Cambodian economic growth projects about 5 per cent in 2010

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on April 27 that the economic growth of the country will project about 5 per cent, and last year, Finance Ministry said that GDP grew 0.1 percent.
Prime Minister Hun Sen highlighted the figures of the world financial institutions like ADB, World Bank and IMF about their economic predictions this year and last year, which showed different figures. “I told our officials should not believe them too much,” He said in the 15th government –private sector forum in Phnom Pen. We have to have own independent work, he noted. “Our students will be crazy after the teachers said different views about the economic predictions referring to those world agencies as teachers, he said.
The International Monetary Fund is forecasting GDP growth of 4.8 percent this year and 6.8 percent next year. The World Bank's estimate for this year is 4.4 percent and the ADB's is 4.5 percent.
“This year will have still potential in agricultural sector and tourism, garment sector started to give a good sign, and construction has been hit by the world financial crisis”, he said, thanked world economic recovery. These four sectors are the pillars of Cambodian economic growth. The resilience of agricultural output had helped the country avoid recession in 2009 and we also passed through storms and rains in the past year, even though the country faced the global financial crisis, drought and flooding, typhoon Ketsana, but we achieved remarkable results in increasing agricultural production," he said. “We have foreign direct Investment for about 500 million US dollar last year and now international reserves about 2.8 billion that guarantees to import for three months. Last year, we gained about 2 million foreign tourists increasing about 2 per cent.
Report from the tourism ministry said that during the first three months of 2010, a total of 683, 692 international tourist visited Cambodia, compared to the same period of 2009, this is an increase of 9.87 per cent and over Khmer New Year on the 14-16 April, domestic tourists rose to over 2.6 million-an increase of 23 per cent compared to the same Khmer New Year period in 2009. “The kingdom produced 7.3 million tons of rice for 2009 of which the country saw another surplus amount of rice of 3.1 million tons available for export, according to the agriculture ministry.
According to a joint statement—which joined by the World Bank, Cambodia and IMF—released at the news conference said Cambodian foreign direct investment (FDI) is estimated at $515 million for 2009, and it is projected to increase at $725 million for 2010. The release said the value of FDI is expected to reach up to $800 million for 2011. The kingdom’s exports was $USD 3.9 billion and imported was $5.4 billion for 2009. The country projected exports for 2010 is $4.1 billion and imports are estimated $6.3 billion. For next year, Cambodia expected exports to increase up to $4.6 billion and imports expected to increase up to $7 billion.
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