Aid and development

In its role as Asean chair, Cambodia hopes that a draft of a long-awaited legal document to govern how disputes are settled in the contentious South China Sea will be completed and adopted this year, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. ... ...

The Australian government yesterday said it has been aware of poor working conditions and inappropriate surveying methods used on Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project since February and had ordered that the project’s partners investigate the matters. “The Australian Government was alerted to possible concerns about workplace health ...

The rehabilitation of Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network has encountered delays due to poor construction work and inappropriate surveying methods when making plans to lay down tracks, according to a draft review of the ongoing $140 million project conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and ...

Despite major foreign aid budget cuts at home, Australia had upped its assistance to Cambodia by about US$17.4 million for 2012-2013, the embassy here said yesterday. Australia would provide a total of $95.3 million in “official development assistance to Cambodia”, the embassy said in a statement. ...

It's been done numerous times, comparing the “China miracle” to its emerging and frontier neighbours as a benchmark for development. Cambodia might seem an ill-fitted student of the world’s second-biggest economy. But a recent report from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute pointed to some lessons the Kingdom ...

The Australian government has pledged $3.02 million toward three provincial information departments, which it said would help “increase citizens’ ability to voice their opinions.” ...

The ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, the largest pooling of financial resources among Southeast Asia’s 10-member bloc, held its first board meeting in Manila last week, but the extent to which Cambodia will borrow from the non-concessional fund has yet to be determined, experts said. ASEAN countries and ...

The Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) planned to invest US$235 million in two Cambodian mega projects, one of which was the modernisation of a TV station that one analyst said might not be necessary given the country’s level of development. During a meeting with Prime Minister ...

With funds almost exhausted on the $140 million rehabilitation of Cambodia's railway network, the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have decided to conduct a study to determine how much more money is needed to complete the project, a government consultant said yesterday. Paul Power, ...

Cambodia has made real progress in decreasing cases of malaria - already surpassing the Millennium Development Goal for malaria four years ahead of the 2015 target - but certain communities still face major challenges in combating the disease, officials said yesterday on World Malaria Day. Although ...

Moody's Investor Services will review ACLEDA Bank and Cambodian Public Bank (Campu Bank) for potential downgrades, according to a release from the rating agency on Wednesday. But the move comes primarily as a response to the global financial crisis and the rating agency’s attempt to realign sovereign ratings with ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday revised its prediction for economic growth in Cambodia down to 6.5 percent as it warned that weakening demand from markets in the US and Europe could affect exports leaving the country. The ADB’s biannual outlook report for 2012 also said ...

A group of NGOs on Friday called on Australia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to suspend work and funding for a government-led project to rehabilitate the country’s railway system should authorities in Poipet City follow through on an eviction notice delivered to 22 families ...

An airline in China’s Yunnan province will begin offering flights from its capital, Kunming, to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap City, Council of Ministers spokesman Ek Tha said yesterday. ...

Three villagers who were evicted last year to make way for the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railway—part of a $142 million project paid for by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAid—were hospitalized early Friday morning after they were attacked with rocks and sticks at a ...

Unless Cambodian exporters find new routes to China, a proposed doubling of bilateral trade to US$5 billion by 2017 would mean little more than increased Chinese goods and investment flooding into the Kingdom. Chinese investments and imports dominated bilateral trade with Cambodia, which was worth about ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance yesterday signed a US$60.3 million loan package with Asian Development Bank to aid in reconstruction efforts after the Kingdom last year suffered its worst floods in a decade. ... ...

The rift between Cambodia and the Philippines over the role of China in addressing the South China Sea issue continued to widen yesterday, with the Philippines’ president telling his counterparts during an Asean Summit meeting that China should be left out of discussions on a ...

Cambodia's Prominence Investment Enterprise and Thailand’s Panpee Group have signed an agreement to supply China’s Yunnan Rubber Co Ltd with 500,000 tonnes, or US$2 billion worth, of rubber per year, Sam Kay, general manager of the local partner, said yesterday. ... ...

The Philippines thrust the South China Sea dispute to the forefront of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting yesterday, causing the topic to dominate discussions. Myanmar by-elections and North Korea also featured prominently on the eve of today’s ASEAN summit, overshadowing the foreign ministers’ planned focus on ...

More than 150 residents evicted from Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district to make way for a railway rehabilitation project filed a complaint yesterday with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) office in Phnom Penh, one of two principal financiers for the project, saying their relocation site ...

Families forced to move by the rehabilitation of the Phnom Penh stretch of the national railway petitioned the Asian Development Bank yesterday for help with their livelihoods. About 50 people gathered outside the ADB’s office to submit a petition representing more than 160 families relocated to ...

A weekend meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Hun Sen concluded with millions in loans and aid agreed to and a clear message: neither nation is in a rush to deal with the prickly South China Sea dispute. At the Saturday one on ...

Cambodia's exports to the European Union increased by 40 per cent to a total value of US$1.3 billion in 2011, according to European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who is in Phnom Penh for the ASEAN-EU Business Summit. “I think it is fair to say ...