Education to Receive 20% Boost in 2014 Budget
The Education Ministry on Monday said it was in line for a near 20 percent hike from the government’s $3.52 billion draft budget for 2014, approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet on Friday, though other details of how money was to be allocated remained elusive. Newly appointed Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said his ministry was being offered a $335 million budget for next year, up from the $280 million it was budgeted for in 2013. “We heard the budget increased for education. The budget for 2014 increased…to $335 million,” said Mr. Chuon Naron, who was “happy” with the plan. If approved by the National Assembly later this year as expected, it will represent a 19.6 percent hike in funding for the ministry, which aid agencies and teachers’ unions have long considered desperately underfunded. Yet, the funds for education still come in at less than 2 percent of the country’s projected 2014 gross domestic product (GDP)—or $17.2 billion as projected by the World Bank—a figure unions, aid donors and even some ministry officials consider far too low. … The government has remained highly secretive about the draft budget since it passed the prime minister’s Cabinet meeting on Friday. … Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said the draft was a private government document until the Cabinet submitted it to the National Assembly for ratification, which it was legally bound to do during the first week of November. … The opposition, however, regularly accuses Mr. Hun Sen’s government of making the budget process too opaque and of giving such important legislation too little time for debate. …
Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/education-to-receive-20-boost-in-2014-budget-46127/
