Decades of wars and internal conflicts have left Cambodia as one of the world's poorest countries.Poverty reduction has been the overarching goal of the development strategy and one of the main agenda of the Royal Government of Cambodia since the inception of its new government.The link between economic growth and poverty reduction and the policies of government on poverty reduction have been studied by various scholars.However, most of the scholars focus on the government policies and forget to examine the reactions and perceptions of the people onthe policies.Hence, this paper attempts to use on-the-ground findings and the opinions from a diverse range of receptions to critically evaluate the government performance in poverty alleviation in the rural area of Cambodia.Based on both primary data including questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and case studies of Prey Kabbas District in Takeo Province, and secondary data comprising of statistic data, journal articles, research paper, books,newspaper, and government documents, it found that the overall performance of the government in building infrastructure and providing public service including electricity, educational and medical service, supports in agriculture were not widely acceptable so it needed to be much improved.Additionally, there were demands from the local people to improve the irrigation system in the village and intervene in the market to reduce the price of the raw material and increase the price of the agriculture product.The paper argues that the continuing expansion of infrastructure construction and maintenance, and agro-market price regulation can work to ensure the income generation of the local people and work to alleviate the poverty in the rural area of Cambodia.
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