Phnom Penh - Cambodia conceded that land grabs and
corruption were issues that needed to be tackled as an annual
international donor meeting opened Tuesday, and asked the donors for
more aid to tackle the problems.
Addressing the Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF),
Prime Minister Hun Sen said the government was continuing efforts to
weed out some 'bad politicians behind some bad Cambodians' and solve
growing inequalities between the rich and poor, especially in rural
areas.
'I appeal to Cambodian government partners ... please join with
us, especially the World Bank,' Hun Sen told the meeting, previously
known as the Consultative Group meeting.
Last year donors pledged 601 million dollars to the heavily
aid-dependent nation, at least half the annual budget of which is
estimated to rely on international donors after a 30-year civil war.
The meeting comes with the government under a barrage of criticism
from non-government groups which have used the banning of a negative
forestry report from London-based Global Witness as a focus, and
follows a highly critical report from UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai
in Geneva last week.
Critics, including New York-based Human Rights Watch, have charged
that donors have done little to make the Cambodian government
accountable for the vast sums of aid which have poured into the
country over the past decade, maintaining that land grabs, human
rights abuses and corruption remain rife. They have called on donors
to get tough.
World Bank country director Ian Porter was more circumspect in his
opening speech, congratulating the government for progress in a
number of areas, but noting that other areas were significantly
lagging.
'Looking back at what has been achieved since we last met, there
has been notable progress in the economic and social arenas, and some
progress in government reforms,' Porter, who is the lead development
partner coordinator for the meeting, said.
'However, there remain important, and in some cases growing,
challenges in each of these areas.'
Although economic development continued to be impressive, in turn
driving poverty reduction, 'the government will need to carefully
monitor inequality, which increased in the last decade, due mainly to
widening inequality within rural areas,' Porter said.
Legal and judicial reform and public administration reform would
receive particular attention from donors at the meeting, he said,
calling for speedy enactment of a long-promised anti-corruption law.
Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon also acknowledged
dialogue would need to focus on some key issues, and said the
government had placed a high importance on equitable distribution of
economic growth and the development of the agricultural sector, on
which 70 per cent of the population depend.
'Although the poverty rate has declined from 47 to 35 per cent
over the past 10 years, further improving the living standard of the
people, in particular in rural areas, and ensuring an equitable
distribution of economic growth among all remains a concern for the
Royal Government, and continues to be of high priority,' the minister
said.
The meeting comprises key bilateral donors to Cambodia including
the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea, and the Asian Development
Bank, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the
United Nations Development Program and the World Bank. It does not
include China. It concludes Wednesday with a press conference.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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