ADB Provides Cambodia with $71 Million for Education, Jobs, Roads and Market Reform

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed off on a $71.8 million grant and loan package for Cambodia that will improve secondary education, support farmers living around the Tonle Sap Lake, foster financial system reform, and rehabilitate major roads throughout the country.

The largest component of the package is a $27.1 million grant that will improve the quality of secondary education by providing 350,000 upper secondary students with textbooks, training 14,400 secondary teachers, and equipping teacher training colleges with better facilities.

Rural farming families will be able to improve crop yields and boost their incomes through a $20 million assistance package (a $10.1 million loan and $9.9 million grant) that will provide better irrigation facilities and improved rural infrastructure. This assistance will benefit over 350,000 people living in 40 communes around the Tonle Sap Lake.

“Educational opportunity and increased agricultural productivity are two indispensable components of Cambodia’s continued growth,” said ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda at the signing ceremony.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and H.E. Keat Chhon, Senior Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, joined President Kuroda at the signing ceremony.

“The Asian Development Bank remains committed to working with Cambodia to help more people in the country escape poverty and attain a better quality of life,” President Kuroda said.

ADB is also providing an $11.7 million assistance package (a $10 million loan and $1.7 million grant) from its concessional Asian Development Fund to support market-oriented financial system reforms, including legal and regulatory reforms, improved disclosure standards, better financial transparency and development of financial infrastructure.

The final components of the assistance package are a $7 million loan to support the rehabilitation of a 15 kilometer stretch of the Southern Coastal Corridor, which runs along the Gulf of Thailand from Bangkok to Nam Cam, Viet Nam, and an additional $6 million loan to help maintain 950 kilometers of roads managed by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

The overall value of these five projects is approximately $115 million, including a $12.8 million grant from the Government of Australia and an additional $30.5 million contribution from the Government of Cambodia.