Cambodia/ France pledges 100 million euros in funding to Cambodia in 2021-22

France has pledged to increase its annual cooperation funding to €100 million in the form of a concessional loan* to Cambodia, focusing on the country's development.

Discussions were also held on the strategy of the French Development Agency (AFD) which will be elaborated in the second quarter of 2021 and which should take up the same objective for the years to come.

This is what we learned at the end of the meeting on Tuesday afternoon by videoconference between Vongsey Vissoth, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Development.This is what we learned after the meeting on Tuesday afternoon by video conference between Vongsey Vissoth, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister and Permanent Secretary of State for Economy and Finance; Remi Genevey, AFD representative and Mrs. Eva Nguyen Binh, French Ambassador to Cambodia.

This event, which was held online, brought together 90 participants from the French and Cambodian sides from Phnom-Penh, Paris and Bangkok.

A long-standing Franco-Cambodian relationship

Vongsey Vissoth emphasized that France is not only a friend and a leading country contributing to bringing peace to Cambodia, but also an important development partner providing technical and financial support after the Paris Peace Accords.

AFD has been present in Cambodia since 1993 and has been supporting the country around two key axes since 2017: promoting balanced territorial development (by financing activities in the following sectors: access to basic services, water resource management, adaptation to climate change...) on the one hand, and supporting the productive sector in compliance with environmental and social standards (with a special focus on the topic of technical and vocational training) on the other.

"With more than €880 million committed since the agency opened and €77.6 million in 2020, this cooperation is an essential contribution to the operationalization of French President Emmanuel's development ambitions.velopment ambitions of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has pledged to devote 0.7% of France's gross national income to official development assistance by 2030",

French Ambassador to Cambodia Eva NGUYEN BINH recalled.

From 2018 to 2021, France, through AFD, has provided Cambodia with more than 240 million euros to support drinking water, education and upgrading projects.ducation and skills enhancement, rural infrastructure renovation, agricultural development, climate change mitigation and post-COVID-19 tourism revival.

The funds have actively contributed to supporting development and stimulating economic growth in line with the Royal Government of Cambodia's key programmes and policies

said Vongsey Vissoth

Bright prospects for the years to come

The discussions resulted in an agreement on a list of joint projects for the period 2021-2022. AFD's activities will focus on the needs and priorities of the Cambodian State while taking into account the orientations of French development policy. AFD's activities in the coming years will focus on the agriculture, natural resource management (including water), energy and vocational training sectors. A target of around 100 million euros of commitments per year has been set.

Ophélie Bourhis, AFD's Director in Cambodia, was delighted with these prospects:

"These discussions allow us to lay the first stones of our 2022-2026 country strategy, in response to the needs expressed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. We are fully committed to supporting Cambodia in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement, as well as its post-Covid-19 action priorities."

*Preferential lending, otherwise known as "concessional", is a loan with an interest rate lower than market rates.

AFD can offer this type of financing when the project is a real opportunity for the country: it is a way to go further than usual practices or national regulations in a specific area.

It is the French government's budgetary contribution that makes it possible to offer this type of tool. However, in order to avoid any unfair competition, AFD's intervention is conditioned by the principle of subsidiarity. In other words, AFD only intervenes after ensuring that the local financial system does not have the capacity to finance the planned intervention on its own.

Source: lepetitjournal.com