Cambodia's Economy

            

 

                           

GDP		28.01 billion
GDP Real Growth Rate		5%
GDP Per Capita		2,000
Population below Poverty Line		35%
Life Expectancy		62.1 Years
Adult Literacy		73.60%
Birth Rate		25.73 Births/ 1,000 Population
Death Rate		8.08 Deaths/ 1,000 Population
Population Growth Rate		1.77%
Age Structure:
0-14	32.60%
15-64	63.80%
65+	3.60%

 * Data derived from CIA World Fact book

 

 

Cambodia has a long history filled with political turmoil and instability. Only recently has the country become stable enough to maintain a progressive economy.  Most of the political uncertainty was due to the rise to power by the Communist Party of Kampuchea also known as the KCP. The KCP followers were known as the Khmer Rouge. The faction’s economic plan was to turn Cambodia into a classless society by forcing citizens to become dependent on agriculture through forced labor. The wanted to eradicate all foreign influence so they closed schools, hospitals, factories and the entire financing and currency system and they confiscated all private property and outlawed religion.  They depopulated all major cities and forced all urban population into labor communes. By doing this, the KCP rid the entire country of an upper class, future technological advancements and intellectuals. The Khmer Rouge held a strict rule over Cambodia from 1975 until 1979(“Khmer Rouge.”) This had a detrimental effect on the economical stance of modern day Cambodia. It made the country rely on only one sector (agriculture) and halted any advancement in technology intending to increase productivity. 

 

These actions have had a lasting effect on the country; to this day the country’s citizens still have very little education and productive skills. However, the country has recently tried their best to build a basic infrastructure for their economy to stabilize the status of their economy. Cambodia relies heavily on foreign countries financial investments to help progress their infrastructure reconstruction. The Cambodian Government has also installed programs that allocate funds towards assuring the economy for a better tomorrow, but I will discuss these policies later in my blog. They now rely heavily on exporting and importing and have found success in doing this. Their GDP is ranked 109^th in the world which may not sound too low, however, neighboring Malaysia is ranked 30^th whose GDP is nearly twelve times that of Cambodia ("Country Comparison- Cambodia").

 

The GDP real growth rate is nearly five times larger than the growth rate of the USA, which is quite impressive and proves a bright future for the Cambodian economy at this rate.  In terms of GDP per Capita, Cambodia is quite weak. They rank at 183^rd in the world, yet the countries Population growth rate is ranked 76^th which is quite high ("Country Comparison- Cambodia"). This helps to prove the Catch-Up Theory, which states that developing countries can grow faster because they can use methods of technology and production methods of more productive nations to boost their effectiveness.  This proves a correlation between lower GDP per capita and a high population growth rate.  The low GDP per capita also yields a high percentage of population below the poverty line, which in Cambodia is 35%("Country Comparison- Cambodia"). This rate is very high and is nearly triple the United States population beneath poverty line and a little more than Seven times larger than the percentage in Malaysia. The low literacy rate at 74% has had a dramatic effect on the unusually high percentage below the poverty level (“Central Intelligence Agency- Cambodia”).

 

 A big part of the instability of Cambodia’s economy is due to the fact that they rely so heavily upon agriculture. In an Economy when a country relies too heavily on one certain sector of an economy, all it takes is one market factor to have a negative effect on the crop being produced for the entire economy to plummet. Agricultural makes up nearly 51% of Cambodia’s GDP. What if a flood were to come to Cambodia, their economy would be ruined. This economy will never be fully stable until it is no longer solely relying upon agriculture (“The Economy”). There have been many successful measures taken to increase exportation and importation, yet more must be done. With this countries tumultuous past, (KCP and shift to forced labor) the country has learned to know nothing but farming. Future generations must take it upon themselves to become educated and specialize in different sectors so the economy can diversify. Then the country will be on course to a stable and profitable future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

"Cambodia." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 22

Nov. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/90520/Cambodia>.

 

"CIA - The World Factbook." Central Intelligence Agency. 11/11/2009. Central Intelligence Agency, Web. 22 Nov 2009. .

 

Cosset, Tuyet L. "The Economy". Cambodia: A Country Study (Russell R. Ross, editor). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (December 1987).

 

"Index Mundi." Country Comparison- Cambodia. 01/01/2009. Web. 22 Nov 2009. .

 

"Khmer Rouge | Killing Fields | Pol Pot | Ieng Sary | Nuon Chea - Cambodian Information Center." Cambodian Information Center (CIC) Homepage. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. .