BRUSSELS - Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet said scam centres were destroying his country's economy and giving the nation a bad name -- pushing back on allegations of government connivance.
The nation has emerged as a hotspot for crime syndicates running a multibillion-dollar fraud industry that sees scammers lure internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.
"The scam network, what we call the black economy, is destroying our honest economy. It has put a bad reputation on Cambodia," Hun Manet told AFP in a rare interview with international media, saying this was harming tourism and investment.
"This is the reason why we need to clean this out."
A clampdown has resulted in thousands of arrests, according to government officials, and the recent extradition to China of a former adviser to Cambodia's leaders.
But some industry experts have questioned the authenticity of such efforts, pointing to alleged links between Cambodian officials and cyberscam networks.
Hun Manet, who took over as prime minister from his father Hun Sen in 2023, conceded the crime had indirectly boosted some business activities and provided jobs in the country, but denied Cambodia had profited from it.
"Yes, the scam centre may produce some direct result to real estate, to some investment, the building, the buying, how to make the centres," he said.
"But most of the proceeds do not go into the government of Cambodia," the prime minister said.
Cambodia hosts dozens of scam centres with an estimated 100,000 people -- many victims of human trafficking -- perpetrating online scams, experts say.
A 2024 report by the United States Institute of Peace estimated the return on cyberscamming in Cambodia to exceed $12.5 billion annually -- half the country's formal GDP -- but Hun Manet denied the country was dependent on scams.
Operating from various Southeast Asian countries, those conducting the scams are sometimes willing volunteers, sometimes trafficked foreign nationals who have been trapped and forced to work under threat of torture.
Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers -- from whom they have extracted billions, prompting rising public anger -- the scammers have expanded their operations into multiple languages to steal vast sums from victims around the world.