Keat Chhon (; born 11 August 1934) is a Cambodian politician. He belongs to the Cambodian People's Party and was elected to represent Phnom Penh in the National Assembly of Cambodia in 2003. He was the Minister for Economy and Finance from 1994 to 2013. By 2018, he has retired from all public offices. He is one of the only political leaders to have served in the current government of Cambodia after serving under the Khmer rouge along with five other government officials: Senate President Chea Sim, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, National Assembly President Heng Samrin and Cambodian People's Party Senators Ouk Bunchhoeun and Sim Ka. According to researchers Justin Corfield and Laura Summers, he is "one of the most experienced technocrats in the government [of Cambodia], [who] has succeeded in imposing greater budgetary controls on spending for years". Biography From Chhlong to Saclay: rise of the first Cambodian atomic engineer Keat Chhon was born in the village of Chhlong in the Kratié Province on 11 August 1934. At 13 or 14, he was admitted at the Sihanouk College in Kampong Cham. In 1951, he moved to Phnom Penh to attend the Lycee Sisowath, one of the country's leading secondary schools. In 1954, Mr. Chhon headed for France, having obtained a student grant. Among Cambodian students, future Khmer Rouge leaders such as Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan were also students in France at the time. In 1958, he simultaneously pursued two diplomas, one in marine engineering and the other in mathematics and physics. In 1960, Keat obtained a diploma in atomic engineering, from the Saclay Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology in France. At university, he met a certain Lay Neary, a Cambodian of Vietnamese descent, who he married, and in 1961, they returned together to Cambodia with their first child in their arms. As a young engineer, he participated in the construction of the railroad tracks between Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh, and the Olympic Stadium, with Khmer architect Vann Molyvnann. Minister of Industry under the Sangkum Under the Sangkum, Keat Chhon was appointed Minister of Industry by Norodom Sihanouk. Until 1962, industry grew at an annual rate of 8 percent, but after 1964, the economy went into recession, because of the rise and violence and the decline in construction according caused by Sihanouk's refusal of American aid. In 1964, Chhon was named rector of Kampong Cham University, the country's