Project Southeast Asia at Oxford University

Redistribution of ODA to Improve Efficiency in Cambodia

Jae Hyun Lee, Prime Education Consulting, U.S.A.

Lewis Seagull, Kean University, U.S.A.

Hong Gu Lee, University of Chicago, U.S.A.

Lewin Kim, Horace Mann School, U.S.A.
Yoon Kee Lee, Hotchkiss School, U.S.A. 

Abstract

Cambodia is the result of colonization, imperialism, conflicts in idealism, and nationalism. With instability being the foundation, a lack of efficient infrastructure in the government and economic sectors has risen. This is mainly due to a lack of proper education, corruption within the government, and the state of depravity the country was forced to build upon. Despite this, Cambodia has the potential to enter a rapid development stage that would propel and enable its economy to begin to enter the forefront of the global economy.

To begin, Cambodia currently is not performing up to the same standards as its neighboring countries operating at a much lower GDP despite possessing similar demographics and resources. The subtle indication is that even a slight tweak in Cambodia’s mode of operation could improve its efficiency and push its development forward. Another comparison can be to the Far East countries – namely, Japan and Korea. Though the two countries are small and appear to possess a limited amount of resources, the two countries were able to restructure their private and government sectors in a way that pushed them into the elite class of international economics. Using the two countries as a model, there are similarities that co-exist between them and Cambodia. The biggest is potential.

Despite its low unemployment rate, high ODA, along with a relatively high real growth rate, it is unable to translate that into a respectable GDP per capital per person despite its overall GDP being at a solid level. This indicates that the economy is incredibly top heavy meaning that most of its capital remains within the top percentile that deal with its management and use skewing the GDP data in regards to its per capital per person. Therefore, a slight change in infrastructure, mainly regards to ODA, can help improve efficiency.

Keywords: Cambodia, ODA, Economic Development