Bilateral development assistance

China may not be in ASEAN, but it’s looking more and more like an honorary member – at least where the South China Sea is concerned. ASEAN foreign ministers yesterday took a significant step towards involving the burgeoning superpower in South China Sea discussions, adopting key ...

It’s after midnight in Sihanoukville and British teenagers are clogging the walkways, pushing past one another to drain free shots at the bars. In Kep, elderly French tourists sun themselves at the upscale Sailing Club while Spaniards and Germans eye the offerings at Phnom Penh’s Central Market. In spite of the growing fears ...

The European Union should immediately remove trade preferences it gives to Cambodian sugar companies accused of human-rights violations including land grabs, representatives of the affected communities told a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. Community representatives from Koh Kong, Kampong Speu and Oddar Meanchey provinces said ...

The European Union yesterday pledged to support Cambodia with three grants totaling $54 million, including one payment to help bolster the country’s ability to organize its public finances, officials announced at a press conference in Phnom Penh. “The E.U. will continue to support Cambodia with ...

The Australian Embassy conceded that problems have plagued the relocation process of about 160 families moved to Trapeang Anhchanh on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last September. The families were moved for a railway rehabilitation project partially funded by the Australian government’s AusAID. “We agree on the ...

Adding to a growing body of research into the flaws of Cambodia’s $142 million railway rehabilitation project, a report published yesterday said soaring debt levels are crippling families forcibly relocated by the project. In the report by land rights organization Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), researchers tracked ...

An unnamed Chinese investor will put nearly US$400 million into a 300-megawatt coal-powered plant in Kampot province, officials said yesterday. The plant, slated for a November groundbreaking, will provide power for the Kampot Special Economic Zone, the nearby Prey Nob oil refinery in Preah Sihanouk province ...

Australia’s Fairfax media has obtained a leaked official report into a troubled and controversial Cambodian rail project being funded by AusAID and the Asian Development Bank. The report outlines poor construction, botched surveys leading to the evictions of families ...

The international side of the Khmer Rouge tribunal has had its financial woes briefly allayed by a $3.97 million pledge from Sweden to fund operations for the next two years. ...

Cambodia was in discussions with the Chinese government on funding for a 250-kilometre stretch of rail line between Phnom Penh and Vietnam, in what Cambodian officials yesterday called a move away from a “complicated” Asian Development Bank loan. Va Sim Sorya, director general at the Ministry ...

He Guoqiang, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, yesterday announced a donation of about $110,000 worth of office equipment to the CPP, National Assembly Cabinet Chief Koam Kosal said. The donation was made during the official visit to Cambodia of a ...

China treasured its traditional friendship with Cambodia, and would take strategic approaches to step up the bilateral cooperation to a new height, visiting senior leader of the Communist Party of China He Guoqiang said here on Tuesday. In his meeting with Heng Samrin, He spoke ...

Boeng Kak protesters continued their fight for the release of 14 women and one man imprisoned since May 24, delivering a petition to the Senate and the Japanese Embassy on Friday that they hope will spur new intervention in the long-running land dispute. More than 100 ...

The Republic of Korea donated more than 200 military trucks to the Cambodian government last month, a port official said yesterday. Sam Heng, administrative chief of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said the 241 trucks were strictly for transportation. “The trucks arrived before the elections. They’re military cargo ...

Local rice miller Mega Green said it planned to export about 240 tons of milled rice to the Chinese market by the end of June – a second round of test exports to Cambodia’s northern neighbour. Renne Outh, owner of Mega Green Imex Cambodia, told the ...

Cambodian government officials and private sector leaders have met with Chinese officials to negotiate a US$200 million loan for the development of Cambodia’s rice sector, an official said on Tuesday. The new loan would focus on the development of the agricultural sector, primarily the construction ...

As the region’s top brass gathered in Phnom Penh for the Sixth Asean Defense Ministers Meeting, it was Beijing that once again stole the show with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie signing off on nearly $19 million in military aid to Cambodia. In the country on ...

Another senior United States official has said that President Barack Obama will visit Cambodia in November for the East Asia Summit and the US-ASEAN summit. ...

China sees Cambodia as one of the potential trade and investment partners among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and pledges to boost closer economic ties between the two countries, said a senior Chinese official on Tuesday. Wan Jifeisaid that his visit to Cambodia ...

After more than a year of speculation on Cambodian rice exports to China, a rice exporter this week said China has granted the Kingdom permission to ship milled rice northward. Despite a growing stack of quasi-agreements for exports, regulatory issues have plagued the prospects of tapping ...

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 ...

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 ...