Cambodia holds economic forum to tackle menace of global financial crisis

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 5 (Chinese media) -- Cambodia on Thursday held its third economic forum to focus on competitiveness enhancement and poverty reduction in face of the current global economic crisis.

"The government is taking systematic and sequencing measures to mitigate the negative impacts of the crisis on Cambodia's financial and economic structure, protect our hard-earned achievements and sustain growth at an appropriate level according to our existing capacity and potential," Prime Minister Hun Sen told the forum.

It is clear that if the government fails to take timely and appropriate protective measures to manage the crisis, the affects of the crisis and the economic slowdown will become a real cause for Cambodia's financial system and economy to fall into danger, he said.

"We have to grab this opportunity to reinforce our reform efforts in order to sharpen our national competitiveness, thus creating more attractions for investments that target an increasingly expanding and strengthened economic base," he said.

The Third Cambodia Economic Forum was organized by the Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC) with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

According to local reports here on Thursday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will likely lower Cambodia's forecast economic growth rate for 2009 to below 4.8 percent as the global economy continues to collapse, while the World Bank has forecast 4.9 percent GDP growth for Cambodia this year.