine victims. Another issue seriously affecting Cambodia is HIV/AIDS. By the late 1990s, HIV infection and AIDS cases had peaked at epidemic levels in urban areas. The government subsequently implemented programs among commercial sex workers to promote mandatory condom use and to treat sexually transmitted diseases. In addition, international organizations set up programs to treat those infected and to care for children orphaned by the epidemic. Those initiatives significantly reduced the proportion of the population infected with the virus in the early 21st century. Prior to 1975, housing in Cambodia was comparable in quality to that of other Southeast Asian countries. The evacuation of Phnom Penh and other cities in 1975–76, however, left urban residential structures abandoned and produced tremendous housing pressures in the rural areas, where many people lived in temporary shelters. Overcrowding increased dramatically in Phnom Penh as people started returning to urban areas. Some people have lived in squatter huts built on the rooftops of buildings in the downtown area. The municipal government, with the cooperation of community groups and with the support of the national government and international agencies, has been trying to construct more residential units.
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In rural areas more than half of residential structures are built by using bamboo, thatch, grass, reeds, and similar materials. In urban areas the majority of residential buildings are constructed of wood, concrete, brick, stone, metal sheets, and tiles. About one-third of all urban residences have access to safe drinking water, electricity as their main source of lighting, and indoor toilet facilities; the proportion of houses with those facilities in the rural areas is far smaller. Cambodia's educational system, as it had developed in the first 70 years of the 20th century, was another casualty of warfare and ideology. Only primary schools were open during the Democratic Kampuchea period; older students attended irregularly scheduled political and technical courses, often held in the communes. After 1979 the government in Phnom Penh gave high priority to primary education, and it reopened secondary schools and institutions of higher education. Although a large number of young Khmer attend some form of educational institution, schools and colleges are severely hampered by shortages of funds, books, equipment, and adequately trained and compensated staff. Fewer than half of the country's students enrolled in primary school proceed beyond the fifth grade. Cambodia's main public institutions of higher education—all located in Phnom Penh—include the Buddhist Institute (founded 1930), the Royal University of Phnom Penh (1960), and the Royal Academy of Cambodia (1965). The overwhelming majority of students at the country's main institutions of higher education are male. Some four-fifths of males and two-thirds of females are literate, although some studies have indicated that functional illiteracy has increased.
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Before 1970, Cambodian culture and artistic expression were informed by the greatness of the past. The Khmer empire owed much to Indian influence, but its achievements also represented original contributions to Asian civilization. The magnificent architecture and sculpture of the Angkor period (802–1432), as seen in the temple complexes at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, marked a high point of Khmer creativity. Following the capture of Angkor by the Tai (15th century) and the crumbling of the empire, the region underwent four centuries of foreign invasions, civil war, and widespread depopulation. It was not until the establishment of the French protectorate in 1863 that internal security was restored, the country's borders stabilized, and efforts undertaken to revive traditional Khmer art forms. After Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953, the government placed particular emphasis on accelerating that revival. This coincided with the rapid expansion of primary and secondary school facilities and the emergence of education as the most important factor of social mobility. The leadership of Democratic Kampuchea, inspired in large part by the People's Republic of China, subordinated culture to its own interpretations of Marxist-Leninist doctrines. The government in Phnom Penh after 1979, however, made serious efforts to restore such traditional forms of artistic expression as Cambodian classical music, ballet, and popular theatre. Foreign aid from India and Poland was used to clean and maintain some of the temples at Angkor, which had suffered from years of vandalism and neglect. Those aspects of high culture have had to compete for people's attention with popular music and videotapes imported from Hong Kong, Thailand, and elsewhere.
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The sharp contrasts that have long existed between urban and rural Cambodians have broken down to some extent. That process began in the 1970s with the displacement of more than two million Cambodians from their urban homes, and it continued with the reoccupation of urban areas after 1979 by many who originally had lived in rural regions. After 1990 those changes were accelerated by the near ubiquity of television sets in rural areas—albeit in villages, rather than in individual homes—and by the penetration of globalization into the countryside. The pace of life, however, continues to be much faster in Cambodia's larger cities than elsewhere in the country. Although Cambodia is impoverished, urban people tend to be better off than farmers. Salaried employment in government, industry, and Cambodia's rapidly expanding service sector allows many city dwellers to own cars and motorcycles, eat fast food, and enjoy a vibrant nightlife. Outside Phnom Penh, however, rural Cambodians largely rely on bicycles, oxcarts, and sporadic public transportation, and organized evening entertainment is infrequent. Food shortages, a part of daily life in the past, have become less common with political stability and international aid. The Cambodian rural diet, however, tends to be rather monotonous, based almost solely on rice and fish. Variation comes with the garnishes used: hot peppers, mint, lemongrass, ginger, prahoc (a spiced fish paste), and red curry paste. A popular dish is ka tieu, a soup usually made with pork and rice noodles. Cambodian cuisine makes use of mangoes, papayas, bananas, durians, and other locally grown fruits.Cambodians both rural and urban celebrate distinctive festivals and holidays such as January 7 (victory over Pol Pot), Bonn Chaul Chhnam (Khmer New Year; mid-April), Paris Peace Agreement Day (October 23), and Bonn Om Touk (Water and Moon Festival; early November), which marks the annual flow reversal of the Tonle Sap.
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Music occupied a dominant place in traditional Cambodian culture. It was sung and played everywhere—by children at play, by adults at work, by young men and women while courting—and invariably was part of the many celebrations and festivals that took place throughout the year at Buddhist temples in the countryside. Traditional music ensembles, distinguished in part by their instrumentation, included various combinations of wooden flutes and reed instruments, bowed and plucked lutes, struck zithers, xylophones and metallophones, kong vong gong circles, and drums of different sizes. The players followed the lead of one instrument, often the xylophone, and improvised their own parts building from a pool of conventional melodic and rhythmic formulae. Dancing and drama were also important forms of artistic expression. The Royal Ballet in Phnom Penh specialized in the classical, highly stylized apsara dances as well as dance-dramas recounting the Reamker (Ramayana) epic and other tales. Those forms were adapted over the centuries by both the Khmer and the Thai from the ancient dances of Angkor. In the countryside other dramatic genres and folk dances were performed at festivals and weddings by wandering troupes. The national classical ballet, reconstituted in the early 1980s by a handful of surviving dancers, has become highly professional and has toured successfully abroad. King Norodom Sihanouk's daughter, Princess Bopha Devi, a former star performer in the royal troupe, vigorously supported the revival of classical dance during her tenure as minister of culture at the beginning of the 21st century. The Royal University of Fine Arts has been integral to the resurrection of Cambodian classical music and dance following their virtual extermination in the 1970s. Cambodian communities abroad have also established schools and cultural institutions to help perpetuate those traditions.
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Although broadly valued as symbols of national and ethnic identity, Cambodian classical performing arts have little practical appeal for the younger population. Cambodian, Thai, and other Asian popular songs have a much wider audience, as do locally made digital video discs (DVDs)—the typical medium through which movies are now produced and distributed in Cambodia. Among urban Cambodian males, karaoke bars are a major source of entertainment. In the past, the traditional visual arts of Cambodia revealed the conservatism of the Khmer. Ancient themes were preferred, and rarely was there an effort to improve or adapt. The principal crafts were weaving, silver- and goldsmithing, jewelry making, and wood and stone sculpture. In the 1970s and '80s, visual arts were often made to serve the purposes of government propaganda, and little original art has developed in Cambodia since then. While most artists paint traditional scenes and sculpt in repetitive, classical forms, largely for tourists and Cambodia's emerging middle class, others are more progressive, projecting Cambodia's heritage and tumultuous past in both abstract and soberingly realistic styles. The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has striven to employ senior artists, train new ones, and promote Cambodian art through sponsorship of domestic and international exhibitions. International aid organizations such as UNESCO and the Ford and Rockefeller foundations have also worked to revitalize traditional and contemporary arts programs, both in Cambodia and abroad.
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Cambodia has a long literary tradition, based largely on Indian and Thai literary forms. Few people could read the indigenous literature, however, because historically only a small portion of the population was literate. Even so, most Khmer are familiar with the stories of such traditional epic figures as Neang Kakey and Dum Deav as well as the Jataka tales relating episodes in the life of the Buddha, all of which are widely broadcast on radio and distributed in comic-book form. Folktales called reuang preng are also widely known. During the 1960s and early '70s, Cambodia's traditionally conservative literature came under Western influence, as did its audience of young urbanized Cambodian elite. Novels, poetry, visual arts, and films came to reflect international taste and enjoyed a flowering; in the early 1970s, for example, some 50 new novels appeared each year, and new films were frequently released. All such forms of expression, however, were banned by the officials of Democratic Kampuchea. Writers and artists were murdered or driven into exile, and the communist regime systematically destroyed existing works of art and literature, resulting in the loss of most of the country's books, manuscripts, and paintings. After 1979 the Vietnam-backed government continued to limit freedom of expression by controlling the distribution of paper and by using literature for propaganda. Few books are published in Cambodia today, aside from Khmer-English dictionaries, textbooks for schools, horoscopes, and how-to books. There is no market for novels or serious nonfiction; in addition, government patronage of writers, which flourished in the 1980s, has ceased. As a result, most Cambodian writers now live and publish in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
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With national independence in 1953, the Cambodian government sought to revive the nation's rich artistic traditions. The Royal University of Fine Arts, located in Phnom Penh, was founded by King Sihanouk in 1965 to preserve and nurture traditional arts. With the coming to power of the Khmer Rouge in 1975, the school, along with all other educational institutions, was closed. Although most artists were killed during the period of Khmer Rouge rule, a small number survived by hiding their identities. When the school was reopened in 1980, it became a magnet for those surviving artists and has continued to be an epicentre of Cambodian creative activity. With two primary units—one embracing archaeology, architecture and urbanism, and plastic arts, the other encompassing choreographic arts and music—it is energetically training new artists in traditional art forms and sponsoring performances in Cambodia and throughout the world. Cambodia has two major museums. The National Museum is devoted to Cambodian ethnography, bronze ware, sculpture, and ceramics. The Toul Sleng Genocidal Museum, housed in a former school in Phnom Penh that became the notorious S-21 prison and execution centre in 1976, memorializes the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime. Also important is the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, located at another former execution site just southwest of the capital. The Hindu-Buddhist ruins of the Khmer state of Angkor (9th–15th century) were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. In 2008 the Temple of Preah Vihear, dedicated to the worship of Shiva, was also named a World Heritage site.
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Football (soccer) has long been popular in Cambodia, but during the Khmer Rouge years the finest players died or left the country. The national team was subsequently rebuilt and has trained under German supervision. Similarly, Khmer kickboxing, a martial art performed to the accompaniment of a unique genre of traditional music, reemerged after the 1970s and has attracted a large and devoted following. Also widely played are badminton and tennis, and cycling is popular. More recently, golf has been catching on among the elite, and motocross has gained a following, with regular competitions in Phnom Penh and in the provinces. There are few sports facilities outside Phnom Penh, which has two major venues: Olympic Stadium and the National Sports Centre. Cambodia attended its first Olympic Games in 1956 and participated in two more before warfare and civil strife interrupted its attendance. The country returned to regular participation with the 1996 Summer Games. Several daily newspapers (in print or online) in Phnom Penh, including one in English, reflect a range of political views. Television and radio, however, are generally controlled by the dominant Cambodian People's Party; a number of Cambodian journalists hostile to the regime were killed in the 1990s, and others have been imprisoned. More than a dozen major radio stations cater to an array of audiences with different religious, linguistic, and, to some degree, political orientations. Many of those broadcast internationally through the Internet. There are also many small private stations serving local communities. Several television stations offer a range of programming in Khmer and other languages.
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7- Open development Cambodia
Over the past two decades, Cambodia has undergone a significant transition, reaching lower middle-income status in 2015 and aspiring to attain upper middle-income status by 2030. Driven by garment exports and tourism, Cambodia's economy has sustained an average real growth rate of 7.7 percent between 1998 and 2019, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
The global shock triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted Cambodia's economy in 2020 at a time when Cambodia also faces the partial suspension of preferential access to the EU market under the "Everything but Arms" initiative. The outbreak caused sharp deceleration in most of Cambodia's main engines of growth—tourism, manufacturing exports, and construction—which together accounted for more than 70 percent of the country's growth in 2019 and almost 40 percent of paid employment. The economy in 2020 registered negative growth of -3.1 percent, the sharpest decline in Cambodia's recent history. Cambodia's economy is expected to start recovering this year, growing at 4 percent, helped by an improving external environment and unprecedent government support. The COVID-19 outbreak and slow recovery in global economic activity, alongside prolonged financial market turmoil, poses risks to Cambodia's growth outlook.
According to official estimates, the poverty rate in 2014 was 13.5 percent compared to 47.8 percent in 2007. About 90 percent of the poor live in the countryside. While Cambodia achieved in 2009 the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty, the vast majority of families who escaped poverty did so by a small margin. Around 4.5 million people remain near-poor and vulnerable to falling back into poverty when exposed to economic and other external shocks. Poverty has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic.