Aid and development

China will donate more than 30 different kinds of equipment – including 60,000 polling booths and 15,000 ballot boxes – to the National Election Committee (NEC) ahead of next year’s general elections. ...

The government and international funders have committed a further $66 million to a project to increase small farmers’ productivity, after yesterday claiming success in the program’s initial seven-year period. ...

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said royalist party Funcinpec will not be investigated for requesting funds from China, despite an article in the Law on Political Parties banning parties from receiving financial support from foreign governments and institutions. ...

Heng Ratana, president of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, announced on Tuesday the renewal of a partnership with the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation, which is supported by the US State Department. ...

The European Union will be funding conservation efforts in Mondulkiri’s Srepok and Phnom Prich wildlife sanctuaries to the tune of $3.3 million over the next five years, according to a press release yesterday. The project, Advancing CSOs Capacity to Ensure Sustainability Solutions (ACCESS), will be ...

The United Nations will provide a $8 million subvention to support the 2018 operations of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which is tasked with the prosecution of the country’s former Khmer Rouge commanders.   ...

Following a meeting with a Chinese delegation yesterday morning, Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh claimed to have requested monetary assistance from China, an apparent violation of the Law on Political Parties.​ ...

Politicians and civil society members in New York called on the United Nations to take harsh measures to restore democracy in Cambodia during a panel on Tuesday, even recommending leaving Cambodia’s seat at the UN empty and putting senior ruling party officials on a blacklist. ...

China will provide Cambodia with more than $7 million today to implement a variety of projects across the kingdom through the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund. Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo will sign the agreement at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, ...

Japan has granted about $28 million in aid for the construction of teacher education colleges in the kingdom. The signing ceremony took place yesterday at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. ...

Rapid urbanisation in Phnom Penh in the past decade has created jobs and reduced poverty, but better urban planning, management and infrastructure are needed to avoid further sprawl, congestion and pollution, according to a new World Bank report released yesterday. ...

As Cambodia continues its impressive economic development and reaches higher stages of industrialisation and social well-being, there is an urgent need to prepare for future cutbacks in international development assistance, the Commerce Minister said on Friday. ...

A European Parliament resolution last week calling for the possible suspension of Cambodia’s preferential trade status prompted a strong reaction from Prime Minister Hun Sen, who yesterday sternly dared the bloc to “cut it!” Speaking to garment factory workers on Koh Pich yesterday, the premier said Cambodia would ...

The EU’s decision came in response to the government’s crackdown on the Kingdom’s largest opposition party – the Cambodia National Rescue Party – which was summarily dissolved last month, a development that the EU said rendered credible elections impossible. But in a speech to garment workers ...

The National Election Committee’s newly minted press reaction team responded late on Wednesday to the European Union’s decision to cut funding for the 2018 election, claiming it was unfair to judge the elections before they took place. ...

The United States has provided $350,000 to the World Monuments Fund for the fifth phase of the conservation of Phnom Bakheng temple in Siem Reap province’s Angkor Archaeological Park. ...

The European Union announced yesterday that it is suspending all support for Cambodia’s National Election Committee, calling credible elections impossible in light of the government’s dissolution of the ruling party’s only legitimate competitor. ...

Cambodia may have reduced its levels of extreme poverty to the single-digits, but its middle class is nearly nonexistent and approximately half of its population remains highly susceptible to economic shocks, according to a World Bank report released yesterday. ...

Japan has provided more than $300,000 to aid the government in its construction of a road and three hospitals in four provinces. The $329,736 grant was signed at the Japanese embassy yesterday by the Japanese ambassador, the director of the Preah Vihear provincial department of public ...

Sweden said yesterday it was stopping new aid for Cambodia, except in education and research, and would no longer support a reform programme after the CNRP was dissolved last week. ...

The Chinese Embassy donated equipment to the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA) yesterday, marking the beginning of a new pledge to become a top donor to the sector, following the withdrawal of US funds.​ ...

The United States announced on Friday it was ending funding for the election, and promised more “concrete steps”, after the Supreme Court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) at the request of the government, on the grounds it was plotting to seize power. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday brushed aside any potential concern over the US cutting funding to the country over the recent dissolution of the opposition CNRP prior to next year’s general election. ...

Russia will send observers to the Kingdom for the upcoming national elections and has pledged to sit down to discuss Cambodia’s outstanding debt, a move that analysts yesterday saw as a sign of solidarity between two governments increasingly out of favour with the West. ...