Dr. Beat Richner, founder and head of the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospitals, published an advertisement in The Cambodia Daily on July 20 that makes reference to a possible “boycott by the European Union of 700 million USD foreseen to be donated to the Royal Government of Cambodia.”
Dr. Richner asks that half of this sum be donated to Kantha Bopha. The information relayed in this advertisement is false and misleading.
Dr. Richner is referring, incorrectly, to a paragraph of a recent resolution of the European Parliament that warns against the potentially negative impact of the new Cambodian law on NGOs and associations on the capacity of international NGOs (European and others) to run cost-effective projects in Cambodia.
The European Parliament’s resolution does not, at any point, refer to a boycott of aid to Cambodia by the European Union. In fact, E.U. aid channeled through the Royal Government of Cambodia has, on the contrary, significantly increased for the period from 2014 to 2020.
As the largest donor of grants to Cambodia, the Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia deplores the publication of inaccurate information regarding its aid to the Kingdom.
Alain Vandersmissen, Charge d’Affaires a.i., Delegation of the European Union to Cambodia
