PHNOM PENH: Cambodia, a minor Asian power, surpassed Sri Lanka and Myanmar to become the 20th-ranked power in the region in 2022, moving up two spots from the previous year.

Cambodia was one of only six countries in the region to improve its overall score, according to the Lowy Institute. The same report mentioned that it was due to a significant increase in its diplomatic influence score, reflecting positive views about Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2022.

Cambodia performs best in economic relationships and diplomatic influence measures, ranking 16th overall. Its lowest ranking is in the resilience metric, where it is ranked 25th. Cambodia’s diplomatic influence improved the most in 2022 when it rose four places in the rankings. Cambodia also climbed two places to 16th in terms of economic relationships, owing largely to its participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and a new free trade agreement with China.

Cambodia’s cultural influence ranking fell four places to 21st as a result of the negative effects of Covid-19 on the country’s tourism industry. Cambodia has more influence in the region than expected given its available resources for the first time, as evidenced by the country’s positive power gap score.

GDP in Cambodia is expected to reach 28.58 USD Billion by the end of 2023, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts’ expectations. In the long term, Cambodia’s GDP is projected to trend around 30.24 USD Billion in 2024 and 38.39 USD Billion in 2025, according to our econometric models.