Cambodia has moved up on the Human Development Index (HDI) to rank 144th globally in 2019, compared to the 146th ranking in 2018, showed a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released on Wednesday.

Cambodia remained in the"medium human development" category among 189 countries and regions, said the UNDP 2020 Human Development Report.

The HDI is designed to reflect the average achievement in key dimensions of human development including income, education, and health metrics.

The report said Cambodia's gross national income (GNI) per capita increased to 4,246 U.S. dollars in 2019 from 3,876 dollars in 2018 on the PPP (purchasing power parity) basis.

"Cambodia could be an example of how human development can go hand in hand with environmental sustainability," Nick Beresford, UNDP's resident representative in Cambodia, said in a press release.

"With new technologies, promoting investment in green economy, including expansion of environment-related infrastructure such as renewable energy, green transportation, climate-smart agriculture and community forest expansion, will offer an opportunity for Cambodia to achieve higher levels of human development with an inclusive and sustainable economic growth," he added.

The 2020 Human Development Report was based on the data before the COVID-19 pandemic, UNDP said, adding that the COVID-19 impact in Cambodia is equivalent to losing five years of HDI progress.