International donors agreed Friday to give impoverished Cambodia just over 600 million US dollar (3,72 milliarder DKR) in aid for 2006, more than last year, but they demanded action on judicial reforms and fighting corruption, reports the World Bank press review Monday.
The increase reflected the “significant progress” made by Cambodia in reforming its economy, World Bank Country Coordinator Ian Porter said after the annual two-day meeting in Phnom Penh, the capital of the once war-torn Southeast Asian country.
– But the government needs to accelerate its reform programs, particularly in the areas I highlighted – anti-corruption, legal and judicial reform and natural resource management, he said.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen pledged to improve governance in a speech on Thursday to donors demanding action against rampant corruption and mismanagement.
Donors gave the government some credit for gains against poverty in the past year, thanks to a stronger economy on the back of agriculture, garment exports and tourism. But graft continued to plague the country ranked 131 out of 158 countries – below Albania and Sierra Leone – on Transparency Internationals 2005 corruption index.
The assistance was offered despite criticism from the donor community that Prime Minister Hun Sens government had failed to follow through on earlier promises to adopt laws to curb endemic corruption.
The donors said, however, that they were encouraged by what they described as a recent improvement after the prime minister made conciliatory gestures toward his political opponents.
Groups such as Amnesty International urged donors to press the government to uphold human rights, which they said suffered a serious setback last year when Hun Sen aggressively pursued legal action against his critics, chilling freedom of speech.
Cambodia had sought 563 million dollar in assistance for 2006, or 1,6 billion for three years from 2006 to 2008. Of the 601 million dollar now pledged, the European Union came up with the largest amount of 164 million dollar, followed by Japan at 114,7 million, the US 61 million and the UN 58,1 million. The World Bank pledged 53 million dollar.
Cambodia is dependent on donor aid for more than half of its national budget and international funds drive the countrys fragile economy. But some critics have questioned the continued outpouring of money, saying that despite hundreds of millions of dollars in aid over the last decade, Cambodia has not shown the level of progress expected by the international community.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
