A new World Bank report indicates that the number of poor Cambodians shrank by 12 percent – from 47 percent to 35 percent – over the last ten years. According to World Bank country manager Nisha Agrawal, tourism and the garment industry fuelled economic growth and caused “a very dramatic rise” in the build-up of assets among the country’s poor. Nevertheless, inequality between the rich and the poor remains acute as “the income of the richest group grew by about six times the rate of the poorest.’ Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed the report and considered it an evidence of the soundness of the government’s development programs. He said “politically, this assessment has helped correct the unfair perception in several domestic and international circles, who have believed that the economic growth over the last decade has not helped reduce poverty in Cambodia at all.” But he cautioned against complacency and urged the nation to “double [its] effort to achieve better.” (Source: World Bank: Cambodia’s Poverty Rate Falls/The Associated Press)
