Four draft laws and bills were approved by the National Assembly (NA) on November 29, at the 8th session presided over by NA acting president (NA) Cheam Yeab with 99 NA members present.

They included the proposed amendments to the internal rules of the NA; financing of the 2021 state budget; finance for the 2023 state budget; and protocols associated with the amendment to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.

The draft amendments to the NA internal rules were proposed by 58 of its members and unanimously approved with 99 votes.

Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth was on hand to explain the bill on the 2021 state budget, noting that last year the coronavirus was spreading quickly following the February 20 community outbreak and had negatively impacted socio-economic activities in an unprecedented manner.

He added that the pandemic had put severe pressure on the health system and threatened the lives and livelihoods of the Cambodian people.

“We were in the context of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic because of the February 20 community outbreak in 2021. The government had wisely reduced some unnecessary expenses when the country was in lockdown to save some funds for the most necessary expenditures in response to urgent needs in the fight against Covid-19, and to counter some of the negative effects on Cambodia’s economy,” he said.

He emphasised that the budget expenditures were necessary and were used for the implementation of social assistance programmes for the poor and vulnerable during the pandemic.