Going through a plethora of historical stages and unfolding situations since French colonization of Cambodia and following decades of chronic wars, the Royal Government of Cambodia re-introduced the accounting system in 1993. Starting from these historical phases, Cambodia has adopted an accounting system based on French accounting system, and Cambodia’s public accounting system has been continuously updated in response to changes in political regimes, economic systems and the development of the accounting sector within the international framework, in particular, to promote the transparency and reliability of the Royal Government’s financial statements.
Over the last two decades under peace, Cambodia has maintained a strong and sustainable economic growth, reflected by an average annual economic growth rate of around 7 percent, and the poverty rate has been rapidly reduced and is expected to subsequently decline. Obviously, Cambodia has achieved its status as the lower middle-income country in 2015, and is projected to achieve its status as the upper middle-income country by 2030, and high-income country by 2050.
Within the framework of the public financial management reform program, the Royal Government of Cambodia has introduced and implemented “Budget System Reform Strategy 2018-2025”, which is the core strategy for setting the direction of Cambodia’s budget system to transform from a centralized, input-focused system to a decentralized, output-focused system. To this end, the “Strategy on the Implementation of Accrual Basis Public Sector Accounting Standards in Cambodia 2021-2031” will be launched and implemented for a period of 10 years. The Royal Government has set the year 2031 as a benchmark for Cambodia to make a complete transition to the implementation of accrual basis accounting system, in which Cambodia will have a national financial reporting framework which can produce transparent, reliable financial information in line with the international best practices and the actual context of Cambodia, in particular, to ensure the accountability of the Royal Government to the people on the use of resources and provision of public services in an effective and efficient way.
The full document is available here.
This document was prepared by Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Kingdom of Cambodia