Cambodia Development Institute

Cambodian Rural Development
VANN Makara
Royal University of Phnom Penh
February 13th, 2013

Cambodia is a developing country that has faced several changes in government and political system for the last 50 years. The population of Cambodia in July, 2012 estimated by Index mundi is about 14,952,665 with the area of 181,035 kilometers square. Cambodian economy has been growing rapidly since the Civil War in the country had stopped by the Paris Concord in 1991. As a result, the GDP growth rate in 2011 was about 7.1 percent (Cambodia, Annual Report 2011). Currently, there are many organizations and researchers that come in and do research on various topics in order to find out the potential sector to develop Cambodian society and eradicate poverty among Cambodian citizen. Many researchers as well as scholars have found that “Rural Development” is the best strategy to develop the national economy as well as decrease the poverty rate in the developing country like Cambodia. According to UNDP Cambodia, about 80% of the population lives in rural area, and 92 percent of the poor live in rural. Developing rural areas means to cut down unemployment rate, improve social welfare, infrastructure and living standard of people, especially to reduce gap between urban and rural areas in Cambodia.