Diplomats, donors and Cambodian government officials sat down Tuesday at their major annual meeting, which is first entitled the Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF), to discuss the direction of this country's development trajectory.

It is the first time that the Cambodian government has assumed complete ownership and leadership in the conduct of this kind of high level meeting formerly known as the Consultative Group (CG), Keat Chhon, Cambodian Minister of Economy and Finance, said in his opening remarks for the meeting.

The move to replace the CG meeting with the CDCF was initiated and agreed with the development cooperation partner community during the second half of 2006, Keat Chhon said, adding that this positive development clearly represents the firm commitment of the Cambodian government to own and lead the development processes and reforms while strengthening their partnership with all development partners.

The CDCF is a forum for the Cambodian government, development cooperation partners and civil society to dialogue on public policy issues and the associated financing framework for a medium term, he said.

Representatives from 18 countries and five NGOs attend the donor meeting, which take place in Phnom Penh on Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to official statistics, international donors pledged 601 million U.S. dollars in aid to Cambodia at the 2006 CG meeting.

Source: Xinhua