World Bank vice president hails Cambodia's growth, poverty reduction

World Bank Vice President for the East Asia and the Pacific region Axel van Trotsenburg on Monday praised Cambodia for its high economic growth and rapid poverty reduction, a Cambodian senior official said.

Axel expressed his appreciation during a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, according to Eang Sophalleth, an aide to the prime minister.

"Axel hailed Cambodia's high economic growth, saying that in Asia, Cambodia's economy had rapidly grown and would continue to grow in upcoming years despite global economy's complexity," Sophalleth told reporters after the meeting.

"He also congratulated to Cambodia on reducing poverty rapidly," he added.

According to Sophalleth, Axel said the World Bank was keen to work in partnership with the Cambodian government to further boost socio-economic development.

For his part, Hun Sen attributed economic growth and decline in poverty rate to the government's reforms and said the country still had a lot of potential for economic growth and poverty reduction.

The Southeast Asian nation achieved the average growth rate of 7.7 percent per annum over the last two decades and was ranked by the World Bank as the top sixth among the world's eight fast-growing economies.

The country's growth for 2015 is expected at 6.9 percent, according to the government forecast.

For poverty reduction, the country's poverty rate had fallen to 13.5 percent in 2014 from 53.2 percent a decade ago. People living below poverty line are defined by an income of less than 1.25 U.S. dollars per day. Enditem