October 26, 2011

Cambodia mired in $4 billion debt to China

[THE FREE PRESS MAGAZINE]

During the past few years, it was found that Cambodia owed Communist China by almost $4 billion already. The Chinese loan money was used to build Cambodia’s infrastructure, and the total loan amount includes the $500 millions that Cambodia asked to borrow from China last week to repair flood damage.

Cheam Yeap, the chairman of the National Assembly’s economic and finance committee, told reporters recently that: “EU countries are facing economic woes, therefore we have only China left [to borrow from].” He added that the debt owed by Cambodia amounted to close to $7 billion, including $1.8 billion in debt owed to Russia and the US from the 70s and the 80s.

Although the government claimed [that these loans] allowed Cambodia to progress every year from one step to another, economic analysts said that the government does not seem to be doing anything to improve its economy at all, except for getting itself mired in mounting foreign debt with every passing year.

SRP MP Yim Sovann declared yesterday: “Younger generations will have to pay back these debts. The amount owed to China is larger than that from any other countries, and this could create serious economic instability.”

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