Aid and development

China has pledged another $548 million in aid to Cambodia for infrastructure and irrigation systems, extending assistance that some critics say has bought it Cambodia’s diplomatic support. Agreements covering $500 million in soft loans and $48 million in grants were signed when Prime Minister Hun ...

The European Union (E.U.) last year continued to import millions of dollars worth of duty-free sugar from Cambodian plantations that have forced hundreds of families off their land despite calls from European lawmakers for the trade benefits to end, according to the latest E.U. data. Thailand’s ...

The following is the full text of the joint press communique between China and Cambodia issued on Tuesday during the official visit by Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Pedei Techo Hun Sen of the Kingdom of Cambodia to China: Joint Press Communique Between the People’s ...

Anco Water Supply, a private company that is supplying Sihanoukville with access to fresh water has alleviated a water shortage that began when a state-owned reservoir dried up more than a week ago. Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Sbuon Sarath said that running water had been restored ...

April 5th marks the starting date for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and its partners in Cambodia in observing the milestone of 1,000 days to the end of 2015 which is the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “The MDGs ...

As Sihanoukville’s water shortage drags on, the price of water being delivered by private suppliers has skyrocketed with residents and business owners growing ever more desperate to get clean water into their homes, hotels and restaurants. Over the past week, since a reservoir supplying the city ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen will travel to China on Saturday to meet with the rising superpower’s new leadership, in a trip the government expects to yield nearly $2 billion in loans and aid. Most significantly, the Government is hoping to secure Chinese funding for a 1.67 ...

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will call an e-auction on April 10 on work to renovate damaged tracks connecting Thailand with Cambodia at the Aranyaprathet-Poipet crossing, Transport Minister Chadchat Suttipan said on Tuesday. The railway agency estimated the project will cost 2.8 billion baht. ...

Mondolkiri and Kompong Thom provinces could suffer some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin region, such as a high incidence of flash floods and droughts by 2050, according to a new study. Analyzing temperature and rainfall from 84 provinces ...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has raised its forecast of global paddy production in 2012 by about 1.5 million tonnes to 730 million tonnes (487 million tonnes, milled). The scaling up of production mainly concerned Asian countries, in particular Cambodia, ...

A water shortage in the tourist town of Sihanoukville has led authorities to advise scores of businesses to dig their own wells as only 50 percent of local demand is currently being met after high temperatures dried up the water supplier’s only reservoir. On March ...

Climate change will have a significant effect on major industrial and food crops in the Lower Mekong basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, says a new study. The study, conducted by the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project for the U.S. Agency ...

Taiwan Cooperative Bank, one of the leading banks in China’s Taiwan, officially commenced business in capital Phnom Penh on Thursday, bringing the number of commercial banks in the kingdom to 33. Taiwan Cooperative Bank is the 2nd bank from China’s Taiwan in Cambodia after the Mega ...

The Japanese government has provided $118,996 for constructing a cassava propagation and distribution centre in Battambang province. The fund comes in response to the recent challenges facing farmers in the province who are facing a shortage of cassava trees to plant. Kumamaru Yuji, Japanese ambassador to ...

A group of about 20 officials and tourism-related business owners from Nanning City, capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is visiting Cambodia to broaden bilateral relations and cooperation in tourism. The delegation is led by Yang Min, Nanning’s vice mayor. On Tuesday, the group ...

Eric Sidgwick, Country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to Cambodia applauded Cambodia for managing it’s, sometimes problematic, public debts. During the Wednesday meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, Sok An, Eric Sidgwick said, good management led to the positive changes of donations and ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that he will pay an official visit to China early next month to meet with new Chinese leaders for talks on further enhancing bilateral relations. “I hope that new Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang ...

A week after British researchers released a study warning that the nation’s grasslands would soon be lost if drastic action was not taken to protect them, some agricultural experts have called for moderation, noting that the intensive rice cultivation blamed for the grasslands’ destruction is ...

The Department of Foreign Trade plans to set up a “rice trade zone” project in the East to process Cambodian rice for export to other countries. Tikhumporn Natvaratat, deputy director-general of the department, said his organisation plans to implement the project in Chanthaburi, Trat, Sa Kaeo ...

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has committed to provide another $10 mln U.S. in grants to address the environmental crisis engulfing mainland Southeast Asia. The ground-breaking biodiversity fund was launched in 2008. During the first phase, $10 mln was invested in efforts to conserve the critical ...

Cambodia will sign a $33.9 million grant aid today from the Japanese government to support various small hydropower dam projects, improve a hospital and update resources of a university, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ...

The Asian Development Bank has refused to release a critical study on the impacts its $141.6 million railway project is having on thousands of Cambodian families because disclosure of the report could hurt its relationship with the government, an ADB spokeswoman said. Raising concerns about the ...

Cambodia will sign to receive 33.9 million U.S. dollars in grant aid from Japan for three projects in small hydropower dams, healthcare and education, according to a news release from Cambodia’s foreign ministry on Monday. ...

Around half of Cambodia’s tropical flooded grasslands have been lost in just 10 years according to new research from the University of East Anglia. The seasonally flooded grasslands around the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, are of great importance for biodiversity and a ...