The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) announced they have opened a new Representation Office in the Cambodian capital to build on its long history of cooperation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF)
The official opening of the brand-new FAO Representation Office took place in the Ministry’s compound in the presence of HE Dith Tina, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Jong-Jin Kim, FAO assistant director-general and regional representative for Asia and the Pacific.
“The location of this brand-new FAO Representation, located within the compound of MAFF, is emblematic of the close cooperation that our Representatives and FAO technical colleagues have been enjoying for many years with Ministry counterparts and others, and I am sure its presence will enable further fruitful interaction between us,” said Kim.
The inauguration, in addition to marking another historical milestone of strong partnership between FAO and Cambodia, also indicates a strong willingness on the part of MAFF to collaborate with FAO well into the future.
“We have been working very hard with FAO and other partners from the very beginning and so the result we have today is the fruit from what we had planted. We have been partners for 70 years. Since [restoration] of peace and elections in 1993 and the return of FAO in 1994, many things have changed, and in a positive way,” added HE Tina. “We came from a society where hunger was a permanent threat, but today we come to an era where we talk about the needs of the market and how we can grow sustainably.”
Through this convenient working environment, the technical relationship between the FAO Representation and Cambodia will result in even stronger ties and foster future innovative collaborations, speakers said.
By the end of 2023, FAO Cambodia aims to have commenced the implementation of a range of new projects, in close collaboration with MAFF and other partners, with total funding of more than US$65mn – raising the total value of FAO Cambodia’s country portfolio to more than US$120mn. This would represent an increase of 120% in FAO’s country portfolio compared to the previous year.
New additions to FAO Cambodia’s country portfolio include the recently approved Green Climate Fund PEARL project (US$43mn). Focused on enhancing local people’s fight against climate change, it will be the biggest project in the portfolio. Additionally, FAO anticipates receiving funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for livestock and land restoration activities, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for forestry, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD).
