Aid and development

The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction issued a statement on Saturday defending its track record and denying that Germany ended its support for the ministry’s land rights program due to a lack of transparency and sluggish reform pace. ...

A Tongan national was appointed as Asian Development Bank’s director for Cambodia effective 01 February.Samiuela T. Tukuafu will lead ADB operations in Cambodia to support the country’s development goals of promoting inclusive growth and diversifying the economy. ...

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong is in China this week for official talks aimed at strengthening trade and security ties. ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to provide financing totally about 880 million US dollars to Cambodia for 2016 – 2018. According to a press release from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which was released yesterday. ...

The European Union (EU) last week announced this year’s recipients of 8.2 million euros ($8.9 million) in grants to civil society, with much of the money going to nongovernmental groups whose stated goal is to make the country’s elections more open and inclusive.  ...

Cambodia must tackle the skills gap to boost the productivity of its labor force in order to grow its economy, according to the latest report. ...

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has started work with Cambodia on patent applications, a move which will allow firms from both countries to hasten the process. ...

Though it’s extremely early days, experts this week welcomed Cambodia’s membership to the nascent China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), saying it would provide much-needed diversity of funding for the nation’s infrastructure and connectivity needs. ...

Six months after the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Cambodian government to scrap a draft NGO law that came into effect in August, the E.U. announced on Monday that it had pledged 8.2 million euros (about $8.9 million) to local and international ...

Some of the country’s top business leaders laid out their main concerns with a controversial draft union law during a meeting with CPP lawmakers on Monday, including a stipulation that would let only 10 people form a union at a workplace. ...

The advent of Cambodia’s much-criticized NGO law was among the top “troubling” developments to take place across the globe last year, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association said in a report released Friday.   ...

Cambodia’s economy is expected to grow at 6.9 percent this year, the same rate it expanded last year, due to slowing growth in leading economies in region, especially China, Asia’s largest and the world’s second-largest economy, according to the World Bank. ...

Cambodia’s prime minister defended his government’s energy policy on Wednesday and hit back at environmentalists opposed to hydropower plants by suggesting their electricity be cut off and they should use resin torches instead. ...

The Japanese government Friday granted nearly $20,000 to repair and upgrade fascilities at schools in two provinces. ...

Cambodia ranked 143rd out of 188 countries in the U.N.’s latest Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure of development incorporating health, education and living standards, according to new figures released on Monday. ...

Australia has so far disbursed more than $3.5 million in aid to Cambodia as part of the agreement for its unwanted refugees to be resettled here, but the Interior Ministry’s spokesman is livid that the money has come into the country via development agencies rather ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called on banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to suspend loan repayments by borrowers affected by this year’s drought, or either make the loans interest free or cut the rates. ...

After five years of building, the 24-million-U.S.-dollar Angkor Panorama Museum, invested by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), opened in northwest Cambodia’s Siem Reap city, a local English newspaper reported on Monday. ...

A Finance Ministry official said on Sunday that the government had yet to decide whether it would comply with Asian Development Bank (ADB) rules that families facing eviction from along the country’s old railway tracks be offered resettlement options better than the ones they have ...

Loans from Japan to Cambodia will help finance work on a key highway upgrade. The loan package totals US$150 million and will be used for the project to upgrade Cambodia’s National Road No 5. ...

The Chinese government has agreed to donate $3.5 million to build a ninth building inside the compound of the Senate on Norodom Boulevard, Senate Secretary-General Oum Sarith said on Tuesday following the signing ceremony in Phnom Penh. ...

A museum bankrolled by North Korea on Cambodia’s tourist trail in Siem Reap is ready to open, according to local media.The $10 million Grand Panorama Museum sits near Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex and is scheduled to open on December 4. ...

The United Nations and the Cambodian Ministry of Women’s Affairs will organize four major events across the country to raise awareness of the need to end violence against women and girls, according to a UN Women’s statement on Wednesday. ...

The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on the Cambodian government to revoke the arrest warrant for opposition leader Sam Rainsy, with its parliamentarians suggesting some $435 million in aid be canceled if it is ignored. ...