Cambodian Green Economy Transition: Background, Progress, and SWOT Analysis

Abstract

A green economy is not a common economic practice. This leads the governments in many countries to focus on institutional arrangement and policy development. The institutional arrangement is one of the main significant factors, while green economy policies have to be well developed to support stakeholders and put less pressure on local communities. Hence, this research aims to understand green economic development in Cambodia by focusing on institutional arrangements and green economic development policies. Thus, this research’s priority was to evaluate their background and progress, and a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis was conducted based on their progress/transition. This research conducted background, progress, and SWOT analyses based on (i) the government’s documents, including the code, laws, royal decrees, sub-decrees, prakas, policies, strategic plans, roadmaps, and reports; (ii) development partners’ reports from reliable sources, such as UN agencies, UN Programs, ASEAN, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank; and (iii) existing literature. This research presented the results and discussed the findings encompassed by political and economic conditions, institutional arrangement and capacities, policy development and coordination, and participation of the public and stakeholders, as well as global green cooperation and funding, which were conditioned by the experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainties resulting from global geopolitical conflicts, such as the Russian–Ukrainian conflicts. Moreover, this research discussed weaknesses against strengths and threats against opportunities to suggest solutions or implications.

Keywords

• Cambodia green economy
• COVID-19 impacts on green growth
• green climate fund
• wars affecting green investment
• ASEAN sustainable finance taxonomy
• carbon neutrality strategy