Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members

European diplomats called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday to express their concerns about the recent spate of activists’ arrests, with the minister reportedly saying that he believed a one-year sentence speedily handed down to seven Boeung Kak lake protesters last week was rather “heavy”. ...

Japanese government granted US$ 2.1 million in grand aid on Monday for road improvement project in Cambodia. The grand aid agreement was signed by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia, Yuji Kumamaru, for the implementation of the project ...

Kem Sokha, first vice president of the National Assembly and vice president of Cambodia National Rescue Party, has asked the Australian government to reconsider the transfer of refugees from Nauru to Cambodia. The request was made through a recent letter to Mrs. Alison Burrows, the Australian ...

Eight coastal provinces across Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam signed a declaration last week, announcing their intention to work more closely together to better adapt residents of the low-lying communities to the effects of climate change. ...

French textile and garment association Evalliance yesterday signed an agreement with the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) to provide training for middle-management workers in the industry. Speaking at the signing ceremony in Phnom Penh, Van Sou Ieng, chairman of GMAC said the agreement aims to ...

The French Development Agency (AFD) confirmed Wednesday that it will sign $6 million worth of loan agreements with three microfinance institutions (MFIs) to help rural households purchase solar panels and electricity. ...

A group of Japanese experts arrived in Cambodia Tuesday for a two-day visit as a follow-up team regarding the needs survey implemented last May for electoral reform assistance to Cambodia. The team was led by Mr. Tadayuki MIYASHITA, Director, Country Assistance Planning Division I, International ...

As the World Bank considers supplying fresh loans to Cambodia, a new study uses the country as exhibit A for how the financier effectively sponsors corporate land grabs at the expense of the rural poor it purportedly helps. Three years ago, the bank’s own inspectors found ...

Foreign minister Julie Bishop announced that an additional $40 million in development assistance was given to Cambodia. The amount shall boost Cambodia’s effort to provide humanitarian aid to those who are in need of protection as part of the Refugees Convention and a member of ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that the country will take in refugees from Australia on a voluntary basis, stressing that accepting asylum seekers is part of an international obligation for Cambodia. Hun Sen said a Cambodian working group will interview those refugees ...

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy said that Cambodia should not have signed a deal with Australia to accept refugees to live in Cambodia. Cambodia should not have accepted the refugees from Australia because they are not goods for being exported or imported by any country, Sam ...

Australia’s Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has defended the government’s plan to transfer refugees to Cambodia, saying the programme would start small but be a long-term arrangement. Under Canberra’s hardline immigration policy, asylum-seekers who arrive on boats are denied resettlement in Australia and sent to Papua New ...

More than 100 officials from some 20 economies in Asia and the Pacific are meeting with donor institution representatives in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in a bid to strengthen public financial management systems for climate change adaptation projects, said a news statement on Monday. ...

With security footage of elephants, clouded leopards and other wildlife caught on hidden cameras in Cambodia’s Eastern Plains flashing on a TV screen, Toby Eastoe of Conservation International noted that their cameras also catch other activity. Presenters ranging from anti-corruption advocates to health service workers ...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Monday unveiled a five-year Integrated Nutrition, Hygiene and Sanitation project in Cambodia, which is estimated to cost 16 million U.S. dollars, according to a press statement from the U.S. Embassy to Cambodia. ...

As part part of its multibillion-dollar Urban Transport Master Plan, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) unveiled a modern rail system for Phnom Penh yesterday that could begin operation as soon as 2023. The trains would thin out traffic on the capital’s choked-up roads, which currently lack ...

Following a meeting with a visiting U.S. diplomat on Wednesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of State Ouch Borith said the U.S. shares Cambodia’s concerns about a controversial hydropower dam Laos is planning to build on the Mekong River. Cambodia and Vietnam both fear that the ...

As Cambodia’s economy has boomed over the last decade, the broad French-built boulevards and leafy backstreets of Phnom Penh have become bottlenecks, with giant SUVs parked two- or three- deep, clogging the roads. At peak hour, the center of town turns into a Hobbesian crush of ...

The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, must force British clothing companies to investigate whether garments sourced from Cambodia are made at factories with fair labour practices, the unions have warned. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, has written to Mr Cable warning that ...

Discussion about hydroelectric power plants in Cambodia tends to focus on two aspects, both negative. One is an overdependence on Chinese investment, and the other is a relatively disproportionate focus on the environmental impacts of hydroelectric power. Chinese Influence Most hydroelectric power plants in Cambodia are associated ...

Villagers from Koh Kong province delivered petitions in Phnom Penh on Friday seeking international intervention in their land dispute with powerful businessman and CPP senator Ly Yong Phat, alleging that his Koh Kong Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was encroaching on their farmland. Five representatives of the ...

Experts fear Cambodia’s well-earned reputation as a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS could be undermined by government policy targeting the country’s high-risk groups. Over the past 15 years, government action and large amounts of money from donors have seen the infection rate drop from 2 ...

The German ambassador, Joachim Baron von Marschall, signed an agreement with the permanent Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon yesterday for €47 million ($64 million) in aid. The grant will be used for developing projects within the ministries of health, rural development and women’s affairs. ...

The Japanese government welcomed the political deal reached between ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party on July 22, according to a statement issued late Tuesday by Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.   ...