Aid and development
Multilateral development assistance
Group urges regional bank to press government on NGO law
A group of international NGOs urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday to press the government on abandoning its plans for a law regulating the country’s non-governmental groups despite a recent pledge to drop its most controversial provision. “The ADB should convince the Cambodian authorities to ...
Bank and AusAid criticized for treatment of railway evictees
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia yesterday accused the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid) of white-washing conditions at relocation sites for families being evicted by a $142 million railway rehabilitation project being funded largely with their money ...
Regional bank meets with evicted railway families
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) met yesterday with the representatives of families evicted or facing eviction to make way for an ADB-funded railway project, and defended itself against complaints that the project was pushing some of them deeper into poverty. The ADB has billed the $142 ...
Railway families to petition Asian Development Bank for help
Families evicted or still facing eviction to make way for an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded project to rehabilitate the country’s railway system plan to petition the ADB today for help securing better compensation from the government. The ADB is putting up more than half the money ...
ADB meets wall of silence
Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon has failed to respond to a request made almost two months ago about the authenticity of a letter in which he allegedly urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to ban foreign NGOs from doing advocacy work in Cambodia, the Asian Development ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011093051889/National-news/adb-meets-wall-of-silence.html
ADB can't confirm authenticity of letter
The Asian Development Bank yesterday said it had never authenticated a June 17 letter from Finance Minister Keat Chhon that claimed an ADB consultant urged the government to target advocacy groups critical of an ADB-funded railway project. In a copy of the letter obtained earlier this ...
Rural Roads to be Rebuilt in Seven Provinces
Plans are in the works to rebuild 505.4 km of rural roads in seven provinces with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and South Korea. The first phase of the repairing of the roads will begin in December 2011. The project to rebuild roads ...
ADB sees growth for Kingdom
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday countered Prime Minister Hun Sen’s prediction that gross domestic product growth will reach 8.7% this year, citing a smaller projection in its annual Asian Development Outlook update. The premier quoted the growth figure in a speech given on Monday, but ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011091551672/Business/adb-sees-growth-for-kingdom.html
Rail project in ADB sights
The Asian Development Bank said yesterday problems with a railway rehabilitation project – funded by the bank and AusAID – identified by a local NGO that was suspended by the government last month “may require further investigation or analysis”. In July, STT released a report ...
Land rights acrimony in AusAID Asian project
A TAXPAYER-FUNDED development project is mired in controversy after the Cambodian government launched a crackdown against land rights organisations critical of the compulsory resettlement of families. The Cambodian government has cautioned a small group of foreign organisations against stirring up unrest among those being forced off ...
ADB and World Bank Help Upgrade External Audit
ADB and World Bank have organized the training Audit workshop on the theme: “Strengthening quality of external audits of ADB and World Bank Funded Projects,” at Phnom Penh Hotel on 29 August 2011 aiming at increasing the auditors’ capacity to establish a good reporting statement ...
Report Says Reforms Were Hard to Drill Home at Petrol Authority
The Cambodian National Petroleum Authority restricted vital information and failed to cooperate with consultants working for the Asian Development Bank who were deployed to the authority between 2007 and 2010 as part of a $1 million project to strengthen governance at the body, a new ...
World Bank Influence Curbed by ‘New’ Donors
The World Bank is losing influence in Cambodia to “emerging donors” and making no major headway in stemming corruption, the Bank’s Independent Evaluation Groups said in a report released Wednesday. Specifically focused on the World Bank;s 2007 anti-corruption initiative through 2010, the report uses six ...
NGO Forum Breaks Silence on 'Warning'
NGO Forum confirmed yesterday it had received a “warning letter” from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over its advocacy on behalf of communities affected by a railway rehabilitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAID. The warning to the umbrella group of 88 ...
World Bank fund halt irks officials
THE government expressed disappointment yesterday with the World Bank’s announcement that it had halted new country loans due to the ongoing land dispute at Boeung Kak lake in Phnom Penh and vowed to raise the issue with the bank’s executive board. “We are very dissatisfied ...
Defiance Greets World Bank's Funding Freeze
Government officials yesterday dismissed the World Bank’s recently revealed decision to freeze funding for new projects in Cambodia to protest a Phnom Penh real estate project that has forced thousand of families out of their homes. A housing rights group closely following the evictions said ...
World Bank Halts Funds Over Evictions
The World Bank has frozen funding to Cambodia, making good on its threat in March to reconsider aid levels to Cambodia in response to the ongoing eviction of thousands of Phnom Penh families from Boeng Kak lake, a Bank official confirmed yesterdaySome 3,000 families have ...
World Bank stops funds for Cambodia over evictions
The World Bank said on Tuesday it had stopped providing loans to Cambodia and would not resume lending until the government did something to help hundreds of families facing eviction from land around a lake in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh. “The World Bank’s last ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/09/cambodia-worldbank-idUSL3E7J920D20110809
Rising Consumer Prices Draw Hunderds to Protest for Action
Some 200 factory workers and taxi drivers protested in Phnom Penh yesterday morning to demand that the government take action to curb the rising costs of food and fuel, and threatened larger demonstrations if it failed to actAccording to figures released by the National Institute ...
Power Grid Key to Development
According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) the regional and national power grids are key to development, though plans for their development have come under criticism by a number of NGOs who believe that power generation should be decentralized. The ADB’s Greater Mekong Subregion program ...
Environment Minister Defends Concessions
Environment Minister Mok Mareth yesterday defended the recent surge of economic land concessions granted by his ministry inside the country’s enviornmental conservation areas, saying that they would do more to help the areas than hurt them. Mr Mareth’s comments came while responding to questions at ...
Cambodia on Long Road to Freedom From Corruption, Bank Says
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has called corruption a “fundamental concern” for Cambodia even with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) celebrating 10 months since its inauguration. The ADB’s Country Governance Risk Assessment Report and Risk Management Plan which is to be released soon calls for capacity ...
Bank’s Plan Greeted With Skepticism
A 10 year strategic plan designed to ensure financial stability in Cambodia has been released by the central bank to much skepticism. The $700,000 study sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is said to be short on details even though it calls for the ...
World Bank No Longer Funding State-Run Radio
The World Bank has ceased funding Radio National Kampuchea (RNK) as of last month due to a failure to comply to the bank’s Demand for Good Governance Project agreement. The funding ended on June 30. The World Bank granted RNK US $20 million with a ...