On August 24, 2023, the government of Cambodia unveiled the ‘Pentagonal Strategy – Phase 1’, aimed at fostering economic growth, job creation, equity, efficiency, and sustainability over the next 25 years. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in his first Cabinet session on August 24 adopted the Pentagon Strategy- Phase I for Growth, Employment, Equity, Efficiency and Sustainability.
The Pentagonal Strategy – Phase 1 is the successor to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s previous Rectangular Strategy, encompassing a comprehensive set of strategic visions, missions, and objectives to achieve the country’s national development plan. It is the main strategic framework that will guide development in Cambodia over the next five-year government mandate. The main policy agenda for Cambodia’s development has transformed from a Triangular Strategy (1998-2003) to a Rectangular Strategy (2004-2023), and now finally a Pentagonal Strategy, adapting along with the shifting national and global contexts.
According to the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the Pentagon Strategy has five strategic objectives: ensuring crisis-resilient annual economic growth of around 7 per cent on average; creating more jobs; achieving the poverty reduction target of below 10 per cent and keeping the poverty rate to a minimum level; strengthening governance capacity and improving the quality of public institutions; and ensuring sustainable socio-economic development while building resilience to climate change.
The first aspect of the Pentagon Strategy centers around the enhancement of human capital, emphasizing education, technical proficiency, healthcare, social protection, food systems, and equity, guided by the principle of ensuring that no Cambodian citizen is excluded. The second facet involves fostering economic diversity and improving competitiveness, while the third is dedicated to advancing the private sector and employment. This aims to cultivate the labor market, encourage competition, and support the establishment of startups. The fourth aspect emphasizes building resilience and sustainable development. The final dimension concentrates on advancing the digital economy and society.
Manet has also listed six priority programmes to be implemented as part of this strategy. They include healthcare services towards universal health coverage, providing vocational and technical training for youths from poor and at-risk households, and institutionalising the national social assistance programmes for impoverished households. “The Pentagonal Strategy-Phase I shall be implemented, in accordance with the approach of Dynamics of Stakeholder System, requiring all ministries-institutions both national and sub-national, to work together in an energetic collaboration and coordination, with synergy and complementarity, as well as flexibility to changes of realities to achieve the set priority objectives,” Hun Manet said.
The Council of Ministers is the government’s primary coordinating institution that oversees the implementation of the Pentagon Strategy. The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet asked the Council of Ministers to draft the regulations that would outline in detail the methodologies and procedures to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of phase I of the Pentagon Strategy. “For the implementation of priorities that are inter-ministerial or inter-sectoral in nature, the government will appoint competent inter-ministerial committees or councils to oversee and coordinate such matters,” Manet said. Manet himself will directly lead the national committee for measures to improve the quality of education and healthcare.
On December 14, 2023, Council of Ministers leader Vongsey Visoth chaired a meeting to review and direct the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the first phase of the Pentagon Strategy. He instructed the General Secretariat of the Committee for Monitoring and Evaluating the Pentagon Strategy to expedite the completion of a framework for monitoring and evaluating progress. He also provided guidelines for cooperation among ministries, institutions, and development partners to fund the preparation of the framework, especially when it comes to identifying key performance indicators.
Thus, Cambodia’s Pentagon Strategy serves as a roadmap to achieving the country’s vision of becoming a high middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income one by 2050.
