DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Donors meet Cambodian gov't officials to update progress in aid” plus 3 more

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of donor countries met with Cambodian government officials here on Wednesday to review the country's progress in development under their aid before considering new assistance to the country for years to come.

The 19th meeting of the Government-Development Partner Coordinating Committee (GDCC) was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Keat Chhon.

In his opening remarks, Keat Chhon said the meeting was a chance for both sides to review results of cooperation and prepare partnership plans for cooperation in years to come.

He said the half-day meeting also discussed the process for preparing two important policy initiatives. One is the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2014-2018 and the other is the Development Cooperation and Partnership Strategy (DCPS) 2014-2018, which serves as a tool for mobilization of the external development resources.

Annette Dixon, Country Head of World Bank-Cambodia, hailed the government of Cambodia for the successful implementation of the ongoing NSDP 2009-2013 even though the country was affected by the 2009 global downturn and the 2011 flood devastation.

"Cambodia now aims to build the necessary foundations of a middle income country," she said, adding that the NSDP 2014-2018 will play a key role in building the foundations to meet such a commendable vision.

"The Development Partners stand ready to support the government of Cambodia," she announced.

On behalf of donors, Annette Dixon raised some suggestions to the government for consideration relevant to the development of the NSDP 2014-2018. Those include setting up a clear roadmap for the development of the NSDP, increasing the speed of reforms to provide citizens high quality public services, promoting inclusive and sustainable growth to ensure the benefits of development are shared with all the population and future generations.

In regard to the DCPS 2014-2018, Anne Hoglund, Ambassador of Sweden to Cambodia, said that the Development Partners welcomed the new strategy as it will be a clear government direction to development partners.

The GDCC is held to prepare both the government and donors for the top-level Cambodian Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), which is held every 18 months.

The CDCF is where the list of reforms that donors expect of the government is updated, and where the donors announce their latest pledges of aid to the government.

At the last CDCF in 2010, donors pledged 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in assistance to Cambodia.

The government suspended the CDCF in August 2011, citing the global financial crisis that affected donor countries.

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Citibank, one of the largest banks in the United States, is seeking for investment opportunities in Cambodia, a bank senior official said Tuesday.

During a meeting with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Keat Chhon on Tuesday afternoon, Darren Buckley, country head of the Citibank in Bangkok, expressed the bank's interest to invest in Cambodia and urged the country to issue " sovereign bonds", Mey Vann, head of the Finance Ministry's financial industry department, told reporters after the meeting.

"In the meeting, Darren Buckley urged Cambodia to consider issuing sovereign bonds and promised to act as an underwriter for such bond trading in order to attract more foreign investors to Cambodia," said Mey Vann.

Sovereign bonds are the bonds issued by the government in either local currency or foreign one.

Meanwhile, Keat Chhon said that for a short-term strategy, the country has no plan to issue the sovereign bonds, but it will be in a long-term outlook.

According to Darren, the bank is also planned to open a branch in Cambodia in its long-term vision.

Established in 1812 in New York, Citibank has more than 4,600 branches in 160 countries and regions around the globe including Thailand and Vietnam.

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the country's two major opposition parties' threats to boycott a general election in July next year would give chance to other parties to win seats in the parliament.

"It (boycott) is good, other political parties can prepare themselves. Voters can cast their ballots for the Cambodian People ' s Party (CPP) or other participating parties," he told a graduation ceremony at the National University of Management.

The remarks were made after the two parties--the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party--said Monday that they are considering boycotting next year's general election, accusing the National Election Committee of linking to the ruling CPP of Prime Minister Hun Sen. "You lose by yourselves, you should not get angry with the referees,"he said, referring to the two opposition parties' request to the Ministry of Interior last week to change the components of the National Election Committee (NEC), but the request was rejected.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for 27 years.

Cambodia holds general elections every five years. During last election in July 2008, the CPP won 90 seats out of the 123 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Sam Rainsy Party with 26 seats, the Human Rights Party three seats, the Norodom Ranariddh Party two seats and the Funcinpec Party two seats.