Aid and development

Rhona Smith, the U.N.’s new special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, on Tuesday addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva for the first time, telling the body that she planned to focus on marginalized people in the country. ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $60 million loan to modernize and rehabilitate irrigation systems in Kompong Thom and Battambang provinces. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen used a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday to call on developed nations to fulfill their pledges to commit at least 0.7 percent of their annual income to foreign aid.Speaking at a summit on the U.N.’s development goals, Mr. ...

As the United Nations meets this week to draw up a new set of sustainable development benchmarks, the era of the body’s landmark Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is coming to a close, with some wondering – in spite of gains – what efficacy such targets ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen flew to New York yesterday for talks where he will raise the scourge of landmines which still affect Cambodia. ...

Nine forest communities across Cambodia on Friday expressed concern about illegal land encroachment and logging operations as a European Union-funded sustainable forest management project which helped communities in wooded areas thrive comes to an end. ...

As Rhona Smith, the U.N.’s new special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, began her first official visit to the country Wednesday, leading human rights activists were at odds over how much her position could influence the situation on the ground. ...

Families who have been displaced by railway projects funded by the Asian Development Bank have filed a new complaint to an ADB review panel.Twenty-two people this week requested a new investigation by the ADB’s Compliance Review Panel. ...

A Cambodian soldier serving as a U.N. peacekeeper in the West African nation of Mali died on Monday after contracting malaria, an official said Tuesday. ...

The new Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for the United Nations in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, will touch down in Cambodia for the first time today and will stay until the 24th. Ms. Smith will examine the human rights situation in here and report her findings ...

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong has asked UNICEF for more help for the poor and street children, on top of the $10 million it already gives for education and health. ...

Nget Khun, a 76-year-old known to some in Cambodia’s capital as “Grandma Mommy,” hasn’t had a quiet retirement. A World Bank spokesperson said the bank is in discussions with the government about “how to support the country’s development in a way that benefits all Cambodians.” ...

The Cambodia minister and other senior officials from the other countries Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) will gather this week for the 20th GMS Ministerial Conference to explore ways to boost infrastructure investment and development, said the press release of the ASIAN Development Bank. ...

Beijing is spreading its influence by stumping up the cash to build desperately needed infrastructure throughout Asia, but with little consideration for communities or the level of corruption. “Without infrastructure, you can’t revive,” said Cambodia’s Commerce Minister, Sun Chanthol. “We have been blamed for always ...

More than five months after being appointed as the U.N.’s new special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith will make her first official visit to the country later this month, according to the government’s Human Rights Committee. ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has received a complaint from 22 Cambodians who say the lender is falling short in its efforts to fix the mistakes it has made in planning and carrying out its ongoing rehabilitation of the country’s dilapidated railway tracks. ...

Another group of families living along Cambodia’s dilapidated railway tracks is filing a complaint with the compliance review panel of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), accusing the lender of failing to abide by its own resettlement policies. ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a plan to increase the amount of borrowing from foreign countries by as much as 33 percent over the next three years, in a bid to counter a decrease in grants and concessional loans. ...

Economists and industry experts disagreed Tuesday on the effects that recent currency devaluations in China and Vietnam would have on the Cambodian economy. ...

A group of 12 international and local human rights organizations sent a letter to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday urging it to support a resolution addressing “the deteriorating human rights situation in Cambodia.” ...

New documents from the World Bank on its preparations to lift a 2011 freeze on new loans to Cambodia show that the international lender is giving short shrift to public opinion on whether it should restart lending in the first place. ...

A group of local and international NGOs are urging the World Bank to include a program for helping the thousands of families evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood as part of the plan to start funding new projects in Cambodia. ...

The first Phnom Penh-Preah Sihanouk expressway is expected to be constructed next year in order to facilitate goods transportation from the capital to the international seaport, according the state’s news agency- AKP. ...

China’s Henan Provincial Communications Planning Survey and Design Institute (HPCPSDI) signed a contract with Cambodia’s Transport Ministry on Tuesday to draw up a road network master plan for Cambodia. ...