Cambodia is seeking $500 million in aid<\/p>\n
PHNOM PENH (Reuter): Finance Minister Keat Chhon said
\nyesterday the government was seeking US$540 million in aid from a
\nmeeting of international donors in Paris next month.<\/p>\n
\"This year in our budget we just put a figure of $150 million
\nfrom international funding, but we need $540 million for our
\npresent needs for 1995,\" he told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\"We are realistic, we know that we can mobilize only $150
\n(million), but we need $540 (million). we have to go for that
\n(figure) to the ICORC.\"<\/p>\n
The International Committee for the Reconstruction of Cambodia
\n(ICORC) is scheduled to meet in mid-March for the fourth time
\nsince a peace agreement aimed at ending two decades of civil war
\nand strife in Cambodia was signed in 1991.<\/p>\n
Last year, meeting in Tokyo, the group promised Cambodia more
\nthan $800 million in aid. Donor nations pledged more than $1
\nbillion in both 1992 and 1993.<\/p>\n
\"We are preparing a draft to ICORC and the message we have to
\nsend to ICORC is that this government and this country should
\ndeserve aid,\" said Chhon.<\/p>\n
He said he was not optimistic for the prospects of getting all
\nthe funding because of expensive natural disasters in both Japan,
\nCambodia's biggest donor, and in Western Europe earlier this
\nyear.<\/p>\n
Japan forecasts that repairing the damage inflicted by an
\nearthquake which devastated the port city of Kobe last month and
\nkilled more than 5,000 people will cost nearly $100 billion.<\/p>\n
Floods in Western Europe, especially the Netherlands, also hit
\ncountries which donate aid to Cambodia.<\/p>\n
But Chhon said he was confident that the flow of aid to
\nCambodia would continue the poor country would reach its goal of
\nsustainable economic growth.<\/p>\n
\"I am confident that aid will not stop,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Even with flood and drought, we scored last year 5.2 percent
\ngrowth of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and this year we
\nexpect to reach 6.7 percent,\" he said.<\/p>",
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