PM allots more aid to border

PRIME Minister Hun Sen has allotted an additional 1.5 billion riel ($368,000) to four provinces bordering Thailand for support of returning migrants in quarantine. Meanwhile, more than 7,000 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the first five days of the campaign by the ministries of Health and National Defence.

And in response to instructions from Hun Sen, representatives of the ministries of Justice and Health met on February 16 to review and revise the subdecree concerning the implementation of health measures at the borders.

Health ministry secretary of state York Sambathannouncedtheprovisionofnew funding, food and other materials for the provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, and Pailin.

Battambang and Banteay Meanchey were allotted 300 million riel while Oddar Meanchey and Pailin were given 400 million riel and 500 million riel respectively.

Battambang and Pailin were also provided with 1,000 cases of drinking water and 1,000 cases of instant noodles. Banteay Meanchey received 1,000 sleeping kits while Oddar Meanchey was given 1,000 cases of drinking water and 500 sleeping kits.

Health ministry spokeswoman Or Vandine announced that the first five days of the voluntary public vaccination campaign had seen more than 2,000 people receive the Sinopharm vaccine donated by China.

“In total, 2,678 people came for vaccination from February 10-15, including 1,003 women. We successfully vaccinated 2,122 people, including 698 women, while 556 others were declined due to health problems,” she said.

The defence ministry announced on February 15 that 4,969 members of the armed forces had been vaccinated including soldiers and police.

The health ministry noted that the Sinopharm vaccine is now available at Calmette Hospital, Preah Ang Duong Hospital, the Khmer-Soviet Friendship hospital, the National Paediatric Hospital, and Preah Ket Mealea Hospital.

Separately, the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok issued instructions for all Cambodian nationals in Thailand to follow proper procedures when repatriating, saying failure to abide by regulations could endanger the public by importing Covid-19 to Cambodia.

“All migrant workers without exception must undergo quarantine according to health measures if they need to return to Cambodia. Those who escape from quarantine will be fined one million riel or more and be subject to punishments as stated in the Criminal Code,” the embassy said.

The embassy also requested migrants to share any information pertaining to brokers who illegally smuggle workers across the border, either to or from Cambodia.

Justice minister Koeut Rith and the health ministry’s Sambath led a meeting on February 16 to discuss proposals to revise sub-decree No 129, as per Hun Sen’s orders, but neither Sambath nor justice ministry spokesman Kim Santepheap could be reached for comment.

The prime minister issued instructions for the two ministries to amend the statute to increase fines for people who avoid or escape from quarantine following the recent discovery in Takeo province of returning migrants who had skipped quarantine by reentering the country illegally.

THE Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on February 16 signed an agreement to begin a project that will directly support 10,000 of the most vulnerable people affected by the economic fall-out from Covid-19 in Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey provinces.

The 20-month project – Strengthening the livelihood recovery of the rural communities most affected by Covid-19 in Cambodia – is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It will help the most vulnerable population groups including poor and vulnerable households, small-scale farmers, returning migrant workers and unemployed casual workers, all of whom suffered greatly this past year from Covid-19, according to the press statement announcing the project.

A rapid assessment conducted jointly by the agriculture ministry, the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) and FAO in April 2020 indicated the priority needs of the vulnerable group were agricultural inputs and assets for production, capacity building in production techniques and improved community infrastructure such as water storage facilities.

The vulnerable groups also need access to markets in addition to better access to financial assistance in the form of grants and loans with low or no interest as well as the ability to delay loan repayment.

Agriculture ministry secretary-general Srey Vuthy said the implementation of this project will respond to the critical needs of rural farmers by restoring their livelihoods through the building of productive capacity and promotion of agriculture-based work.

“The project will receive technical assistance from FAO who will support the project implementers in the provinces. Many thousands of households will benefit from this project,” he said.

Vuthy added that the project will also provide assistance to farmers to begin using nethouses to grow crops.

However, he said the project would not be able to cover all of the provinces in Cambodia because it consists of technical assistance rather than financial assistance so the ministry’s partner NGOs would have to conduct a study to select the provinces for aid that had the most vulnerable people with the fewest resources.

This project will be implemented along with two other projects partly funded by the SDC including the FAO-sponsored Food Safety project and the Women Empowerment in Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition project being funded by a multi-donor mechanism.

FAO Representative in Cambodia Alexandre Huynh said the project took on added import now especially due to the impacts of Covid-19 on the nation’s economy. He said he was delighted to see people come together not just for this project, but for all three projects.

Huynh said agriculture is a vital sector in the Cambodian economy and that it plays an important role here in poverty reduction. He cited World Bank statistics indicating that more than 60 per cent of poverty reduction in Cambodia from 2007 to 2011 came from agriculture.

“Today, we witness an excellent partnership among organisations including FAO, SDC, International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), CARD and the agriculture ministry.

“This partnership will allow us to move ahead together with important tasks in order to contribute to achieving a two-fold objective: livelihoods recovery for the affected rural households and improvements in both the productivity and quality of agricultural production,” he said.

Huynh believed that with strong engagement and commitment from the ministry’s leadership and its partners, the project would be able to deliver on these ambitious goals.