Phnom Penh: Deputy Prime Minister Sok Chenda Sophea has stressed that Cambodia needs to strengthen the transition from relying on the benefits of a young, abundant and affordable labor force to competitiveness based on high skills, high productivity and high added value to strengthen the attraction of quality investment, create good jobs and further improve people’s income.
This was highlighted by the Deputy Prime Minister at the opening ceremony of the 16th National Labor and Productivity Exhibition 2026 on September 12, 2026 at the Koh Pich Convention and Exhibition Center under the theme “Skills and Jobs: Labor Productivity for Sustainable Economic Growth”.
The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that the benefits that have helped attract investors to Cambodia in the past will not necessarily be enough to retain investment in the future, as technology, production structures, and competition between countries are changing and competing rapidly.
The Deputy Prime Minister recalled: “For many years, Cambodia has had a strong competitive advantage in attracting investment: an abundant, young, and affordable labor force…. In this context, affordable wages will lose their appeal. In an environment of intense competition, productivity is the main factor. Productivity does not mean working more in advance; productivity means working better through higher skills, more modern techniques, and more effective management. This is why skills development is no longer just a social policy, but an economic policy and ultimately a policy for sustainable growth.”
He explained that about 8% of workers have skills in excess of demand, while 6% have insufficient skills, while 29% have qualifications in excess of demand and 22% have lower qualifications than job requirements, while approximately 22.7% of enterprises reported difficulty in finding suitably skilled workers.
To address this issue, the Royal Government has identified human capital development and improving labor productivity as key priorities in the first phase of the Five-Point Strategy, with the goal of transforming Cambodia’s industrial structure from labor-intensive industries to to skill-based industries and technology-based industries, according to the Deputy Prime Minister.
Please note that during the three years of the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Sen, factories, enterprises and companies in Cambodia have increased from more than 7,000, from more than 40,000 to more than 47,000, which has resulted in more than 2.3 million people having jobs in the system.
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