Multilateral development assistance

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. ...

A school meal program run by the World Food Program (WFP) has run out of funds, forcing it to transfer about half of its schools to government care. ...

In the inaugural issue of its bulletin on Cambodia’s $5.8-billion garment industry, the International Labor Organization said Thursday that business remained strong on the back of rising exports despite a 28-percent hike to the sector’s minimum wage in January. ...

U.N. human rights expert Maina Kiai on Thursday urged Cambodia’s Senate not to pass a controversial NGO law that the National Assembly approved this week, warning that the legislation could have “disastrous” effects. ...

A group of NGOs on Monday told the World Bank to fix the land-rights problems surrounding its past projects in Cambodia before lifting a freeze on new lending to the country it imposed in 2011 to protest the mass eviction of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak ...

Social affairs officials met Thursday with the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to discuss the notorious Prey Speu social affairs center, with the government giving permission for the U.N. to visit the center Friday and identify residents who require psychiatric assistance ...

High electricity prices, low wages, limited irrigation and modest rice and crop prices were among the top concerns raised by government officials at a workshop in Phnom Penh on Monday to help the World Bank decide how to spend its money on the country over ...

The World Bank on Monday began two weeks of meetings to help it decide whether to start funding new projects in Cambodia after a four-year freeze. ...

Hang Sal has 2 hectares of fertile land he cannot farm. ...

Human Rights Watch says the World Bank is not doing enough to help people in Cambodia and elsewhere who are facing government harassment for speaking out against Bank-funded projects gone bad. ...

Months away from the end of a 15-year plan to improve education in the country, officials announced Wednesday that Cambodia still needs to make strides to meet adult literacy benchmarks and set new priorities focusing on the country’s youngest students. ...

With 35 nations signing on as founding members, Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has a reported US$50 billion foundation from which it plans to spur infrastructure growth in developing Asian countries with projects that include hydroelectric facilities.​ ...

The World Bank’s private sector arm may be doing more harm than good when it invests in private equity firms, banks and other financial intermediaries, global development group Oxfam said in a report on Wednesday. In one project indirectly sponsored by the bank’s International Finance Corporation ...

A lack of capital is the main obstacle for Cambodia to expedite connectivity development and the Southeast Asian country hopes that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Silk Road Fund will fill the shortage, a spokesman said. ...

China’s newly proposed, yet controversial, regional investment bank could be an opportunity for Cambodia to​ prove it can use foreign aid more effectively, a Cambodian Fulbright scholar says. ...

A United Nations development agency will open a new office in Phnom Penh following a meeting yesterday with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong, an official has said. ...

The president of the Asian Development Bank says a proposed Chinese-led regional bank is a potential partner instead of a rival and the ADB is talking with Beijing to share its experience. Takehiko Nakao’s comments came after Washington softened its opposition to the Chinese-proposed Asian Infrastructure ...