Structural Change and Inclusive Development in Cambodia: What, How and When

Regional Economic Studies Program

About the Webinar

Cambodia has a tragic history, but has recovered remarkably since the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and continues to have great aspirations. It aims to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050. To realize these aspirations, Cambodia needs to address various obstacles to achieve more sustainable and resilient growth. This type of growth must be driven by the creation of decent-wage and stable jobs in the formal and informal sectors.

How can structural change deliver more inclusive growth in Cambodia? What are the main obstacles to such diversification and how can they be overcome? What is needed to ensure that future growth is more sustainable and resilient? The webinar will attempt to answer these and related questions. It will draw on ADB’s next Country Diagnostic Study and a review of Cambodia Vision 2030 led by the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI), in response to a request from former Prime Minister Hun Sen.

About the Speaker

Dr. Jayant Menon Following a long career at ADB, Yusof Ishak joined ISEAS as a senior fellow in 2020 to continue his work on trade and development in the Asian region. His last stint at ADB was as Chief Economist of the Chief Economist, at the level of Director. He began his career as an academic in Australia, spending nearly a decade at the Center for Policy Studies at Monash University, becoming world-renowned for computational public equilibrium modeling. He also worked at the University of Melbourne, Victoria University, American University in Washington, DC and the ADB Institute in Tokyo. He has served as a Board Director of CDRI, Cambodia and on the Advisory Board of the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. He holds adjunct appointments with the Australian National University, University of Nottingham, UK and IDEAS, Malaysia. He has authored/edited more than 15 books, 50 book chapters and 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

About the debaters

HE Dr. Sok Sipana Cabinet member with senior ministerial rank in the Royal Government of Cambodia responsible for special duties on multilateral economic and trade affairs. Previously, he has been a Minister or Senior Ministerial Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC) and the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). From 2010 to August 2023, he was a founding partner and practitioner of SokSiphana & Associates, a law and consulting firm specializing in international trade and corporate law in Phnom Penh. He currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the Asian Vision Institute (AVI), leading the organization as its Chairman since 2019. From 2011 to 2017, he served as President of CDRI, Cambodia’s oldest and most prominent independent research institute. From 1999 to 2005, he served as Secretary of State at the Ministry of Trade, where he acted as the lead negotiator on Cambodia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. From 2005 to 2009 he served as Director of the International Trade Center (ITC) in Geneva. Dr Chok holds a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Widener University School of Law, Delaware, USA (1992), a Ph.D. from Bond University School of Law, Queensland, Australia (2009), and „Doctor en Droit” from Université de Paris II Pantheon-Assas, Paris, France (2022). In October 2022, His Majesty the King awarded him a lifetime Royal title of Academician at the Royal Academy of Cambodia.

Dr. Hall Hill HW Arndt Professor Emeritus of Southeast Asian Economies at the Crawford School, Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University (ANU). His main research interest is Southeast Asian economic development. He serves on the Bank Indonesia Institute’s Honorary Board (Dewan Keharmadan), the Council of the East Asian Economic Association (where he currently chairs) and several boards and committees at ANU, Macquarie University and Monash. University. He is the author/author of 20 books and about 170 journal articles and book chapters. He holds a PhD in Economics from ANU.

Register

The entire webinar will be delivered online. You can join the webinar on the specified date and time using devices (computer, phone or tablet) with an internet connection.

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If you have any questions for the speakers, mention your name and contact and address your questions through the Q&A. The moderator will place them in front of the speaker during the question and answer session.