Aid and development

Cambodia has approximately 1.9 million agricultural households with about 8.5 million people, or 57 percent of the country’s 14.96 million people, according to the first-ever agriculture census report released on Wednesday. “The 1.9 million agricultural households were engaged in growing of crops that were undertaken in ...

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 Ministry of Planning is to release today preliminary results of Cambodia’s first agricultural industry census, which promises to provide the biggest ever snapshot of the key sector. According to a press release issued yesterday by the ministry, the census’ preliminary results will include the number ...

Cambodia stands to be the biggest beneficiary, in terms of GDP growth, for the first decade following ASEAN Economic Integration in 2015, according to a study released publicly today by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO’s 160-page report says Cambodia could see a 19.9 per ...

In the face of an increase in work-related injuries, government officials gathered in Phnom Penh on Tuesday to start work on a new plan to reduce workplace accidents and to reflect on their achievements over the past five years. ...

China will work with Cambodian officials to broaden the range of agricultural products that the Asian economic giant allows to be imported from the Kingdom, government officials said yesterday. Ken Ratha, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, confirmed that China’s General Administration, Quality Supervision, Inspection and ...

Cambodia’s GDP per capita is expected to reach 1,130 U.S. dollars this year, an estimated increase of 8 percent from 1,043 U.S. dollars last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday. ...

The UN Children’s Fund in Australia has warned volunteers and tourists to avoid visiting Cambodian orphanages following critical reports from the press in recent weeks. In a post on its website, UNICEF Australia said “these types of tours exploit children and their families for the financial ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide nine poor rural provinces in Cambodia with year-round access to markets and social services through a 118 million U.S. dollars project to provide a safer, cost-effective rural road network, the bank said in a press statement on Monday. ...

Phnom Penh families who face losing a part of their land to a railway rehabilitation project being funded primarily by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) protested in front of the bank’s country headquarters Monday over what they say has been a lack of transparency about ...

A controversial deal to allow Australia to send refugees to Cambodia is imminent and could be signed as early as this week, sources have told Fairfax Media. The Australian and Cambodian governments have been negotiating for months over a deal to resettle up to 1000 refugees ...

Most of the infrastructure required for enhanced connectivity in the Greater Mekong Subregion has been put in place, particularly the transport links that form the base of the envisaged economic corridors, Bindu Lohani, vice president of the Asian Development Bank, said yesterday. He made the remark ...

Driven by garment and improved agricultural export markets, Cambodia has bucked the wider trend of slowing Southeast Asian economies, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). ESCAP’s semi-annual Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, published ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that the country’s economy is forecast to grow by 7. 5 percent in 2014, driven by steady growth in agriculture, garment export, tourism, and construction. ...

The World Bank has debarred Cambodia’s CDW Construction Co Ltd for three years for fraudulent practices relating to the Ketsana Emergency Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project. Announced in 2010, the $40 million project aimed to restore transport as well as water and sanitation services to the tens ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday applauded the recent creation of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), saying it could ease Cambodia’s dependence on institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). BRICS member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa announced ...

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 ...

The 87th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was celebrated on Friday with the participation of about 300 Chinese and military officers as well as foreign military attaches. The event, hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia, was presided over by ...

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 ...

The Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday released a draft policy to strengthen the agriculture sector by educating farmers on how to gain greater access to markets and increase their productivity by using sustainable farming methods. The Agriculture Extension Policy, drafted in cooperation with USAID, aims to ...

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. ...

United Nations human rights expert for Cambodia Surya Subedi has welcomed the political breakthrough reached between the two main political parties in Cambodia. “I welcome the agreement reached between both parties that finally breaks the deadlock that has gripped the country for almost a year,” said ...