The Cambodian government will turn to China to make up for any shortfall in foreign aid as the global financial crisis forces Western donors to rethink their assistance to developing countries, national media reported Friday.
"We expect to get 600 million U.S. dollars (in aid) next year as usual because the new (top) donor nation is China," Keat Chhon, Cambodian Minister of Economy and Finance, was quoted by the PhnomPenh Post as saying.
Aid from China last year, at 601 million U.S. dollars, eclipsed the combined pledges from the rest of Cambodia's donors, the Post said.
And as nations struggle to keep their own economies afloat, aid budgets are being slashed, raising alarm in many aid-dependent countries.
They can't spend hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue share markets and then forget a poor country like Cambodia, Keat Chhon said.
Meanwhile, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said if the amount of official development aid were to plummet, it would not adversely affect the Cambodian economy.
"We hope we will weather this difficult time. This is a chance for Cambodia," he said, citing the Kingdom's low-end garment exports as a cushion against a global financial slowdown.
Source:Xinhua
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