PHNOM PENH: Council of Ministers leader Vongsey Visoth chaired a meeting to review and direct the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the first phase of the Pentagon Strategy, which launched when Prime Minister Hun Manet took over in August.

The first phase of the Pentagon strategies focuses on five key priorities: people, road, water, electricity and technology. By focusing on these, the strategy aims to ensure economic growth, reduce poverty, create more jobs, strengthen the quality of public institutions and ensure sustainable socio-economic development. Ultimately, the Pentagon Strategy was developed to accomplish Cambodia’s vision of becoming a high-income country by 2050.

On December 14, the Office of the Council of Ministers met to discuss the ways and means of evaluating and monitoring new policies to ensure that they are effective in accomplishing the Pentagon Strategy’s goals. Vongsey Visoth emphasized the importance of such mechanisms to starting a new cycle of socio-economic development in Cambodia so that the government’s policies, strategies and measures can be measured for their effectiveness.

He instructed the General Secretariat of the Committee for Monitoring and Evaluating the Pentagon Strategy to expedite the completion of a framework for monitoring and evaluating progress.

He also provided guidelines for cooperation among ministries, institutions and development partners to fund the preparation of the framework, especially when it comes to identifying key performance indicators.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework is an important tool for the Royal Government to act as a mediator to ensure that ministries, institutions, councils, authorities and committees, at both the national and regional levels, fulfill their role and responsibilities to the people, investors and the public with high accountability while implementing the first phase of the Pentagon Strategy.