Introduction
Cambodia’s modern culture borrowed its roots from the 6th-century Funan nation. This was the oldest known Indian state in Southeast Asia. It was during this period that the Cambodians learned their language (Cady, 2010). They followed the Hinduism and Buddhism religions and can be distinguished from their neighbors by their clothing style (Hazra, 2015). In 1955, a revolutionist began campaigning for independence and dedicated his throne to pursuing a political career. Sihanouk inaugurated a national political party known as the sang Kum rear niyum (people’s socialist community) whose members were only supposed to belong to one political party. He won the elections in 1956 and served as prime minister until 1960. After his father’s death, he was named Cambodia’s head of state. Cambodia first joined the Association of Southeast Asian countries in 1999 30 April when it was accorded full membership in VietNam.
The ASEAN was established on 8th August 1967 in Bangkok by Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia to promote economic and political relations and regional peace. At the 3oth anniversary of the international organization, they formed a vision 2020 agenda agreeing on outward-looking, peace and prosperity and bonded together in a community of selfless societies. At the ASEAN summit in 2007, the leaders insisted on a strong commitment to forming an Asian community by 2014, thus signing the (Cebu Declaration on the Acceleration of the Establishment of an ASEAN Community by 2015) (Curtis, 2014). The organization has three pillars, which include: the political-security branch, the economic community, and the socio-cultural community. In this essay, we will discuss the history and development of Cambodia, its achievements, and its relationship together with ASEAN.
History and Development of Cambodia
A series of events took place in the 9th century before the formation of Cambodia, where the ethnic Cambodian prince declared himself ruler of the independent new kingdom. The kingdom had unified several local dominions and was centered at the present day Siem reap in the northwest. The prince, Jayavarman 11 inaugurated Hinduism and honored the Hindu god Shiva. Between the 9th century and the 15th century, about 27 monarchs rule over the kingdom of Khmer (the current-day capital city of Cambodia). During the 16th century, there were frequent wars after the arrival of the Europeans. Nonetheless, the kingdom of Ayutthaya absorbed the lan n, and Lan sang and took over the remaining kingdom of Champa which evolved into modern Myanmar (Cady, 2010). In the 18th century, a civil war between Vietnam and the Burmese destroyed Ayutthaya and formed new dynasties that took control of the Cambodian court. Another war ensued in the 1830s and went close to destroying Cambodia.
After the French invasion in the 1940s, King Sihanouk fought skilfully and achieved Cambodia’s independence in 1953 after the Japanese left the French administration in the country. Before the independence, France had set up their protectorate in 1946 but also allowed Cambodians to set up their constitution and form political parties. Soon afterward, fighting ensued throughout Indochina where communist guerrilla forces allied with Vietnamese communists to take over the country. In 1954, after the end of the First Indochina War, Geneva acknowledged Sihanouk's government as the sole legitimate authority (Hazra, 2015). During the Cold War, Cambodia's importance was raised from events held in Vietnam, and tension began between communists and the pro-western regime in the South. Russia supported the communists while the United States supported their opponents. However, the Cambodian president remained neutral, and that attracted substantial economic aid from the competing powers.
In 1965, Sihanouk broke economic ties with the United States and allowed Vietnam communists to set up bases in Cambodia. As war increased, local rebellion against Sihanouk intensified. The Cambodian communist organization took up arms against the government and Cambodia became difficult to govern. Hence, in desperate need of economic and military aid, Cambodia renewed diplomatic relations with America; the then-American president Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Cambodia to destroy communists’ bases. Unfortunately, in March 1970, the Cambodian National Assembly disposed of President Sihanouk through a couple by the conservative pro-western army. Afterward, the then-prime minister assumed power and sent a poor army to face the North Vietnamese communist forces hoping that America would allow them to win (Pradhan, 2011 p.624-628). Nonetheless, America’s interest lay in Vietnam, and in April of that year, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia destroying Lon Nol’s army. In 1970, Lon Nol formed the Khmer Republic which later collapsed despite massive infusions from America. After America bombed Cambodia, the country suffered massive casualties, and its infrastructure was also destroyed leading to its collapse.
Recently in October 1991, warring parties in Cambodia signed an agreement meant to bring an end to the conflict. The agreement included a temporary power-sharing deal between the United Nations transitional authority in the country and the supreme national council consisting of delegates from Cambodia. The organizations sponsored an election in 1993 where the majority of voters rejected armed regimes (Vickery, 2014). The FUNCINPEC royalist party won majority seats and the leader, Norodom Rana Vriddhi became the first prime minister while Sihanouk's son who threatened to disrupt the elections became the second prime minister. There was a good development record for the next three years, but Hun Sen staged a successful coup against the first prime minister and replaced him with Ung Huot. Thus, Cambodia delayed entering the association of Southeast Asian nations due to Hun’s action which shocked foreign nations. In 1997, Cambodia was the only country that had been left out of the region.
Despite the coup, elections were held successfully in 1998, and foreign observers said it was relatively free and fair. Nonetheless, the CPP harassed opposition leaders and gained a plurality of the votes. But votes in the local authorities indicated they did not enjoy much support from the people. Both parties agreed on a power-sharing deal where Hun was the prime minister while Ranariddh became the president of the national assembly and formed a coalition government dividing control among various cabinet secretaries.
Current achievement of Cambodia
Since 2001, Cambodia has made significant strides in its political, economic, and socio-cultural aspects. First, it is the main tourist attraction destination in South East Asia and has also become a middle–income country, considered as the new tiger of Asia. The rapid economic growth has been at 7.7% reflecting progressive, diverse manufacturing industries making market strides into the regional and international production chains (Godfrey et al., 2012 p.355-373). The annual GDP growth rate between 2014 and 2016 was 7% as stated in the Strategic Development Plan 2017. There has been rapid agricultural growth and has been termed as a creditable achievement, especially amid the recent global financial crisis in 2008. During this period, Cambodia’s economy plummeted more than the Asian neighbors, but its economy was among the first to recover from the crisis.
Cambodia’s export index has maintained a growth rate of 2% up to 2015. Also. It has strengthened other major imports apart from the United Kingdom, Japan, and the U.S. Thus a similar growth in its export index is expected in the following years. In 2015, the reduction in agriculture was caused by better growth in industry and services. Hence the country’s GDP continued to increase by 7%. Recently, the construction sector has continued to grow resulting in a mild growth in the industry sector (Moller, 2016). The industry sector continues to perform strongly with a nearly 10% growth rate. If the garment sector continues to increase exports, the sector is expected to experience a growth rate of 10% next year. The construction sector has also grown by 20% from 2005 and is expected to continue at the same pace. The growth in garment exports increased from 10.5% in 2014 to 14% in 2016. Similarly, the rate of growth in 2016 towards 2017 increased substantially.
The newly emerging tobacco and beverage sector has increased due to high demand from local consumers and about 5 million foreign tourists that visit the country annually. The increase in local demand for these products is owed to the fact that the number of registered tobacco and beverage manufacturing industries increased by 40% between 2010 and 2015 (Simone, 2013). Similarly, the number of tobacco factories increased from 98 in 2014 to 124 in 2016.
How Cambodia and ASEAN mutually benefited each other
After the economic crisis in 1997-1991, ASEAN experienced a more modest increase in the GDP in the following years. The GDP doubled from $2.4 trillion in 2007 to $3,300 in 2015. During this period, the organization also became more influential in global and regional markets. And in 2015, their trade stood at $2.5 trillion, accounting for 7% of the world’s total share of trade. ASEAN has a population of 622 million people which provides for a large market, over 505 of the total population includes young people below 30 years (Moller, 2016). In 2015, the region became the world’s fastest-growing economic hub accounting for 11% of global foreign direct investment inflows. In the same year, the ASEAN community was the biggest recipient of FDI in the world after China and Hong Kong. It also became more influential as markets continued to increase globally. By 2014, it was Asia’s 3rd and the world’s 7th largest among the most current integrated markets.
In parallel, the region’s rapid economic growth has translated to reduced poverty from 45% in 1990 to 15.6% in 2010. The significant poverty reduction is owed to the rise in the middle class in the region by countries such as Cambodia which have contributed and also benefited largely from the ASEAN organization. Apart from contributing to regional growth, ASEAN has been actively involved in the integration of AEC and its dialogue partners such as Japan, China, and South Korea. In the 14th summit, Cambodia proposed for early conclusion of negotiations into the regional comprehensive economic partnership (Godfrey et al., 2012 p.355-373). The partnership marks a key future investment in both Cambodia and the region. Additionally, Cambodia is strategically located in the ASEAN region and also has potential regarding demographics in the labor force since it accounts for 2/3 of the total population which is expected to increase in the coming years. With the help of the ASEAN Association, Cambodia has moved from a low-income country to a middle-level income country reflecting economic progress, and improving the living standards of its citizens.
Way forward: future for ASEA and Cambodia
ASEAN has adopted a vision for the future that involves high economic integration and cohesiveness with four main characteristics: first, a single production and market base, two a highly competitive economic region, three a region of equal opportunities in economic development and lastly a region fully integrated into the global economy. The first characteristic involves ensuring peace and safety through building trust among member states and solving regional conflicts through the principle of international legislation (Simone, 2013). The second characteristic involves reducing development gaps between member states through the implementation of the A1 plan 111 in its integration policy. It will offer great and equal opportunities for growth in the business sector and will have 685 million consumers by 2030. Poverty and people living below $1.25 per capita per day will be things of the past by 2030.
Cambodia is strategically placed and always open for business and investors who show a keen interest in opening firms in the country. The royal government plays a key role in managing the business environment to ensure peace, stability, and security are achieved. Also, the Cambodian government has been very active in modernizing the country’s infrastructure and the implementation of some change programs such as the governance reform (Sang, 2009 p.517-574). The industry developments that support growth for Cambodia brought about by the ASEA community will widen repercussion development through inter-activities between related sectors and translate into a good investment opportunity in both the private and public sectors (Walsh, 2015 p.21-28).
Conclusion
Cambodia began as a small territory but underwent a series of events to become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The events include civil wars, rebellions, and the Cold War to violent elections between two rival parties. Eventually, through the intervention of the United Nations, the country became stable and grew both economically and politically to a middle-income country. As a member of the ASEA community, the country was able to acquire a large market for its products and also received funds to build industries and infrastructure meant to increase trade among the member states.
References
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