German ambassador Christian Berger (left) and finance minister Aun Pornmoniroth sign the cooperation financing agreement on Tuesday. FINANCE MINISTRY
The Cambodian and German governments have signed a €30 million ($32 million) cooperation financing agreement for the Energy Efficiency in Rural Power Supply II Project, which aims to increase access to electricity in rural parts of Siem Reap province.
The agreement was signed on May 31 by Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth and German ambassador to Cambodia Christian Berger.
According to a press release from the finance ministry, the €30 million cooperation financing agreement is a framework agreement, in which the German government has promised a fresh concessional loan to Cambodia.
The finance ministry will be signing a concessional loan agreement with the German Development Bank (KfW) at a later date after a detailed study has been completed.
The ministry said in the statement that the German government’s continued support for additional concessional loans for the Energy Efficiency in Rural Power Supply II Project “complements the Cambodian government’s ongoing efforts and improvements in cooperating [with foreign governments and development partners] to increase and support energy efficiency and supply in rural areas of the country”.
Pornmoniroth said that through the KfW concessional loans, the German government has opened up a new source of cooperative financing for Cambodia.
He noted that the Kingdom received its first concessional loan from the German government through the KfW in 2019, worth €30 million, to support the first iteration of the Energy Efficiency in Rural Power Supply project, and then another €30 million in 2020 to finance rural infrastructure development programmes.
Berger said that the signing of the cooperation financing agreement for the energy efficiency project is an investment in upgrading facilities that will increase access to rural electricity in Siem Reap.
Germany has been one of Cambodia’s major development partners over the last three decades, having promised the largest number of grants amongst all EU states. It provided a total of $720 million in cooperative financing to Cambodia from 1992 to the end of 2021, including $70 million in concessional loans and $650 million in grants.
