World Bank Readies Another Project

The World Bank is considering yet another internally funded project in Cambodia that, if approved, would lift the organization’s four-year-old freeze on new lending to the country.

The $110 million project aims to improve health care across the country and would include $30 million of the Bank’s own International Development Association (IDA) funds, according to a project concept report posted on the Bank’s website.

The rest would come from money it holds in trust for other donors, and from the government.

The report lists March 17 as the “estimated” approval date. The World Bank has not approved any IDA funding for Cambodia since December 2010, shortly after which it confirmed a freeze on new lending to the country in protest over the eviction of some 3,000 families from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood.

In 2011, the Bank said it would not lift the freeze until the government reached an agreement with the families, a condition that has yet to be met.

Last week, the Bank released plans for a $15 million project to aid Cambodia’s fisheries and water resources.

A spokesman for the Bank ignored requests for comment.

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