KhmerTimes-Oct 6, 2026

Cambodia is fully prepared to graduate from the United Nations’ Least Developed Country (LDC) category by the end of 2029, Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, highlighting decades of sustained economic growth and progress in the Kingdom’s socio-economic development. Speaking at the 25th General Assembly of the Veterans Confederation of ASEAN Countries in Phnom Penh, Mr Hun Manet said Cambodia’s development trajectory has laid a strong foundation for its transition to a higher level of economic development.

He highlighted 2015 as a landmark year when Cambodia successfully moved from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income economy. The Prime Minister attributed much of the country’s development progress to the peace and national unity achieved under the Win-Win Policy, which he said enabled Cambodia to mobilize its resources towards national development. “Full peace under the Win-Win Policy has allowed Cambodia to focus its total resources on promoting national development,” he said, noting that the Kingdom recorded average economic growth of more than 7% annually for more than two decades before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having been categorized as an LDC since 1991, Cambodia’s LDC graduation follows a recommendation by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy after the Kingdom met the required thresholds across three key development indicators: gross national income per capita, the Human Assets Index and the Economic and Environmental Vulnerability Index.

The country was initially expected to graduate on an earlier timeline, but the United Nations set the official graduation date for the end of 2029 to allow Cambodia a five-year preparatory transition period. Only eight countries have graduated from the UN’s LDC category since 1994, including Botswana, Cabo Verde, Maldives, Samoa, Equatorial Guinea, Vanuatu, Bhutan and São Tomé and Príncipe. While graduation represents a significant milestone in Cambodia’s economic and social development, it will also bring challenges, particularly the gradual phase-out of international trade preferences, including duty-free and quota-free market access in some markets. Read more at:

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/502036064/pm-says-cambodia-on-track-to-graduate-from-ldc-list-by-2029/