China’s aid vital to Cambodia: finance minister
May 7th, 2013, Global Times, Economics, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, International Relations
China’s assistance to Cambodia is very important for the country’s economic and social development, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Keat Chhon said Tuesday. …
He said from 1992 to present, China has provided 2.7 billion U. S. dollars in soft loans and grants to Cambodia for rehabilitating and building infrastructures. …
Xinhua News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/779888.shtml#.UYm2L6Kj2xA
AFD in talks over power lines
May 1st, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Electricity, Energy, Foreign Aid, International Relations, News Source, Technical Assistance
The French Development Agency (AFD) said yesterday it is discussing an approximately 50 million euro ($65 million) loan to extend electricity transmission lines, and said it plans to provide more loans for vocational training in the Kingdom.
“We are discussing [the] loan . . . that we could give to EDC [Electricité du Cambodge] for the finance of a 200-kilometres transmission line (high tension) and a 200-kilometres line of medium tension [22KW] in the provinces of Koh Kong (between Koh Kong and Srea Ambel) and between Kampong Cham and Kratie,” Julien Darpoux, program officer for Cambodia and Laos from the French Development Agency, told the Post yesterday. …
Now only 24 to 25 per cent of households in the country have access to electricity, AFD Director André Pouillès-Duplaix said during a press conference. “We have a lot of work to do in this sector.” …
Sarah Thust
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050165342/Business/afd-in-talks-over-power-lines.html
Hun Sen Reaches for Ambitious Income Target
April 15th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Foreign Aid, International Relations
Going by the World Bank’s method of grouping nation states by their wealth, Cambodia this year could become a lower-middle income country.
Not satisfied, however, with this graduation—a feat in itself from Cambodia’s position of extreme poverty just two decades ago when gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was $240—the government is already eyeing the next milestone. ..
If this happens, Cambodia could gain membership to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a branch of the World Bank, and give the government access to more capital. As a low-income country, Cambodia has only had access to concessional loans from the World Bank’s International Development Association. …
Government estimates predict that by 2030, Cambodia’s population will have reached 18.4 million, meaning that to achieve an upper-middle income GDP per capita, the total size of the economy would need to top $74 billion.
This would mean the economy multiplying more than five times in 18 years—from its 2012 size of $14.25 billion—and would require GDP growth of more than 9.5 percent annually over the period. …
Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/hun-sen-reaches-for-ambitious-income-target-18766/
China pledges $548 million in aid to ally Cambodia
April 10th, 2013, Reuters, Economics, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, International Relations
China has pledged another $548 million in aid to Cambodia for infrastructure and irrigation systems, extending assistance that some critics say has bought it Cambodia’s diplomatic support. …
Agreements covering $500 million in soft loans and $48 million in grants were signed when Prime Minister Hun Sen visited China and met Premier Li Keqiang over the weekend, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh told a briefing on Wednesday. …
Chinese investment in Cambodia has totaled $9.1 billion since 1994, including almost $1.2 billion in 2011, eight times more than the United States, according to the Cambodia Investment Board.
Reuters Staff
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/10/us-cambodia-china-idUSBRE93909D20130410
Xi hails ties with Cambodia
April 7th, 2013, Xinhuanet News, Foreign Aid, International Relations, News Source
China-Cambodia relations have become a model of friendly coexistence and close cooperation among countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at an international forum that opened on Sunday.
China and Cambodia are good neighbors, friends, partners and brothers, Xi said while meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2013 in Boao, a coastal town in south China’s Hainan Province. …
The two sides have decided to establish an intergovernmental coordinating committee to carry out the action plan on the China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation and push forward bilateral cooperation in all fields, said Xi.
Xi also said China will work with Cambodia to advance China’s relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along the right path. …
Xinhua News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-04/07/c_132290730.htm
Government Goes to China in Search of New Loans
April 4th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Economics, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Extractive Industries, Foreign Aid, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Land Tenure, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil, Technical Assistance
Prime Minister Hun Sen will travel to China on Saturday to meet with the rising superpower’s new leadership, in a trip the government expects to yield nearly $2 billion in loans and aid.
Most significantly, the Government is hoping to secure Chinese funding for a 1.67 billion oil refinery project in Kampot province, which would ensure China’s prime position in Cambodia’s yet-to-take-off oil industry. …
The statement [from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation] lists eight deals including a memorandum of understanding between the National Bank of Cambodia and China Banking Regulatory Commission, an “agreement on economic and technical cooperation” worth 48.38 million, more than $73 million in concessional loans for an irrigation project in Kompong Thom province and a bridge in Kandal province.
According to the statement, the government also expects to sign a memorandum of understanding on a 5-million-ton-a-year oil refinery project, involving China Development Bank and China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, both Chinese state-owned companies, to the tune of $1.67 billion.
China’s development bank is known as one of China’s “policy banks”- meaning that it gives loans in support of Chinese foreign policy. Such banks have funded Chinese-built hydropower dams in Cambodia.
In December, China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp.- which is majority owned by state-owned industrial giant SINOMACH- and Cambodian Petrochemical Company- which is chaired by cigarette magnate Kong Triv- agreed that work would begin on the oil refinery this year. …
Two Chinese companies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation and China Petrotech Holdings ltd., have been grated exploration blocks off Cambodia’s coat to search for oil and gas. …
Simon Lewis and Phorn Bopha, P.1
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-goes-to-china-in-search-of-loans-17314/
Bids called on Cambodia rail link
April 2nd, 2013, Bangkok Post, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Foreign Aid, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Technical Assistance
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will call an e-auction on April 10 on work to renovate damaged tracks connecting Thailand with Cambodia at the Aranyaprathet-Poipet crossing, Transport Minister Chadchat Suttipan said on Tuesday. …
The railway agency estimated the project will cost 2.8 billion baht. It will include rehabilitation of the six kilometres of tracks from Aranyaprathet station to Klong Luek, opposite Poipet district in Cambodia, and improvement of the existing tracks from Klong Sip Kao station to Aranyaprathet.
A bridge between Klong Luek and Poipet must be improved, and negotiations will take place with Cambodia on possible cost-sharing of the construction, the minister added. …
The one-metre gauge tracks will connect with the Cambodian railway to Phnom Penh and onward to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Cambodia is improving its 337km line from Phnom Penh to Poipet, expected to be completed some time between next year and 2015, according to the Phnom Penh Post.
The project is financed by a loan from the Asian Development Bank, and also includes the 256km line linking Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. The line was reopened in December last year.
Bangkok Post Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/343563/thailand-to-open-bid-to-rebuild-tracks-with-cambodia
Chinese Investments in Cambodia Ignore Environment Queries
March 29th, 2013, The Irrawaddy Magazine, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Foreign Aid, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Social Concerns, Technical Assistance, Timber/Wood, Water
China’s expanding investment portfolio in Cambodia has brought into sharper focus the darker side of the Asian giant’s “development projects” in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
And it is in the southwestern corner of Cambodia—known for its rich biodiversity, forest covered hills and bubbling rivers—where this Chinese economic footprint is leaving a defining mark. A plan to build a 400 km-long railway line through this rugged green terrain is the most recent Chinese addition to growing list that has alarmed Cambodian environmentalists. …
Environment Minister Mok Mareth reportedly told the Cambodia Daily newspaper in an interview at the time that the paperwork had not included an environment impact assessment (EIA).
The same publication had also got Transport Minister Tram Iv Tek to affirm in an interview that he was in the dark about the details of this massive investment.
It confirms a pattern that is disturbingly familiar to environmentalists who have been monitoring much longer “development” projects: the way Chinese companies are building large hydropower projects in the same southwestern corner targeted for the new railway line. …
China’s hydropower projects, now estimated to be over $1.6 billion in investments, are aiming to generate 915 megawatts of power in a country that suffers from an energy deficit. Only a quarter of the country’s 14.5 million population has access to power from the national grid. …
Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/30883
Japanese grants set to aid local farmers
March 28th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Foreign Aid, Industry, International Relations
The Japanese government has provided $118,996 for constructing a cassava propagation and distribution centre in Battambang province. The fund comes in response to the recent challenges facing farmers in the province who are facing a shortage of cassava trees to plant.
Kumamaru Yuji, Japanese ambassador to Cambodia, said the grant was given to the University of Battambang yesterday for installing two autoclaves of 50 and 150 litres, one clean bench, and the construction of two screen houses, with a capacity of 300 square metres, and for the acquisition of 600 square metres to breed virus-free cassava. …
Touch Visalsok, rector of the University of Battambang and a recipient of the grant, said the fund came in time to construct a centre that is crucial for supplying disease-free and high-yield cassava planting materials to farmers – and not only in his province. …
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032864733/Business/japanese-grants-set-to-aid-local-farmers.html
ADB praises Cambodia for public debt management
March 27th, 2013, The Cambodia Herald, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Debt Servicing, Economics, Financial Services, Foreign Aid, International Relations, Technical Assistance
Eric Sidgwick, Country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to Cambodia applauded Cambodia for managing it’s, sometimes problematic, public debts. …
During the Wednesday meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, Sok An, Eric Sidgwick said, good management led to the positive changes of donations and loans to Cambodia. …
The government, with the collaboration of ADB, aims to increase the GDP of its citizens to $4,000 by 2030, he added.
The Cambodia Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NDQ1NmJhNTk1M2V
Cambodian PM to visit China to advance bilateral ties
March 26th, 2013, Xinhuanet News, Construction, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, International Relations, Technical Assistance
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that he will pay an official visit to China early next month to meet with new Chinese leaders for talks on further enhancing bilateral relations. …
“I hope that new Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang will continue to support Cambodia in the development of infrastructure including roads and bridges,” Hun Sen said during a groundbreaking for the construction of the 7th Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge in southern Kandal province. …
Xinhuanet Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-03/25/c_132260956.htm
Hun Sen Seeks Chinese Help for Bridge Project
March 26th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Construction, Foreign Aid, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Technical Assistance
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday urged China to come up with enough funding for Cambodia to build a 3.5km bridge across the Tonle Sap and connect National Road 6 in Kampong Thom with Kampong Chhang province.
Speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony for a $20 million Chinese bridge crossing the Bassac River in Kandal province, Mr. Hun Sen lauded China for providing financial assistance to 11 out of 17 bridge projects, seven of which have already been built and another five of which are currently under construction with help from Japan and China.
“One plan is to have a China-Cambodia friendship bridge that will pass over the Tonle Sap. It will be the longest bridge and 3.5 kilometres,” he said at the presence of China’s ambassador, Pan Guangxue. ….
As well as the four Chinese-funded bridges being built in Stung Treng, Kandal and Phnom Penh, they are plans in store for Chinese bridges across the Mekong in Kratie and Kompong Cham provinces, he said. …
“In the Tonle Sap basin, there are no ownership rights,” [Mr. Hun Sen] said. “For people who live along the Tonle Sap, such as in Ponhea Leu and Mok Kampul districts [in Kandal province], and other people who live along the Mekong and Bassac rivers, you will get land titles.”
Neou Vannarin, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
Koh Thom Bridge construction launched
March 25th, 2013, The Cambodia Herald, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Foreign Aid, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Technical Assistance
A ground breaking ceremony of the $19.39 million, Koh Thom Bridge, has been launched Monday. …
The 407 meter bridge will be built over the, Tonle Bassac River, linking National Road 110 in the village of Prek Thmey, Chroy Takeo commune and National Road 21 in the commune of Prek Sdey, Koh Thom district. …
The Cambodian Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YjY1MTY0ZWI3ZjE
Evicted Railway Families Facing Debt ‘Crisis’
March 22nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Banking & Finance, Borrowing, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Debt Servicing, Disputed Land, Economics, Foreign Aid, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns
Debt levels among the more than 1,000 families being evicted by a $142.6 million railway project bankrolled by Australia and the Asia Development Bank (ADB) have reached “crisis” proportions and require major intervention, according to a U.S resettlement expert who was hired by the ADB to study the impact of the project. …
In his recommendations, Mr. Cernea, said that evicted families were in many cases at risk of losing their new government-issued plots of land to moneylenders and that families falling into debt was “the single most dangerous risk” facing the resettled families. …
Among his recommendations was an immediate stop to evictees being able to swap their new land for loans, a thorough census of the families and their debts, and that the ADB and Ausaid work with the government on a “full, project-scale” solution.
He also questioned whether it was legal for the money lenders to take the families’ new plots of land as collateral and urged the partners in the project to see what they could do to nullify the loan deals or at least punish the lenders. …
Nhean Leang, who sits on the government’s resettlement committee, claimed that of the more than 4,000 families affected by the rail project, only 25 were actually being hurt and shifted any blame to the ADB and the families themselves.
“You should ask the ADB about the design, how they designed it. We just follow the designs of the Ministry of Transportation and the ADB,” he said. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evicted-railway-families-facing-debt-crisis-15618/
Kingdom, Japan to ink $33.9m grant today
March 21st, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Energy, Foreign Aid, Hydroelectricity, International Relations, News Source, Technical Assistance
Cambodia will sign a $33.9 million grant aid today from the Japanese government to support various small hydropower dam projects, improve a hospital and update resources of a university, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. …
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032164548/Business/kingdom-japan-to-ink-33-9m-grant-today.html
ADB Smothers Report On Families Hit by Rail Project
March 19th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disputed Land, Economics, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, International Relations, Land Tenure, News Source, Social Concerns, Technical Assistance
The Asian Development Bank has refused to release a critical study on the impacts its $141.6 million railway project is having on thousands of Cambodian families because disclosure of the report could hurt its relationship with the government, an ADB spokeswoman said.
Raising concerns about the ADB’s decision to bury the report‘s findings, housing rights groups released a statement yesterday criticizing the banks lack of transparency and public accountability. …
After having its initial request for access to the report denied, Inclusive Development International (IDI) appealed to the ADB’s Public Disclosure Advisory Committee on February 16. The ADB committee informed IDI that its appeal has also been rejected on Friday.
“ADB has long recognized that transparency and accountability are essential to development effectiveness and ADB’s ability to achieve its vision of an Asia and Pacific free of poverty,” ADB spokeswoman Ann Quon said in the letter.
But releasing Dr. Cernea’s findings on the rail project, Ms. Quon said, would further delay a project that is already behind schedule and over budget, damage the ADB’s long term relationship with the government, and “compromise the integrity of the of ADB’s deliberative decision-making process.” …
Both the ADB and the Australian government’s foreign aid arm co-funding the project, AusAid, have sold the railway’s rebirth as a key of bringing down the cost of transport and doing business across the country.
They have also placed the responsibility for the roughly 1,200 families the project will ultimately see evicted on the government, while pledging extra money to help the families supplement their diminished incomes after eviction. …
Zsombor Peter and Phorn Bopha, P.1
www.cambodiadaily.com
Japan to provide Cambodia with nearly 34 mln USD grant aid
March 18th, 2013, People's Daily Online, Energy, Foreign Aid, Hydroelectricity, News Source, Technical Assistance
Cambodia will sign to receive 33.9 million U.S. dollars in grant aid from Japan for three projects in small hydropower dams, healthcare and education, according to a news release from Cambodia’s foreign ministry on Monday. …
Still No Donor to Take Over Communal Land Titling From Canada
March 13th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Disputed Land, Foreign Aid, Land Tenure, News Source, Technical Assistance
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) said yesterday that it had still found no replacement donor to commit long-term to carrying on its work helping indigenous ethnic minority groups secure communal land titles once it pulls out in May.
Kan Vibol, project field manager for CIDA’s Cambodia Land Administration Support Project, said they will have spent $240,000 by the time the last of the five communities they have been working with receives its title in late April. …
The titles, granted to a whole community at a time, are designed specifically to protect the ancestral land of ethnic minorities from outside developers. Unlike with private titles, outsiders cannot buy up the land one family at a time. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/still-no-donor-to-take-over-communal-land-titling-from-canada-14638/
France set to grant Kingdom $47.7m for infrastructure
March 12th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Energy, Foreign Aid, News Source, Technical Assistance, Water
The French Development Agency yesterday agreed to grant Cambodia a total of $47.7 million, $8.7 million of which is a loan.
The sum is to support the Kingdom’s irrigation infrastructure investment, to improve the country’s access to drinkable water and to fund the fight against emerging diseases in the region. …
EU fund of over $4.5 mln in Cambodia
March 11th, 2013, The Cambodia Herald, Economics, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, International Relations, Technical Assistance
The European Union in efforts to reduce the poverty rate and secure a free society has awarded $4.5 mln to four projects. These projects will work to improve justice, natural resources, land rights, and build the capabilities of local authorities.
Four projects were selected among 28 proposed and it earmarked the promotion of good governance and human rights in Cambodia over the period 2007-2013. …
The four projects will be implemented by five different organizations, International Bridges to Justice (IBJ), Comité Catholique Contre la Faim et pour le Développement (CCFD), Rights & Development Association (Adhoc), Oxfam GB, and Advocacy and Policy Institute. …
The Cambodian Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=ODhhZmVjNmU1OTd