Aid and development
Hun Sen rebukes World Bank
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday rebuked the World Bank for revising downward its outlook for gross domestic product growth in the Kingdom, claiming the bank’s projections could cause market panic. The premier also announced a new government projection of 6.4 per cent GDP growth this year, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011112452947/Business/hun-sen-rebukes-world-bank.html
World Bank cuts growth outlook to 6%
Devastating floods as well as the economic slowdown in Europe and the US have prompted the World Bank to lower its outlook for Cambodia’s economic growth this year to 6 percent, down from a previous projection of 6.8 percent. In its economic update for the region ...
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 ...
Floods abate, but villagers still isolated
Although floodwaters are receding, an unknown number of villages in several provinces remain accessible only by boat, and the extent of the damage has yet to be fully assessed, according to aid workers and the latest “situation update” from the United Nations Disaster Management Team. “In ...
Australian grant to assist railway families
The Australian government is committing $1 million to help families being forced out of their homes to make way for a railway rehabilitation project it is co-funding with the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Australian Embassy said in a statement Friday. The embassy ...
Rebuilding underway as floods recede
All families evacuated during the worst floods Cambodia has seen in more than a decade have now returned home, the floodwaters have receded and relief efforts are coming to a close, officials said yesterday. Two hundred and fifty people, at least half of them children, died ...
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 ...
Kingdom plans flood relief spend
Cambodia plans to spend nearly US$200 million to rebuild after the worst floods in a decade hit the country in September and October. The floods require an immediate response, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said yesterday at a meeting of the Council for the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111652772/Business/kingdom-plans-flood-relief-spend.html
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 ...
South Korea lends $52.2M for road renovation
South Korea has loaned Cambodia $52.54 million to renovate the 63.5km-long National Road 21, which connects the provinces of Kandal and Svay Rieng, according to a statement yesterday by the Ministry of Finance ...
Cambodia-Thai trade still on track
Thailand’s worst floods in decades have not slowed trade with Cambodia, a Thai official in Phnom Penh said yesterday, claiming many products sought by Cambodia came from areas free of flooding. Bilateral trade between the two countries rose nine per cent year-on-year in the first nine ...
Dry season rice crop jeopardized
The Center for Study and Development of Agriculture (Cedac) is calling on the government and microfinance firms to issue low-interest loans for flood-stricken farmers in order to save this year’s dry season rice harvest. Floods have destroyed 10 percent of the rainy season rice crop and ...
Floods and crisis sink rubber price
Rubber growers and exporters in Cambodia stalled exports as rubber prices continued a sharp decline that companies attributed to flooding in Thailand and economic turmoil in Europe. Heng Sreng, general director of Long Sreng International Co Ltd and owner of Boeung Keth Rubber Plantation in Kampong ...
Kingdom, WTO call on US to drop tariffs
Both Cambodia and the World Trade Organisation this week called on the United States to follow China’s lead in promising zero-tariff treatment to Least Developed Countries. Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a speech at the G20 summit in Cannes, France, on Friday, announced China would grant ...
Cambodia's debt to China grows to $4 billion, official says
Cambodian debt to China now stands at $4 billion, 35 percent of last year’s gross domestic product and more than half of the country’s total outstanding debt to foreign donors, according to a senior government official. The amount of money Cambodia owes China has been growing ...
Exports up despite EU crisis
While sovereign debt crises in Europe and a lagging US economy have yet to curtail cheap Cambodian exports, industry watchers said domestic producers should diversify their target markets to avoid a future slow down. Exports saw a more than 40 per cent increase year-on-year between January ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011102052246/Business/exports-up-despite-eu-crisis.html
China’s dam plans don’t hold water with panelists
China’s dam-building ambitions and alleged lack of transparency were front and centre yesterday during a roundtable discussion on Mekong River development held in the capital. Representatives from the Chinese embassy defended their country’s record, claiming that China was “eager to participate” in regional cooperation mechanisms. “We aren’t ...
Foreign donors slow on giving flood aid
As tens of thousands of families continue to struggle with ongoing flooding, delays are still hampering the provision of overseas aid, with some donors holding back on distributing funds. China flew in two planes, laden with supplies worth $8 million, over the weekend and the South ...
Trade with China to hit $2 billion this year
Bilateral trade between China and Cambodia is on track to reach $2 billion by the end of this year, its highest level ever, an official at the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh said. Jin Yuan, economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy, said during a ...
EU organizes a seminar on food security
The Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia in collaboration with the Council for Agricultural and rural Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and three of the EU-funded projects (CEDAC, HKI, WHH) on October 6 organized a Food Security Project Workshop “Improving Food Security—Lessons ...
EU raises concerns over human rights
Land evictions, poor prison conditions and the lack of an independent judiciary were among the concerns listed in the European Union’s 2010 review of human rights in Cambodia. According to the EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2010, which charts ...
Cambodia needs about US$ 200 million annually for climate change adaptations
According to the Copenhagen Accord hosted in Denmark, developed countries had to provide US$ 30 billion for 2009-2012 to kick start emissions reduction measures for the less-developed countries and promised to offer US$ 100 billion for long term finance a year by 2020. “Cambodia needs approximately ...
Cambodia, Singapore urge peaceful solution to South China Sea dispute
Phnom Penh — Cambodia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong and his Singapore’s counterpart K Shanmugam agreed on Wednesday that the territorial dispute in the South China Sea between China and some ASEAN countries should be solved peacefully. “We have exchanged ideas on the issue of ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-10/05/c_131175455.htm