a. Domestic Policies
The main goal of the Royal Government is to ensure peace, stability, and national unity. In order to create a political stability conducive to the economic and social development, and the alleviation of poverty, Cambodia have to be a state of law. The development of liberal democracy and the respect of human rights must be firmly promoted.1. Pacification: The Royal Government adheres to national solidarity. To respect the advises of His Majesty the King, Cambodians from all walks of life and political backgrounds from every comer of the world must come together for the defense of their nation's independence, peace and prosperity. To restore permanent peace and political stability, the Royal Government would welcome the return of the remaining Khmer Rouges. It will continue to integrate the armed forces and the people in Pailin, Sainlot, Malai, Anlong Veng, Preah Vihear, and in other areas who support the policy of pacification The Royal Government continues to cooperate with international organizations to repatriate and resettle Cambodian refugees into the society. It would stop at any price the return of the genocidal regime and the reoccurrence of the recent past tragedies. The hard-line leaders of the outlawed Khmer Rouges would be put on trial. In the meantime, the Royal Government would reinstate some former servicemen into the Royal Armed Forces. Under the chairmanship of His Majesty the King, the November 13 statement clearly emphasized that the working group in charge of military affairs must immediately and properly implement the agreements set forth in the spirit of the November 12-13 summit. The Kingdom of Cambodia has full sovereignty. It is a unified state, not a seceded state. 2. Liberal Democratic Process and Respect of Human Rights: The Royal Government adheres to the principle of democratic pluralism and to the respect of human rights for which it strongly believes they are fundamental to the social progress. The democratization and liberalization of all social fabrics must be rapidly addressed, because they are the essential forces of economic and social development. The Royal Government assures and protects the freedom of its citizenry as granted in the Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Women and Children. It strongly opposes racial hatred. The overall structure of the state run human rights institution would be upgraded. 3. Freedom of the Press and of Expression: The Royal Government vigorously supports freedom of the press, freedom of expression and of assembly, which freely contribute to social and political conscience. In order to seek different shade and color of opinions, public forums are encouraged to take place. At the same time, freedom and anarchy should be clearly differentiated. The Constitution provides its citizenry their freedom to be enjoyed and honored, not to be destructive and intrusive. 4. The Role of Opposition: To mobilize the wisdom from all walks of life and background to build the nation, the Royal Government widely supports the role of opposition for constructive criticism, and for good deeds to the nation. The opposition has full legal rights to perform its political activities. They may assist Cambodia's young democracy to be fully developed. The Royal Government and the opposition should work to promote together the national interest, social stability, and the people welfare so that Cambodia and her people may enjoy the fruits of long lasting political strength and national stability. 5. Participation of the Civil Society: The Royal Government and the civil society shall incorporate their principle of state of law into strengthening democracy, liberty, and social law and order. Civil society shall be a key partner of the Royal Government in the development of Cambodia. The Royal Government would endorse activities of non-governmental organizations and associations that served the Cambodian people nationwide. The Royal Government would welcome the participation of the international non-governmental organizations in the process of rehabilitation of economic development and in the promotion of democracy and human rights. Therefore, it needs to draft a law on the non-governmental organizations and associations. 6. The Rule of Law: The rule of law is the basic principle of democracy and the sustainability of the government and all institutions. It is to ensure freedom, national interest, justice, harmony, and social sustainability. The enforcement and education of law would be widely disseminated. All men are born free and equal, but they must not be allowed to be above the law. A set of law must be applied equally to all. 7. Reforms: Presently, administrative, judicial, military and police, and economic reforms need to be urgently addressed. Today, Cambodia's administrative machine is bloated and should gradually trimmed. It should be a neutral and sound administration capable to effectively serve the people. The rule of civil servants must be strictly applied. Capacity building program to update the knowledge and skill of the civil servants must be upgraded and maintained. The provincial and municipality structure must be reviewed. The provincial administration autonomy should be seriously considered. The management of provinces, districts, communes, and villages should be properly carried out according to the law. The judicial system and the court need to be overhauled entirely. By law, they ought to be independent, honest, and trustworthy. To achieve this, cooperation among national institutions, such as the National Assembly, the Government, the Constitutional Council, the Supreme Council of Magistracy, and the court, should be done. Salaries of judges must be adequately raised. Cambodians, businessmen, and investors must not be victimized by corruption and abuses of power. The Royal Government of Cambodia considers the fight against the corruption as its matter of priority. The Royal Government should be transparent. An anti-corruption institution would be soon formed.
b. National Defense and Security
The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), the Military Police, and the National Police would fulfill their roles according to the law. They must be neutral, obedient, and self-restraint. They must sacrifice their lives to protect the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia. They should bravely defend the national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity to maintain peace, security, and stability, and to enforce law and order. They must end insurgency, terrorism, and secession. They must completely eradicate kidnapping, armed robbery, drug trafficking, artifact smuggling, money laundering, and sexual exploitation of minor children and women. They must properly enforce the law to make their homeland prosperous and safe for all, including diplomats, investors, tourists, and foreign workers.
c. Foreign Policy
Cambodia adheres to policy of neutrality and non-allignment. It indiscriminately establishes relations with all friendly states worldwide. It conducts policies of mutual understanding, equality, respect, and non-interference in other states' internal affairs. Cambodia would strengthen bilateral friendship and cooperation with its neighbors. Border issues with its neighbors would be resolved through negotiations and peaceful means. Cambodia would establish bilateral and multilateral friendship with regional countries, especially with ASEAN. It wants to contribute to the building of the Southeast Asia as a region of peace, tranquility, and prosperity. When becoming an active member of ASEAN, Cambodia would conduct itself within the principles of the agreements. The Royal Government of Cambodia is very grateful to the international community for their contribution to the peace, democracy and prosperity in Cambodia.
Cambodia would promote free market economy linked with programs to combat poverty and social justice. Economic mechanism runs its course within the rules and regulations of a free market economy. The Royal Government would not manage the market, but it would support it. The royal Government would grant to private sector the right of self-determination on productivity, investment and expenditure. It would improve economic management mechanism and structure to ensure efficiency and transparency to cope with corruption and violations of law. That is a very important factor for macro-economic stability, for boosting people's standard of living, and for encouraging foreign investment. Priorities shall be made for physical infrastructure, electricity and human resources development which are the fundamentals for the overall development. The followings are goals to be achieved:
To speed the economic growth in order to improve the living standard and to create more employment. To promote economic growth through the maximum exploitation of natural resources and national products for export.
To ensure the stability of the Riel currency, to keep the inflation rate at bay, to prevent the loss of revenue and private saving by the Riel fluctuation.
To increase export of better quality agricultural and manufacturing products. The Royal Government would do its best to alleviate the poverty that is the basis for economic development sustainability.The Royal Government would continue to implement projects that are identified in the National Program of Rehabilitation and Development of Cambodia and would focus on the long-term program for the economic and social development in the first five years from 1996-2000. Based on these fundamentals and past achievements, the Royal Government will implement the following economic strategies:
Development of Human Resources and Building of Infrastructure
Improvement of quality of education, health services, and food security must be strongly promoted by the Royal Government. The Royal Government will cooperate with the Chamber of Commerce and other professional institutions to set up centers for transfer of know-how. The Royal Government will continue the rehabilitation of national infrastructure. Eventually it will privatize the mass transportation and communication, the telecommunication, and the electrical power supply.
Agriculture
The main economic infrastructure of Cambodia is agriculture. The Royal Government would enhance the irrigation system, because agricultural activities in Cambodia are solely dependent on the weather. Consequently, it is essential to upgrade the General Direction of Irrigation to the level of Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology. In five years from 1998-2003, irrigation capacity should be increased from 16.62% to 20%. The rubber plantation will be privatized. The Royal Government would encourage large or small-scale rubber production by the provision of credit and ownership. The Royal Government will consolidate the forestry management to ensure its sustainability. Illegal logging shall be strictly banned.
Industries
The Royal Government encourages the development of small and large enterprises. It would focus on the strategy of producing for export rather than import substitution. The Royal Government promotes the research and exploitation of petroleum, natural gas, and other minerals that contain huge potentials for the national economy. It will develop soon hydropower in order to ensure adequate electric supply with low cost.
Trade
The Royal Government will speed up its policy of trade liberalization. It will facilitate the free circulation of goods. It would also broaden international trade relations by linking domestic markets with foreign markets. Finally it would promote the full integration into the regional and global trade.
Tourism
The Royal Government would promote the development of tourism, culture and eco-tourism. It w "ill stimulate private and public investments targeting at building up tourist infrastructure. It will ensure security and political stability.
Foreign Economic Policy
The Royal Government adopts external economic policies in line with the liberalization of international trade, and the integration of the national economy into the world economy. Through this policy, Cambodia prepares itself to attract and to compete regionally and globally in the process of economic internationalization. The pressure of the integration process into the regional economy, in which Cambodia expects to join ASEAN and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the near future, will add more burden to the national budget through the fall of tax revenue and import duties. These financial activities will no doubt change the economic structure of Cambodia but the Royal Government is optimistic and is prepared to amend its laws and practices to accommodate the economic integration.
Investment Policy
The Royal Government promotes both domestic and external investments. Cooperation with friendly countries will be strengthened in order to attract more investments and development assistance, and to obtain trade status as most favorite nation from other developed countries and to expand into future markets.
Financial and Monetary Policies
The Royal Government must ensure the efficiency of the execution of its financial and monetary policies. The Royal Government must give priorities to the promotion of productivity, private investment, social programs and public health care. The future ASEAN membership of Cambodia would influence to a great extent the reform of revenue collection for the national budget. National revenue through import and export taxes will be decreased and domestic tax revenue base will be broadened.
The Royal Government initiates tough measure to restore and promote culture heritage and national civilization, to end the declination of national culture, to highlight the social ethics, and to promote the national cultural characteristic and progress. On health matter, the Royal Government would promote health services to public and private sectors, disease prevention, mother and child care, fight against contagious diseases, and health check up and treatment in State hospitals and clinics. On social issues, the Royal government would upgrade the standard of living of the people and to ensure the equal benefits for the people from all walks of life. It would firmly implement the labor law and other international conventions on labor unions in order to secure the right and privilege for the workers, employees, and employers,. It will establish better working condition for the handicapped persons, orphans, widows, and indigent men and women.
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