ADB launches $500 million aid plan for Cambodia

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Thursday it will invest around $500 million in Cambodia over the next three years to reduce poverty, mainly through infrastructure and agriculture projects. The soft loan forms part of a new "country partnership strategy" for 2011 to 2013 between the government and the bank, said Peter Brimble, senior country economist for ADB in Cambodia.
Under the new plan, the ADB aims "to reach out to Cambodia's poor" with a focus on agribusiness enterprises and rural-to-urban transport links, Brimble told reporters at a press conference in the capital Phnom Penh. The strategy will also include investments to expand rural water supply and sanitation and to improve access to secondary education and vocational skills training. Cambodia's economy is expected to grow by more than six percent this year, according to the government.