Aid and development
Looking for a flood of investment
Cambodia’s Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said foreign investors with production bases in Thailand ought to consider Cambodia for future expansion because of the Kingdom’s greater resistance to floods. Speaking at Phnom Penh Honda’s 20th anniversary yesterday, the Commerce minister said that while Cambodia faces floods each ...
ELCs on mind at donor meet
While protesters demonstrated outside, urging land and human-rights reform, members of the donor community met with the government yesterday at the Council for the Development of Cambodia in Phnom Penh to sign off on a series of development targets that bore only a faint resemblance to those ...
World Bank urges government to accelerate reforms
The World Bank urged the Cambodian government Wednesday to accelerate reforms while taking a participatory approach to its National Strategic Development Plan. Speaking at a meeting of the Development Partner Coordination Committee, World Bank Country Director Annette Dixon congratulated the government on its current development plan ...
First certified organic rice heads for Europe
Five metric tonnes of certified organic rice — the first such shipment from Cambodia — will depart for the European Union this Friday. The shipment, exported from Cambodia by an entity called Green Trade, comprises three tonnes of brown rice and two tonnes of white jasmine ...
Cambodian PM: Poverty reduction target may hit 2 years earlier
Cambodia is expected to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in poverty reduction two years earlier than the UN-imposed target, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday. According to the UN MDG, Cambodia is set the target to reduce poverty rate to 19.4 percent by 2015, meaning ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-09/21/c_131865877.htm
CP Group plans more investment in Indochina
Charoen Pokphand Group is leaning towards investing more in Indochinese countries in light of their growing economies and regional trade liberalisation through the Asean Economic Community in 2015. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have a wealth of natural resources that could support the group’s products from ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/CP-Group-plans-more-investment-in-Indochina--30190834.html
U.S. to aid Cambodia in agriculture, food security, environment
The United States will sign up to provide 18.5 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia to support the country’s priorities in agriculture, food security, and climate change adaptation and mitigation, according to a media release from the U.S. Embassy here on Thursday. The agreement will be signed ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-09/20/c_131863234.htm
Skills key to gender goals
A Millennium Development Goal Acceleration Framework action plan presented yesterday by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) seeks to address Panha’s and other women’s lagging economic opportunities in Cambodia. The plan will help Cambodia achieve targeted Millenium Development Goals by 2015. Though no date of ...
China ASEN Expo starts on Friday
Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh and 100 Cambodian companies are set to represent the Kingdom at the 9th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, China, which starts tomorrow, according to officials. The expo will include representatives from all 10 ASEAN countries and China itself. Cambodian officials will seek ...
ADB presents progress on its flood rehabilitation project
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is pushing forward with the US$67 million flood reconstruction project aimed at rebuilding roads,bridges and irrigation systems hit by the devastating high waters of 2011, improving the nation’s infrastructure and providing livelihoods to people in six severely affected provinces, according ...
Anti-Eviction Activists Ask EU, World Bank for Help
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities delivered petitions to the offices of the European Union and World Bank yesterday in their ongoing attempts to enlist Cambodia’s aid donors in their efforts to have jailed anti-eviction activists released from Prey Sar prison. ...
Changing a culture of impunity
Despite the recent spate of high-profile arrests and deportations, analysts, attorneys and civil society groups are divided on whether the Kingdom is finally beginning to live down its reputation as a haven for the fugitives and criminals who have long been drawn to the country ...
Cambodia Asks China to Fund Power Cables
Two weeks after Prime Minister Hun Sen returned from China with more than half a billion dollars in new loans and grants, Cambodia once again asked Beijing for money on Thursday. In a bilateral discussion held alongside this week’s series of meetings between Asean energy ministers, ...
China investment in energy 'crucial' to Cambodia
Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday hailed Chinese companies for hugely investing in the country’s energy sector, which is a key element to support the sustainable social and economic development. Suy Sem’s appreciation was made during a bilateral meeting with Wu Yin, ...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-09/13/content_15756465.htm
Cambodia Says No Strings Attached in Recent Chinese Aid
China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years, with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports last week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants-and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...
South China Sea outlook
The disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea are approaching a tipping point. As former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino said last month: “The disputes cannot be resolved anytime soon, if at all. The most that can be done is to prevent them developing into armed ...
Japan to Give $840,000 To Demining Projects
Japan signed an agreement Thursday with the Japan Mine Action Service (JMAS) to provide $839,363 to deining projects in Battambang province, which will benefit about 5,500 residents. Together with the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), which will receive almost half of the donations from Japan, JMAS ...
Cambodia will spend $67 million finance to restore infrastructure from last year flood damage
ADB (Asian development bank) pledged to offer $55 million loan for infrastructure restoration from flood damage last year in Cambodia. At the same time, AusAid also offered 5.25 million US dollars, and the Cambodian government will spend 6.39 million US dollars for the whole infrastructure ...
Cambodia Says No Strings Attached in Recent Chinese Aid
China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports this week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants—and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...
http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/09/06/cambodia-says-no-strings-attached-in-recent-chinese-aid/
Locals bypass road projects
As much as local people are benefiting from the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) recovery project following last year’s record floods, they aren’t receiving all the benefits they could, according to some accounts. Operating in five provinces of Cambodia to restore road access to those affected by the floods, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090658527/Business/locals-bypass-adb-road-projects.html
Soft loan from Sweden
Sweden loaned Cambodia US$57 million yesterday for economic country development and cooperation for the duration of 2012-2013. The agreement was made between Cambodia’s Economic Minister Keat Chhon and Swedish ambassador to Cambodia Anne Hoglund at the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) yesterday morning. Keat Chhon ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090658528/Business/soft-loan-from-sweden.html
Railway compliance complaint sent to ADB
Families have fallen into poverty and children have dropped out of school due to deficiencies in the Asian Development Bank’s rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railway system, according to a complaint filed to the bank’s compliance review department. According to David Pred, managing associate for NGO Inclusive Development International, ...
The Road to Recovery
The site of Koh Pur village’s new bridge may still be nothing more than pillars in a dusty crevice in the road, but when the link is finished – some time in December, authorities say – it will be a welcome relief for the village ...
ADB has a long road ahead after big flood
A breached flood protection dyke near Prey Ven city that, had it burst during the disastrous 2011 flooding, would have added a further 30,000 to the almost 52,000 households evacuated, is one project nearing completion in Cambodia’s Flood Damage Emergency Reconstruction Project. But the Asian Development ...