Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth requested that senior UN officials in Cambodia support Cambodia in its demining mission to achieve the goal of a mine-free Cambodia in 2025.
Pornmoniroth made the request during a meeting on December 13 with Joseph Scheuer, the resident coordinator of the UN in Cambodia, to discuss cooperation.
The minister highlighted the strong cooperation between the Cambodian government and the UN system, especially the active participation in combating the spread of Covid-19 in the country, according to the ministry’s press release.
"[Pornmoniroth] have requested the UN to cooperate with other development partners to support Cambodia in its demining mission to achieve the goals of the National Mine Action Strategic Plan 2018-2025 and achieve the goal a mine-free Cambodia in 2025,” it said.
He also highlighted that the government has launched a strategic framework and programmes to restore and promote Cambodia's economic growth on the post-Covid-19 new normal path for 2021-2023.
"This strategy will serve as a road map and an effective driving force for strengthening the potential of Cambodia's economic growth to be as lively as before as well as taking new opportunities that are emerging in line with regional and global trends to promote sustainable economic growth and to build strong socio-economic resilience in Cambodia," said Pornmoniroth.
During the meeting, Scheuer also expressed his pleasure at visiting Cambodia once again and expressed his appreciation for the government’s efforts, which had achieved many fruitful outcomes, most importantly with its Covid-19 measures.
He also said that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cambodia has shown strong commitment to continuing to support the social protection sector and to work closely with stakeholders in the field.
Scheuer reaffirmed the commitment of the UN system to support Cambodia in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the UN new cooperation Framework 2024-2028.
"The UN will work closely with the Cambodian government to develop the new cooperation framework for 2024-2028 under the existing mechanism to ensure that it responds to direction and priorities of Cambodia in line with the government in the new mandate,” he said.
Pornmoniroth also thanked Scheuer for the support of the UN system in contributing to push for economic growth in Cambodia, especially providing technical support in social protection, one of the priority sectors in Cambodia to achieve the goal of sustainable development and for becoming an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income one by 2050.
