Publication:
Improving the Effectiveness of Public Finance: Cambodia Public Expenditure Review

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (7.75 MB)
3,624 downloads
Published
2019-06
ISSN
Date
2019-07-03
Editor(s)
Abstract
Cambodia’s rapid economic growth and poverty reduction have taken place in an environment characterized by macroeconomic stability and prudent fiscal management. Having recently graduated to become a lower middle-income country, Cambodia is beginning to face complex fiscal and public service delivery challenges. The Cambodia public expenditure review (PER) discusses the numerous achievements in fiscal policy to date and presents policy options going forward, based on both analysis and consultations with stakeholders. The PER aims to help the Royal Government of Cambodia in the effort to overcome the challenges and move toward more effective public spending and service delivery, while maintaining macroeconomic stability. To make the most of fiscal policy and available fiscal space, Cambodia needs to continue improving the allocation and execution of public resources, for increased value for money. The Cambodia Public Expenditure Review (PER)discusses the numerous achievements in fiscal policy to date and proposes policy options goingforward, based on both analysis and consultations with stakeholders. The PER aims to help the RoyalGovernment of Cambodia in the effort to overcome the abovementioned challenges and move towardmore effective public spending and service delivery, while maintaining macroeconomic stability. Structured around the key challenges, the six chapters of the PER are based on background papers that incorporate feedback from two rounds of consultations with the PER Committee chaired by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank Group. 2019. Improving the Effectiveness of Public Finance: Cambodia Public Expenditure Review. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32034 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    China : Improving Rural Public Finance for the Harmonious Society
    (Washington, DC, 2007-11-21) World Bank
    This report aims to assist the government in improving implementation of the New Socialist Countryside (NSC) program, especially in raising the effectiveness of public expenditures, and the harmonization of public finance. While this report pays particular attention to rural aspects of public finance, it addresses this topic within the overall framework of intergovernmental finance that impacts both rural and urban areas. Similarly, the discussions and recommendations in this report are intended to move the system towards one that is harmonized and does not differentiate between 'rural' and 'urban' areas. The structure of this report is as follows: Chapter 2 analyzes the considerable number of reform efforts that have been introduced to the rural public finance system. It looks at the RFR in depth, as well as other associated and related reforms and evaluates the overall outcome of these reforms. Chapter 3 provides an overview of China's intergovernmental system as the framework for rural public finance. It includes an analysis of the expenditure and revenue assignments and their development, and the impact on rural public finance. The transfer system, an integral part of the intergovernmental fiscal system, is treated separately in Chapter 4 because of its overwhelming importance for rural public finance. The chapter analyzes how far the transfer system goes in addressing the fiscal imbalances and providing the necessary public funds for rural areas. It also assesses the role of earmarked transfers. Chapter 5 then looks at the public finance situation at the grassroots level, i.e., the financing of villages, townships, and counties, including how recent developments have impacted their situation and what remaining issues exist at these levels. Finally, Chapter 6 summarizes the findings of this study, proposes a strategy for policy reforms, and suggests ideas for its implementation.
  • Publication
    Gabon Public Expenditure Review : Better Management of Public Finance to Achieve Millennium Development Goals
    (Washington, DC, 2012-03) World Bank
    Although Gabon has witnessed a significant decline in oil production over the last fifteen years, it still generates significant oil revenue which, due to its small population enables the country to have a per capita gross national income that is among the highest in Africa (8643 USD in 2010) and to be classified as an upper-middle income country. Despite this high level of wealth, the country is ranked 106th out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index of the United Nations (0.674 in 2011). Consequently, the major challenge for Gabon remains the effective use of its oil resources to diversify its economy, improve its basic social services and infrastructure, while accumulating financial savings that will enable the country to avoid sudden and sharp cuts in public spending once the oil resources have been used up. The Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (GPRSP) that covered the period from 2006 to 2008 targeted the reversal of the downward trend of the main development indicators and a significant improvement in the living conditions of the population. It was prepared using a consultative approach, based on the broad participation of civil society, and results-oriented, with the ultimate goal of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It was structured around four strategy areas: (i) promoting strong, sustainable, high quality and pro-poor economic growth, (ii) significantly improving access of the entire population to basic social services, (iii) improving infrastructure, and (iv) promoting good governance. The analysis of budgetary expenditure in the priority sectors during the period 2006-08, shows that this expenditure was far below the envisaged envelopes. The achievement rates for road programs fluctuate between 0 percent and 55 percent. This may partly explain the slow progress towards achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs).
  • Publication
    Improving Public Expenditure Efficiency for Growth and Poverty Reduction : A Public Expenditure Review for the Republic of Moldova
    (Washington, DC, 2007-02) World Bank
    The Government of Moldova's Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP) lays out an ambitious plan for sustaining growth and poverty reduction and reshaping the government to meet the needs of a market economy. The public expenditures envisaged under this ambitious plan, however, vastly exceed the domestic resources available to the Government. Additional foreign budgetary support may help alleviate some of that resource constraint. Recognizing that the share of tax revenues and expenditures to GDP in Moldova already greatly exceed comparable international levels, generating additional domestic tax resources risks crowding out the private sector and undermining growth prospects. This suggests that in order to finance higher order public expenditures priorities, the Government needs to create fiscal space from within the existing resource envelope. This will require inter and intra-sectoral reallocation of expenditures and an increase in the efficiency of public spending rather than increasing the relative size of government.
  • Publication
    Financing Rural Development for a Harmonious Society in China : Recent Reforms in Public Finance and Their Prospects
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-08) Fock, Achim; Wong, Christine
    The Government of China has placed strong emphasis on addressing problems related to agriculture, farmers, and rural society, with the development of a "new socialist countryside" designated as a top priority for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). The financing of public services in rural areas will be a key determinant of the Plan's success. This report analyzes the performance of the intergovernmental fiscal system - the financing of rural development through counties, townships, and villages - and the impact of recent reforms. The authors show that achieving the government's objectives will require channeling substantial new resources to rural areas. In addition, ensuring the effective transfer of resources and their efficient utilization will require fundamental reforms to a wide range of public institutions, including budget and planning processes, personnel management systems, and the organization of government agencies. The authors argue that a comprehensive reform strategy is needed to address fundamental vertical and horizontal imbalances in the intergovernmental fiscal system The reforms must reach beyond the fiscal system to build improved accountability mechanisms to improve public service delivery at the grassroots level. And, given China's size and diversity, reform efforts must focus on improving incentive structures at the county, township, and village levels.
  • Publication
    Pakistan : Reforming Punjab's Public Finances and Institutions
    (Washington, DC, 2001-08-21) World Bank
    Similarly to Pakistan's other provinces, and the country as a whole, Punjab Province - a macrocosm of the country, with more than half the population, and economic activity - is facing a crisis of public service delivery, government finances, public institutions, and governance. Hence, the resulting social, and infrastructure "deficits", have contributed to slower economic growth, slower poverty reduction, and poor social indicators in the province. Nevertheless, Punjab has the opportunity to turn around its public sector, for the provincial government seems determined to improve service delivery. This report is intended to provide an input for this process, and, puts forward recommendations for fiscal restructuring, institutional improvements - including civil service reform - and, sectoral reforms to improve service delivery in education, health, agriculture and irrigation, and roads. Fiscal restructuring needs to focus the public sector on essential core roles, to include improved financial management; revamping planning, and budgeting; mobilizing revenue from taxes, and user charges; and, implementing fiscal decentralization. Institutional improvements, and civil reform would include accountability, and strengthening key provincial economic management, regulatory, and sectoral institutions, while reforms in individual sectors should improve service delivery , and development outcomes. The Federal Government should play an important role in supporting, and facilitating provincial reforms, by guiding the devolution process, stabilizing federal revenues, and, working closely with the provinces in the reform process.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.
  • Publication
    Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022
    (Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank
    The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.