Aid and development

The Asian Development Bank has committed more than $1 billion in new loans to Cambodia over the next three years to help the country invest in infrastructure, education and other priorities, government officials announced on October 5. Finance Minister Aun Porn Moniroth announced the $1.09 ...

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc congratulated Ousmane Dione on his appointment as new Country Director for the World Bank in Vietnam at a reception at the Government’s headquarters in Hanoi on October 4. He said the WB is important to Vietnam and bilateral relations are being ...

Japan and Laos have agreed on a joint plan to spur development in the landlocked Southeast Asian country during a meeting between their leaders. At their meeting held on the sidelines of the ASEAN summits here this week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Lao ...

The European Union has begun training Cambodia’s Forestry Administration to use satellite imagery to crack down on deforestation. Members of the EU’s Joint Research Centre have been meeting with forestry officials since September 26, teaching them how to analyse images captured by the EU’s Sentinel-2 satellite ...

The U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia on September 28 hit the country with a growing list of criticisms over alleged human rights abuses, which Cambodia parried with the apparent support of neighboring states, including Burma, Laos, Thailand and China. Rhona Smith, in a presentation ...

More than 13,000 vulnerable children in 137 floating villages along the Tonle Sap river and Tonle Sap lake in Kampong Chhnang and Pursat provinces will have access to early childhood education under a $2.7 million project announced on September 28. Beginning mid-2017, children 5 and younger ...

Construction of a 30-km embankment along the Mekong River starting near the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge in Vientiane will soon begin. The flood protection levy will run from the Vientiane-Nong Khai Friendship Bridge downstream through Huaymarkhia village to Dongphoudy and Thamuang villages in Hadxaifong district. The project, known ...

The Environment Protection Fund and the World Bank recently provided funding for the second phase of four environmental and social protection sub-projects in Laos at a cost of more than US$4 million. The first sub-project named Capacity Building for Pollution Control, Waste and Hazardous Chemicals Management ...

The Department of Waterways under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is concentrating on the implementation of the South East Asia Disaster Risk Management Project in Laos. The project development objective of the proposed South East Asia Disaster Risk Management Project shall be funded by ...

USAID kicked off a seven-year program to guarantee over US$10 million in microfinance loans to the agricultural sector on September 20, as part of a new US effort to offer greater economic support to the country. The US development agency has signed a multi-bank loan portfolio ...