Hun Sen, the country’s prime minister and president of the Cambodian People’s Party, announced the new blueprint for the country’s budgetary policy earlier this month at the annual meeting of the PFM reform programme.

He said: “The new strategy for budget reform aims to enhance the effectiveness of multiyear budgeting and the sound management of public funds.”

Cambodia enters the third stage of a four-phase system of budget reform that got underway in 2004, minister of economy and finance Aun Pornmoniroth has said.

Phase three aims to strengthen the link between budgetary strategy and actual policy. The last stage will focus on performance accountability.

Pornmoniroth said: “In the last few years, the public fund management reform programme has evolved faster and faster.”

The country’s prime minister said the government has already made a lot of progress on economic reform, including achieving microeconomic stability, improving public trust in the national budget and implementing financial information management systems, which are designed to improve governance and transparency of national budget management.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance launched the FMIS in 2004, with help from the World Bank. The system is a tool for automating the government’s current manual public financial management processes.

Sen said: “All ministries and government institutions must monitor and implement regularly the public financial management reform programme. They must strengthen their leadership, structure and human capital to aid the implementation of the reform.

“I urge the leaders of all ministries and governmental institutions to work hard and responsibly on this task.”

Last year, the system was applied to 10 government ministries after a successful implementation of the scheme at the National Treasury Department.

It is expected to be extended to 25 new provincial treasury departments, as well as ten ministries, this year.