Vongsey Vissoth is Cambodia’s Permanent Secretary of State and Minister attached to the Prime Minister. He oversees macroeconomic and fiscal policies, budget, international cooperation, and public private partnership. He has spearheaded the formulation of major strategies and policies, such as Budget System Reform Strategy (2018-2025), Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, Revenue Mobilization Strategy, Public-Private Partnership Policy, Public Debt Management Policy, and Public Investment Management Framework.
A veteran policymaker, he has overseen the establishment of Affordable Housing Policy and leads the Skill Development Fund and Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund. He presides over the Cambodia’s Digital Economy Policy Working Group, as well as leading a working group to formulate Intermodal Transportation Master Plan, and actively involves in crafting of the Energy Development Master Plan. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he is leading taskforces to formulate response measures and policies, including cash assistance to most affected and vulnerable population, cash for work and skill upgrade programs aimed at assisting and facilitating reemployment of affected workforce, post-COVID-19 economic recovery plan, and COVID-19 vaccine procurement plan.
Born to a family of teachers, Vongsey Vissoth received a scholarship to study in Russia from 1984-1992 at the Moscow Institute for International Relations where he obtained his master of economics in 1990 and continued to pursue Ph.D. degree afterwards. He started his professional career as an executive in private sector from 1992 to 1995, holding the Operation Manager position at Transindo Co., Ltd., and then Manager at Transair Cambodia Co., Ltd. He joined the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) in 1995 as an officer and has since risen through the ranks to become a top executive at the ministry.
