China provides largest loan to Cambodia for agriculture, irrigation development

PHNOM PENH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- China is the largest provider of financial assistance to Cambodia for agriculture and irrigation development in the last three years, Cambodia's Minister of Finance Keat Chhon said here on Tuesday.
Since 2010 to date, he said, Cambodia has received a total loan of 561 million U.S. dollars and a total grant of 22 million U.S. dollars from South Korea, India, China, Japan and France.
"Of the amount, China's soft loan to Cambodia is 436 million U.S. dollars," he said in an economic conference at the National Assembly. "We show that China is playing very important role to promote Cambodia's agricultural development and irrigation system construction."
The minister said that besides, Cambodia also received the loan of 88 million U.S. dollars from the Asian Development Bank, and 24. 2 million U.S. dollar loan and 17.5 million U.S. dollar grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
He said this financial assistance is very vital for the government of Cambodia to use for developing agricultural sector, especially rice production and export.
Cambodia is an agrarian country. More than 80 percent of the population is farmers. The country produced some 8.25 million tons of paddy rice last year. With the amount, it's estimated that there is around 2.5 million tons of milled rice left over for export this year.
In August, 2010, the government launched the rice export promotion strategy, aiming at exporting one million tons of milled rice by 2015.
Cham Prasidh, Minister of Commerce, said Tuesday that in the first half of this year, the country has exported 92,000 tons of milled rice.

Cambodia to conduct first ever agriculture census next April

PHNOM PENH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will hold the first ever agriculture census in April next year, Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun said Tuesday.
Speaking at an economic conference at the National Assembly, he said the census is expected to cost 5.3 million U.S. dollars, which will be funded by development partners and Cambodian government.
He said the census will be jointly conducted by the Ministry of Planning and the Ministry of Agriculture. It is aimed at collecting data relevant to exact number of farmers, agricultural land, crop fields, livestock, exact output from agricultural crops and various types of forest land.
According to the document of the Ministry of Planning, it is an urgent need to conduct the census in order to collect data for the development of agricultural sector, especially rice industry. "The census is critical as it has never been conducted in Cambodia," it said.
Agriculture is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia's economy. Last year, the sector contributed 28.4 percent to the country's GDP, said Chan Sarun.

Cambodia's opposition parties to merge as a new party: Joint Statement

PHNOM PENH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The Sam Rainsy Party, which is the country's main opposition party, and the Human Rights Party announced Tuesday that they would "merge to form a new political party" to compete in the general elections in July next year, according to a joint statement.
The merger plan was made after the two-day meeting on July 16- 17 between Sam Rainsy, the fugitive leader of Sam Rainsy Party, and Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party, in Manila, the Philippines.
According to the agreement, Sam Rainsy will be the president of the yet-to-form party and Kem Sokha will be the deputy leader.
Cambodia sets to hold the general elections in July 2013.
The last elections were held in July 2008.
As a result, the Cambodian People's Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen won 90 seats out of the 123 seats in the National Assembly, followed by the Sam Rainsy Party with 26 seats, the Human Rights Party 3 seats, the Norodom Ranariddh Party 2 seats and the Funcinpec Party 2 seats.