Japan Development Agency (JICA) will donate five million U.S. dollars for Cambodia to organize its national census from 2008 to 2010, local media reported Wednesday.

"The donation will upgrade the processing of national census and national statistics of demography of Cambodia," said Chhay Than, Minister of Planning, who signed the agreement with Mitsuko Kumagai, head of JICA, here on Tuesday.

These statistics are very important for the economic development of the country, he added.

Sorn Sithon, director general of the National Institute of Statistics, told reporters that JICA will first finance two million U.S. dollars in April 2007 and the rest of the donation will later be used to construct an office building for the institute.

For the national census in 2008, Cambodia plans to spend about six million U.S. dollars. Included are one million dollars funded by the government and other partners.

Cambodia started to hold national census in 1962. According its last national census in 1998, the kingdom had 11,437,656 people in all.

Source: Xinhua