PHNOM PENH: The Minister of Economy and Finance, Deputy Prime Minister Aun Pornmoniroth, delivered a speech at the online global event on the ‘Financing of Net Zero Carbon in Emerging Markets’, on Monday. In his speech, he touched upon the crucial need for countries around the world to take concerted action to address climate change and channel investment flows to support sustainable development, energy transition, and achieving net-zero carbon emissions in emerging markets.

The DPM elaborated on some of the challenges Cambodia is facing as a developing country with limited fiscal space and resources, especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, to effectively implement sustainable development policy measures.

With the pandemic causing significant set backs and even reversing hard-earned progress towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the Deputy Prime Minister said that achieving decarbonization of economic development would be particularly challenging for low-income and developing economies. Hence, he urged for deeper collaboration between emerging and developed economies, which can cover extensive areas such as technology transfer in reduction of industrial carbon emission, re-forestation initiative and EV adoption.

The main three challenges the DPM highlighted were adopting development models that can accommodate different priorities, a financing shortfall, and other labor market challenges. Nevertheless, he said that strengthening resilience for development is a key priority for the Royal Government of Cambodia, particularly under Pillar 3 of the national strategic framework on Economic Recovery in the Context of Living with the Covid-19 in a New Normal 2021-2023, which includes the adoption of digital transformation, climate change adaptation and prioritization of green and sustainable development aligned with the SDGs.

Finally, the DPM informed the panel that Cambodia as the 2022 ASEAN Chair is committed to promoting efforts to expedite the equitable, resilient and sustainable post-Covid-19 recovery process, as reflected under the broad theme of "ASEAN A.C.T: Addressing Challenges Together," which includes a commitment to promoting green development and attracting green investments in the region.