(Phnom Penh)
On Wednesday, 03 March 2021, the Council for Development of Cambodia, His Excellency Chhieng Yanara, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister, Secretary General of the Cambodian Rehabilitation and Development Board of the Council for Development of Cambodia (CRDB/CDC) held a courtesy and discussion meeting with Her Excellency Carmen Moreno, Ambassador of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia. The main purpose of the meeting is to discuss the priorities for development cooperation and partnerships for 2021-2027 and the preparation for bilateral dialogue between European Union and Cambodia.
H.E. Chhieng Yanara warmly welcomed and congratulated H.E. Carme Moreno for being appointed as new Ambassador of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia in 2020. H.E. Minister highly valued the achievements made by the implementation of the Joint European Development Cooperation Strategy 2014-2020 and the European Union’s Multiannual Indicative Programme (MIP) 2014-2020 which have been strengthened partnerships and contributed to the sustainable and inclusive development of Cambodia. On this occasion, H.E. Minister also expressed his sincere thanks to European Union and its partners for providing substantial support to Cambodia in response to the prevention of the COVID-19’s outbreak focusing in 3 main priorities namely Public Health, Employment, livelihoods and food security and Economic Recovery and job creation.
H.E. Carme Moreno expressed her pleasure to begin her mission as Ambassador of the European Union and highly valued the Royal Government of Cambodia’s (RGC) effort and achievement made for the development of Cambodia. At the same time, H.E. Ambassador also highly valued and appreciated CDC for excellent cooperation and close partnership with the European Union through the Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia. In the meeting, H.E. Ambassador also informed H.E. Minister about the progress of the formulation of the new draft of the Joint European Development Strategy for Cambodia 2021-2027 and the European Union’s Multiannual Indicative Programme 2021-2027, which was finalized and will be discussed and gathered inputs in the Consultation Meeting between the RGC and the European Union and its partners after the approval from European Commission in Brussels. In addition, both side expected that the volume of the development assistance new EU’s Multiannual Indicative will be similar to the MIP 2014-2020.
It is noticeably that both Cambodia and European Union have agreed in principle on the priorities for Joint European Development Cooperation Strategy 2021-2027, aligned with Rectangular Phase IV, namely: 1) Human Resource Development, 2) Economic Diversification, 3) Private Sector and Job Development, and 4) Sustainable and Inclusive Development. On the other hand, the European Union’s Multiannual Indicative Programme 2021-2027, which is an operation tool between European Union and Cambodia to implement the Joint European Development Cooperation Strategy, supported and agreed on 3 priorities sector including: 1) Green growth and job, 2) Education and skills, and 3) Good governance.
H.E. Chhieng Yanara, Minister Attached to the Prime Minister, Secretary General of the CRDB/CDC, expressed his sincere thanks and wished H.E. Carme Moreno, Ambassador of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia, and her colleagues succeed in their diplomatic mission in Cambodia. At the end of the meeting, both side hope that the relationship, cooperation and Cambodia-EU development cooperation partnership will be further strengthened and enhanced in the future.