A/HRC/30/30 6. The economy was only slightly dampened by the turbulence, particularly in the garment sector, recording a strong overall 7 per cent annual growth rate in 2014 and projected to grow by 7.3 per cent in 2015. According to the new official poverty threshold introduced by the Government in 2013 (based on the cost of purchasing food equivalent to 2,200 kcal), the poverty rate fell from 47.8 per cent in 2007 to 18.9 per cent in 2012. Cambodia is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by the end of 20152 and is likely to graduate to lower middle-income country status by 2020. This achievement is precarious. The overall poverty rate encompasses sharp regional differences; some 90 per cent of the poor live in rural areas, and the margin by which most have graduated from poverty is slight. According to the World Bank Economic Update 2015, almost 3 million people are poor and more than 8.1 million are near poor. 7. The National Strategic Development Plan for the period 2014-2018, the implementation of which was estimated to cost $26.58 billion, was adopted in June 2014. Together with the governmental Rectangular Strategy phase III, they constitute the policy framework for national development in the mid-term future, which includes commitments to improve the governance framework for development. 8. Some public administration reforms have advanced, particularly the public finance management reform, which allowed for civil servants in a number of ministries to be paid by direct bank transfer rather than in cash. When expanded to all civil servants, the change will mark a significant advance in the fight against corruption by reducing the number of “ghost” workers. Corruption in all its forms remains widespread, however; according to one study,3 Cambodians perceive the judiciary as the most corrupt State institution. 9. The lack of independence in the judiciary remains an obstacle to the protection of human rights. The Government has been pursuing reforms in court administration, which OHCHR is working to reinforce, in cooperation with the Government, by providing members of the legal profession with several concrete tools, designed in particular to assist judges in taking decisions on pretrial detention, improving case management by courts and assisting judges in their adjudication of criminal cases. One significant achievement has been the further reduction in cases awaiting appeal for an excessively lengthy period of time. 10. OHCHR continued to build the capacity of national counterparts. It reached out to local authorities about the Peaceful Demonstration Law and the use of force; with prison officials on the rights-based approach to prison management; and with government and private sector actors on business and human rights. Significant progress was made toward systematizing human rights training for law professionals in compulsory general training programmes for lawyers, judges and prosecutors, and in specialized training on the new pretrial detention form and a case management database, expanded to five courts by OHCHR. In addition, OHCHR considerably extended its outreach to the general public by means of a strengthened communications strategy, based on new tools such as a dynamic website and social media, as well as traditional publications, posters, print media and a radio programme. The OHCHR programme in Cambodia is informed by the conclusions and recommendations of United Nations treaty bodies, in particular those made by the Human Rights Committee in March 2015 on the State’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (see CCPR/C/KHM/CO/2) at the universal periodic 2 3 Asian Development Bank, Cambodia: Country Poverty Analysis 2014.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Transparency International Cambodia, “Corruption and Cambodia’s Governance System: The Need for Reform”,National Integrity System Assessment 2014. 3