Japan to fund four new local projects

Khmer Times
Sum Manet

The Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge, a project built with Japanese aid money. KT/Jonathan Pannetier

Japan agreed to provide $384,817 in financial assistance to local organisations for projects in Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kampong Chhnang and Koh Kong.

The funds comes from Japan’s Kusanone grant, who targets projects by local organisations working at the grassroots level.

An agreement to fund the projects was signed last Friday between Japanese Ambassador Horinouchi Hidehisa and the grant recipients.

$91,000 will be made available to a team from the Royal University of Phnom Penh to build a silk centre that seeks to produce disease-free silkworms.

“I hope the silk centre will produce high quality silk, increase farmers’ income and revive the traditional sericulture industry in Cambodia,” the ambassador said.

A vegetable shipping centre in Kandal province will be funded with $115,000. Built by Kandal’s provincial department of agriculture, it will be the first facility of its kind in the kingdom to incorporate a laboratory to check for residual pesticides.

“I hope the centre will provide safe and reliable vegetables to the Cambodian people and contribute to enhancing the reputation of vegetables grown in the province,” he said.

Finally, the Dom Reik Dam in Kampong Chhnang will be rehabilitated with $90,000, while $89,000 will be given for the construction of an asphalted road in Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor District

Japan’s Kusanone projects started in Cambodia in 1991 and aim to protect and enhance the livelihoods of the most vulnerable.