TAKEO: Prime Minister Hun Manet urged the study of policies to promote population growth after receiving reports that the majority of Cambodians will be elderly by 2050, when his government aims to be a high-income country.

Speaking at a meeting with nearly 20,000 workers in Takeo’s Bati district, on the morning of September 19, the PM called for studies to be conducted on encouraging Cambodians to have children, saying that if they wait to become rich in 2050, people will no longer want to have children.

introduced a study on politics to encourage people to have children again. If we wait until Cambodia becomes a rich country in 2050, then people will not want to have children. "Now we foresee,[...] in 25 or 30 years, we will reduce the labor force,” he said.

Cambodia is an exceptionally young country, with the median age of 27. Some figures estimate that around 65% of Cambodians are under the age of 30. Global trends reflect population decline as countries become wealthier and children cost more money to raise.