Despite the global economic downturn, international donors on December 5 pledged nearly one billion USD to Cambodia for 2009.
In a statement ending a two-day donors' meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's Finance Minister Keat Chhon announced that pledges to development aid totalled 951.5 million USD, up nearly 40 percent as compared to last year’s figure of 690 million USD.
Of which, China contributed 257 million USD, triple its aid to Cambodia last year; the European Union, up 44.2 million USD to 214 million USD; and Japan, slightly up to 113 million USD.
The Cambodian government said that the contribution showed that international donors believed and appreciated the country’s economic reforms which will firstly focus on minimising adverse impacts of global economic downturn, developing agricultural production and reducing poverty./.