Sweden and EU funds Parliamentary Centre of Asia in Cambodia

Photo: Embassy of Sweden in Phnom Penh

Embassy of Sweden in Cambodia signed on 11 May 2021 an agreement to fund the Parliamentary Centre of Asia’s (PCAsia) Cambodian activities. The Parliamentary centre does not currently have any activities in Cambodia.

The two-year project 2021-2022 with the amount of 11.9 million Swedish Kronor (around USD 1.5 million) is funded jointly by Sweden and the EU.

“The project aims to support the Public Financial Management (PFM) reform by providing technical assistance to government institutions in order to create an enabling environment for the PFM reform to be implemented in. This should allow authorities to deliver better on services to the public,” Mr. Björn Häggmark, Sweden’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, said after signing the agreement.

PCAsia’s long-term goal is to contribute to an improvement in the performance of the Parliaments in the region by helping to strengthen the capacity of parliamentary staff, and by increasing technical exchanges and experience-sharing among their regional and international peers.

The support is part of the Partnership for Accountability and Transparency programme, PAT, which is co-funded by Sweden and the EU. It is designed to complement EU’s sector budget support to the PFM reform.

Established in 2011, the Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia (PIC) has built up a favourable reputation through its research papers and training and outreach activities, initially with the Cambodian Parliament, and in 2016 they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA). PIC transitioned to the Parliamentary Centre of Asia (PCAsia) in 2021.

PCAsia’s Executive Director, Mr. Dararith Kim-Yeat, stated that “Sweden has been a strategic partner for PIC and will continue to be so for PCAsia at both the national and regional levels, supporting both core activities and also the Fiscal Analysis Capacity Training (FACT) activities -funded within the framework of the PAT program- that led to the creation by the Cambodian Senate of the Budget Research Department (BRD) in 2020. BRD has as main duties to provide research and budget analysis to members of the parliament.

Sweden’s strategy consisting of actively involving the duty bearers, and trusting PIC/PCAsia as a local actor in managing and delivering complex projects according to internationally recognized standards, has paid off. In signing the agreement with PCAsia, we have faith that Sweden will choose to continue pursuing this successful strategy.”

About Zazithorn Ruengchinda

ScandAsia Journalist • Scandinavian Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok Thailand

View all posts by Zazithorn Ruengchinda

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