Aid and development

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. ...

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank issued a report on Tuesday, urging Cambodia to improve its electricity supply and workforce in order to be competitive. Intermittent electricity, informal payments and a low-skill labor force are all major constraints to doing business in Cambodia, the ...

Cambodia must do more than open its borders for trade and investment if it hopes to benefit from regional economic integration and reduce the glaring economic inequality wrought by entrenched patronage networks and corrupt institutions, according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday signed to provide grant and loan agreements worth nearly 99 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for three development projects, the bank said in a press statement.​ The agreements cover a rural roads improvement project, a technical and vocational ...

Cambodia has reached out to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for help with resettling refugees it has agreed to take from Australia under a controversial deal signed last month, according to an IOM spokesman. ...

The World Bank has not yet reached a decision on whether to lift a ban on loans to Cambodia, a Bank official has said, contradicting local media reports that the international financing institution would resume loans suspended three years ago over allegations of violent land ...

Officials delayed the bidding process for three projects funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday after heated arguments between bidders broke out in Kompong Cham province’s Choeung Prey district, local officials said on Thursday. ...

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 ...

People living along the railroads in Phnom Penh city has made another demonstration in front of ADB’s office in Cambodia for the third time. However, there was not any better response from ADB than the previous times. People affected by the railroad development project which ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday promised to help pry answers out of the government for residents of Phnom Penh who fear losing all or some of their land to a bank-funded project to rehabilitate the country’s railway network. ...

A coalition of NGOs are to submit to the National Assembly today a list of recommended additions to the amended traffic law, a draft of which was approved by the Council of Ministers in August. Road safety advocates hope the amended law, which creates higher fines ...

Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova has denounced the killing of journalist Taing Try in Cambodia on Oct. 12 and urged the authorities to ensure that those responsible are punished for their crime. Taing Try, 49, a freelance journalist for several local newspapers and a member ...

Cambodians have experienced one of the largest drops in the rate of hunger in the world over the past quarter century, though the situation in the country still remains “serious,” according to a new report by three international NGOs. Cambodia cut its score in the ...

A study by the International Labor Organization, the U.N.’s labor body, shows most Cambodian garment workers do not eat enough nutritious food and that, as a result, many are anemic and even underweight. Now, a pilot project will feed workers at five factories a free ...

A major funder of road safety programs in Cambodia will not be renewing its grant for the country, sparking concerns that traffic deaths in the Kingdom will continue unabated. Bloomberg Philanthropies, run by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is launching the second part of its Global Road Safety ...

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 ...

Cambodia’s economic growth is forecasted to reach 7.2 percent in 2014, and 7.5 percent next year according to a report by World Bank on Monday. The report said Cambodia’s garments continue to be the key engine of growth, followed by construction. The poverty rate continued to ...

For 70-year-old Chan Shay, the choice between working through old age and a retirement in poverty is an obvious one. Shay, a cyclo taxi driver in Phnom Penh, said that while he dreams of retiring to his home in Takeo province, in reality he can see ...

The Ministry of Culture on Tuesday introduced the country’s first strategic cultural policy, an ambitious plan that includes setting up provincial cultural centers, launching arts education in schools, holding annual cultural events and promoting individual artists. Speaking to an audience that included representatives from the leading ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong addressed the UN’s General Assembly on Monday, in a speech that focused more on the threat of the Islamic State and international conflicts than it did on Cambodian issues. Hor Namhong told the Assembly that Cambodia supports joint international efforts to ...

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 ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced last week a $30 million loan aimed at overhauling Cambodia’s technical and vocational education system (TVET). According to a September 26 statement issued by the ADB, the new funding will go towards launching a “competency-based” assessment and certification process, and ...