• Politics

Cambodia Receives $4.3 Million From China to Support Mekong Area Development

• By Kheav Moro Kort
• June 14, 2022 5:32 PM

Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund 2022 allocates funds to develop 13 projects across the country

PHNOM PENH – Minister of Foreign Affairs Prak Sokhonn signed an agreement on the Cooperation Projects of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (LMC) Special Fund 2022 with Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian in the morning of June 13, 2022. 

The agreement will support Cambodia’s 13 new development projects in rural development, water resources, agriculture, environment, capacity building, and cultural heritage. Yet, no further details were disclosed on the announced projects.

At the signing ceremony, Wang said that Cambodia has harvested a total of 80 LMC Special Fund projects with a totaled budget of over $31 million for the past five years. 

There are six Lancang-Mekong countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. 

Sokhonn expressed his sincere thanks toward the Government and the people of China for their ongoing contributions and support to Cambodia.

“Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic along with other global and regional challenges, we are here today to celebrate and demonstrate our resilience through this consistent milestone to reaffirm our belief and commitment in this development-focused multilateral cooperation,” he said.

In 2017, Cambodia received about $7.3 million under the LMC Special Fund from China to implement 16 projects. In 2018, $7.66 million were granted to Cambodia from the LMC Special Fund to carry out another 19 projects. Later in 2020, $7.22 million were provided to the Kingdom from China to support 20 projects, while in 2021, Cambodia was granted a few more million dollars to conduct 12 projects. 

The LMC Special Fund was established with the aim of supporting the small and medium-sized cooperation projects put forward by the six Lancang-Mekong countries. 

Thanks to the 2017 LMC-funded project, 25 Cambodian students from Kandal province were enabled to study telecommunication and engineering at the Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Science in China, as cited by Sokhonn.

Over the past five years, the six LMC countries have made full use of the special fund and carried out nearly 540 projects to fight against poverty or to promote women, education and youth in the Mekong region. The Chinese government has supported more than 30,000 students from the five partner countries along the Lancang-Mekong River to study in China with scholarships.