In the last day of forum, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon hailed the outcome of the talks by saying that international donors have pledged a record US$1.1 billion in development assistance for the upcoming 18-month period. This pledged aid is surpassed the US$951.5 million at the last CDCF in December 2008.

Speaking in opening remark to forum, Prime Minister Hun Sen promised that the government would use aid money effectively, adding that officials will continue to tackle key issues, including corruption, land rights and the reform of the judiciary.

Even though, Keat Chhon declined to give detail of aid from different countries but speaking during the meeting, Japanese ambassador Masafumi Kuroki said that Tokyo had pledged $130 million at this year’s CDCF. US Embassy spokesman John Johnson said that the US government had earmarked $68.5 million in aid for fiscal year 2010.

In addition, UK ambassador Andrew Mace said at the meeting that his government had pledged around $33 million for 2010 after two days of open and constructive dialogue with the government. Rafael Dochao Moreno, charge d’affair of the EU Delegation to Cambodia said that The European Union pledged around $60 million to the government, with EU member states supplying an additional $190 million.

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Eang Veng Sun, the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port’s deputy director general, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying that “we hope shipments this year will increase more than last year because the economy has been recovering significantly,”

Statistics from Port show that some 20,997 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) were transported through the capital’s port in the five months through May, compared to 14,964 TEUs last year.

Month-to-month increases were also recorded, with 4,783 TEUs shipped in May, compared to 4,207 in April, the statistics showed.

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“I think the growth of our exports to Singapore last year was probably because of the export of sand,” Chan Nora was quoted by the Post as saying.

According to the figure from the ministry of commerce, bilateral trade between Cambodia and Singapore was up from US$640.4 million to US$1.8 billion in 2009.

By the way, Singapore’s exports to Cambodia increased 41 percent from $523.95 million to $740.9 million, while Cambodia’s exports to Singapore shot up 275 percent to $438.2 million from $117 million.

According to Ministry of Commerce, Singapore’s main exports to the Kingdom last year included unwrought gold, diesel, petrol, alcohol, non-industrial diamonds and electronic goods, while Cambodia’s main exports were natural sand, semi-manufactured and unwrought gold, cigarettes, silk, silica and quartz sand, and woven materials, including clothes.

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According to the bank’s statement, this grant will initially fund training in mechanics, construction, business services and information and communication technology in the government’s technical and Vocational Education Training Program before moving onto other industries.

The global financial crisis has underscored the vulnerability of Cambodia’s industrial sectors. Agriculture, manufacturing and the services industry account for 85 percent of country’s employment and 92 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).

Wendy Duncan, the principal education specialist in ADB’s Southeast Asia Department, said in statement that “the government recognizes that the issue of productivity must be addressed, as must the need to attract new industries to increase the diversification of the economy.”

According to ADB, Cambodia’s government will contribute US$3 million toward the project’s total cost of $27.52 million.

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More than 400,000 jobs in the textile industry fuelled the hopes of many young women whose earnings in the city helped support their extended families in the countryside.

Ny Sopheak: “I worked in the packing section of a textile factory. I earned sometimes $60 a month from the factory work and I sent $10 a month to my father.”

But that factory, like dozens of others, has now closed. The global recession scared investors and shut down factories.

Twenty-three-year-old Ny Sopheak, like 50,000 other Cambodians, recently lost her job in the garment industry.

This in a country where not having a job can mean not eating, or perhaps just having one meal a day.

Ny Sopheak: “Since I don’t have enough food I feel so weak and I often get sick.”

Today Ny is sharing one egg and some rice with her roommate, Horn Devy who also lost her factory job. That’s one egg between two people. Horn feels she can’t go on much longer.

Horn Devy: “It’s very difficult. It’s a hard life, living in a small room like this.”

Horn is only 15 years old. She was sent to work to help out her family, small time farmers and basket weavers who can’t make ends meet.

Horn’s mother says she worries about her, so young, and away from the family. Even so, she wanted Horn to earn money, so that her brothers can finish school.

But having lost her job, Horn has gone from providing for her family to becoming an extra burden. Asked how she feels about this, she says,

Horn Devy: “It’s hard to say. I am starving. When you have no food it’s very difficult to feel anything.”

Her story is unusual because of her young age, but all over Cambodia’s capital there are women who are falling into abject poverty as they lose their jobs in the textile factories.

Meanwhile, thousands of factory workers have turned to the streets to pressure the government to guarantee their jobs, their incomes, and their access to food.

And while Cambodia has been hard-hit, other countries are worried too. Guaranteeing the availability of food for everyone is now an urgent issue for governments across Asia-Pacific.

Many governments are now looking at how to invest in agriculture, to stem tide of migration towards the cities, and to help make food more affordable.

But textile factories too, are needed. If they keep closing, experts worry that much of the progress achieved in places like Cambodia, in education, in economic development, and in human rights, could be at risk; and with it the future of the entire generation.

Information for this report was provided by APTN.

(The original article is from VOA news)

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Outstanding loans were down at least $20 million for the first half of 2009, the first-ever decrease in nearly a decade, according to the Cambodian Microfinance Institutions Association.

That amounted to a decrease of about 4.4 percent, to about $426 million, according to the report, obtained by VOA Khmer. The number of borrowers also decreased by 400 people, the report found.

Huot Eang Tong, chairman of association, said micro-loans began to decline in early 2009, with less people borrowing as the global economic crisis took root in Cambodia.

“Less customers were looking for loans,” he said. “We could see that people were finding less income, their products couldn’t be sold and then they didn’t need capital to expand their businesses.”

Bun Mony, chairman of the Sathapana Microfinance Institution, said loans at his agency fell from $37.5 million in 2008 to $34.5 million in mid-2009.

“Since progress in the microfinance sector in 2000, this is the first time capital demand has fallen,” he said.

Microfinance lending plays a key role in the country’s economic development, providing small business owners with a means to improve or expand.

More than 1 million Cambodians use micro-credit schemes, borrowing less than $10,000, money that can make a big difference to the 30 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

The slowdown in lending forced the group Amret to implement restrictions in its lending procedures and limit the amount of loans to $40 million, about two-thirds of its previous $60-million cap, the institution’s general manager, Chea Phalarin, told VOA Khmer.

“With the realization that our economy is slowing down, money [lenders], such as families and banks, usually pay high caution with less confidence in providing loans,” said Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economists Association.

Restrictions could hurt already low standards of living for the poor, but they also help financial institutions avoid risk.

While the number of loans has decreased, microfinance institutions did see a jump in deposits, which rose 16 percent in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the first three months of the year.

This could be because people would rather avoid risk in investment in businesses and would rather keep their money safely in accounts, Huot Eang Tong said.

Source: VOA

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