by Piyaporn Hawiset
16 March 2000
The four-country Mekong River Commission (MRC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on March 8, 2000 signed an partnership agreement in Phnom Penh that opened the way for loan programs for Mekong River basin-related projects.
"The ADB has the money. MRC has the technical expertise," Khy Tainglim, chairman of the MRC board and minister of Public Works and Transport, told Reuters at the late-afternoon signing ceremony. Joern Kristensen, chief executive officer of the MRC, said the body was developing a $25-30 million agricultural project that he expected would be partially funded by the ADB.
The project, to encompass the areas surrounding the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, was still being formulated and developed, but Kristensen predicted it would launch late in 2000. Urooj Malik, resident representative for the ADB in Phnom Penh, confirmed the partnership would lead to loan programmes, though he was unable to be more specific.
"Our one common objective is poverty reduction," Malik said, noting that ADB brings to the partnership financial resources and experience in greater Mekong area countries. MRC, on the other hand, brings more than 40 years of technical experience and data, he added. The MRC, created in 1957, works to promote sustainable development of water and resources in the lower Mekong basin.
Some 80 percent of Cambodia's 11 million citizens live in the areas surrounding the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, relying on rice and fish for their livelihoods, Kristensen said.