Nguon Sokha, Cambodia

Deputy Director General, The National Bank of Cambodia
Transition Economy Program (’96/’97)

Nguon Sokha received her higher education overseas, in both Europe and Japan. In 1988, she obtained a Diploma in Economics from the Leipziger Business University in former East Germany. She continued her graduate education at the same university and received a Doctor in Economics degree in September 1992.

Upon her graduation from the Leipzig Business University, Sokha returned to Cambodia. She joined the Balance of Payments Division of the National Bank of Cambodia in 1993 where she worked until her enrollment in the Transition Economy Program at GRIPS’ predecessor GSPS in October 1996. She completed the Master in Public Policy in 1997.

When rejoining the National Bank in 1997, Nguon Sokha was appointed Chief of the International Economics Studies Division. In this capacity she studied the macroeconomic development of Cambodia and its main trading partners and reported her results to the Bank’s management. She was promoted to Deputy Director in charge of the Statistics and Economic Research Department in 1999, and to Director of the same Department in 2002.

In this role, she was involved in a wide range of issues, including supervision of the ADB loan program and monitoring the implementation of the Cambodian Financial Sector Blueprint and monitoring the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) – the IMF scheme to support the implementation of Cambodia’s poverty reduction program. She was responsible for maintaining public relations and participation in economic policy discussions with other government ministries, as well as with international parties, and was a member of Working Committees in the ASEAN financial cooperation process. Morover, Nguon Sokha has been responsible for overseeing several of the Bank of Cambodia’s surveys and publications such as the compilation of the monetary survey, the monthly statistic bulletin and quarterly review, and the publication of the Semi- and Annual Report.

In addition to her regular duties at the Bank, in 2002 Nguon Sokha acted as national consultant for the case study on “The Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction in Cambodia”, a regional program initiated by the UNDP. Among her recurrent activities are the membership of the think tank for Cambodia’s accession into WTO, and supervisor of the implementation of the government’s commitments in the WTO with respect to the banking and financial sector. She has also acted as the national counterpart for monitoring the implementation of the financial sector development strategy set under the collaboration between the government and the ADB. Sokha has co-authored the National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (NPRSP) and has been responsible for monitoring the NPRSP implementation with respect to the banking and financial sector.

In August 2008, Nguon Sokha was appointed Deputy Director General in charge of the Economic and Statistics Department of the National Bank of Cambodia.