The government’s nearly $5 billion 2017 budget won unanimous approval Friday from the National Assembly’s permanent committee, which sent it on for debate at the legislature’s plenary session on Tuesday.
The opposition party confirmed last week that it would attend the session, its first since May.
“It’s a very important law for which we cannot skip the debate,” said Yem Ponhearith, a CNRP spokesman.
CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha, who is appealing a five-month prison sentence, was expected to leave his refuge at the party headquarters to participate.
The 2017 budget includes a 35 percent increase in education spending and a 22 percent increase in funding for national defense.
National Assembly spokesman Leng Penglong said the committee also forwarded its approval of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which must be approved by the National Assembly before ratification by the government.
Cambodia would join 196 other countries and the E.U. bloc in approving the U.N. convention to curb global warming and mitigate the effects of climate change.
At a U.N. meeting on Thursday in Marrakech, Morocco, the group urged the “highest political commitment” to combating climate change.