Phnom Penh: Cambodia’s Prime Minister Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet highlighted the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Cambodia’s societal progress. He emphasised that Cambodia, along with the global and regional economies, continues to navigate a transitional phase marked by multiple crises.

According to Agence Kampuchea Presse, in his keynote address at the Cambodia Outlook 2025 Conference, held under the theme ‘Cambodia’s New Growth Strategy: Priorities for High Quality and Sustainable Development,’ at the Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel and Residence, Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister Hun Manet noted that Cambodia has the potential to achieve an annual economic growth rate of approximately 6.4 percent over the next decade, provided that targeted, realistic, and effective policies are implemented. However, he cautioned that the COVID-19 crisis has left lasting scars, slowing the pace of national development and compounding existing challenges.

“The Cambodian economy has shown signs of recovery and regained its growth potential,” he said. “Yet, the pandemic has disrupted the momentum of our societal progress. Like the global and regional economies, Cambodia remains in a transitional phase of multi-crises, where one crisis has not yet fully subsided before another emerges, and one conflict has not ended before another begins,” stressed Samdech Thipadei.

The Premier outlined several risks and uncertainties that are increasingly shaping the global and regional economic landscape: rising protectionist policies and trade wars; geoeconomic tensions that could disrupt global supply chains, leading to rising international commodity prices; geoeconomic and trade fragmentation; and growing severe effects of climate change and natural disasters.

Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister laid stress that this multi-crisis transition phase has led to rapid and unpredictable shifts in the global and regional economic landscape. These changes, he noted, are generating both direct and indirect consequences-both positive and negative-for Cambodia’s economy and society.