France Provides a Loan of 42 Million USD for Irrigation and Water Factory

Phnom Penh:  According to Ministry of Economy and Finance, France has provided a loan of 34 million Euros or approximately 42.2 million USD to Cambodia. On 11 March 2013, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance H.E. Keat Chhon has agreed to sign a grant aid agreement with Mr. Do Sera, director-general of French Development Agency (FDA) and H.E. Mr. Serge Mostura, the French Ambassador to Cambodia. According to the press release of Ministry of Economy and Finance, France will provide a loan of 34 million Euros or approximately 42.2 million USD to support water resource management, irrigation infrastructure investment, and the construction of the second part of a water treatment plant in Phnom Penh. 

According to the press release of the French Embassy and FDA, a grant of 4 million Euros which equal to 5.2 million UD, will be used to strengthen the state and non-state actors involved in the management of water and together with the Asian Development Bank continue the rehabilitation works about 40 irrigation schemes. The rest is a loan of 30 million Euros, which will be used to construct the second part of Niroth’s water treatment plant, located in the southeastern part of Phnom Penh. In addition, FDA will also provide 2.7 million Euros which equal to 3.5 million USD to support the Institut Pasteur in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam for medical research on diseases in Southeast Asia, it added. (Rasmei Kampuchea)