CNRP is a political party without political agenda

Tin Sokhavuth



Sok Ey San, spokesman for the ruling party CPP, on Sunday, told reporters via Telegram Messenger that the opposition party CNRP never has a political agenda, that is why the CNRP is currently in a big mess.

In contrast, on Monday, in his speech during a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Sen pointed out that the year 2017 is the 30th anniversary of his party's main political agenda - water, road, electricity, and human resource - aiming to develop the country. He also said that this political agenda is still very efficient to develop the country for at least 30 years to come.

Concerning this issue, an anonymous political analyst said that it is very unusual that the CNRP has no political agenda at all, while all political parties around the world have at least one political agenda to follow if their party win election.

"This fact could also explain that the CNRP does not have a strong commitment to develop the country or to help Cambodian people have a better life, what they are doing in politics is just a kind of hobby," added the political analyst.

However, to help Cambodian people develop their country, the European Union (EU) in Cambodia conceived a very consistent agenda, the​ so-called «European Development Cooperation Strategy for Cambodia 2014-2018» in order to help the Cambodian government reduce poverty in the country.

This strategy is a long term vision for the EU to conduct all social and economic development activities in accordance with the needs of the Cambodian people. The estimated cost for the implementation of the strategy is about EUR 1.4 billion (nearly USD 1.8 billion).

The main goals of the EU's strategy is to help the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) fight against poverty, enable sustainable development, foster respect for human rights, improve effectiveness of development cooperation. Moreover, this strategy is based on previous experiences in the field of development cooperation between the EU and the RGC.

"This European Strategy is thus aligned to the Royal Government’s Rectangular Strategy-Phase III which represents the socio-economic policy agenda of the Royal Government of Cambodia with its four strategic objectives of growth, employment, equity and efficiency," wrote the EU in its development strategy 2014-2018.

For this reason, the strategy is focusing on the field of social development including education and health; on the field of sustainable and equitable economic growth including support for agriculture and food security, rural development, spatial planning, vocational training, skills development, trade, facilitation and support for banking and business services.

The infrastructure in urban and in rural areas is also crucial for the EU to focus on such as electricity transmission and distribution, water supply, roads, irrigation schemes, lighting, waste management, sanitation, drainage, public transportation and other economic infrastructures.

Good governance is also a key for Cambodia to succeed in reducing poverty by reforming cross-sector governance such as Public Financial Management (PFM), Public Administration Reform (PAR) and Sub-national Democratic Development (SNDD). The promotion of of human rights, gender equality, disability, climate change, civil society development, and the promotion of culture and arts are also needed.

The EU would also provide funding for regional development including support for ASEAN and the Mekong River Commission, and other regional integration for the benefit of Cambodia.

With the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), the EU provides trade preference to Cambodia and other developing countries to export their products to the European markets with duty-free/quota-free for all products, except arms and ammunition.

As for the US Government, to help the RGC develop the country, last month, through USAID in Cambodia, the program «HARVEST Phase II», one of many US development programs, was launched with an objective to help Cambodian farmers increase their productivity and income.

According to Mrs. Polly Dunford, USAID Cambodia Mission Director, HARVEST Phase II would help to ameliorate the relation between buyers and providers in the kingdom - HARVEST Phase II would help Cambodian horticulture farmers to diversify their planting methods, and to find market for their products.

Mrs. Dunford also said that "HARVEST Phase II" would follow the success of the "HARVEST Phase I" that was the first step of the implementation of the US global food strategy in Cambodia. Overall, "HARVEST Phase II" would be implemented within the period of five years, and the total amount of $17.5 million would be used for the implementation of this program.

According to USAID in Cambodia, the entire HARVEST program is a development program that was conceive to increase incomes for 100,000 households living around Tonle Sap Lake. And the development of different activities to generate income for 8,500 “extreme poor” households is also another goal of the program.