Cambodia hosted a Socio-Cultural Programme at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday night (time in Phnom Penh) under the presidency of Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen.
Speaking on the occasion, Samdech Techo Hun Sen expressed his gratitude to the WTO Secretariat for their close cooperation with Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia and Cambodia’s Permanent Mission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in organising this auspicious event, and thanked all national and foreign distinguished guests for joining this Socio-Cultural Programme.
The Premier laid stress on the significant role of Cambodia within ASEAN and WTO even as a least developed country (LDC). “Cambodia has been a successful coordinator of the LDCs Group in WTO from 2017 to 2018. Obviously, as a small economy, Cambodia believes in benefits of globalisation and international cooperation under rules-based trading system. We acknowledge that the global trading system should not be blocked by unilateral tariff measures, but should be promoted and supported through the adherence to proper policy of preferences and provisions of special preferential treatment given to developing countries,” he said.
Samdech Techo Prime Minister added that he had advised the Minister of Commerce and Ambassador of Cambodia to the WTO to continuously cooperate with other members during the WTO negotiation reform process in the current context, requiring all of us to jointly strengthen the important global “Multilateralism”.
Samdech Techo Hun Sen briefed the participants on drastic disasters faced by Cambodia, namely the falling into Indochina war in 1970-1975, Khmer Rouge Regime in 1975-1979, civil war until the full peace in late 1998, and the Win-Win policy, as well as the struggle and efforts to revive, rebuild and develop the nation over the past 40 years.
“From a country known as a killing field, an insecure place due to armed conflicts and dangerous mines, and as a country with fragile economy, trapped with poverty and food insecurity, Cambodia has now gained full peace and become a popular tourist destination in Southeast Asia, an exporter of food, and has made outstanding achievements in poverty reduction and improvement of social indicators,” he underlined. “Furthermore, Cambodia has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and successfully transformed its status from the low-income country into a lower middle-income country, supported by the high economic growth of around 7.7 percent per annum over the past two decades. Cambodia is currently working hard to transform itself further into an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050.”