Newsletter – n°25 – December 2013

News from the Secretariat

Sak Setha, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior of Cambodia and president of the national Committee for the management of decentralisation and deconcentration, met PLATFORMA in the context of a visit to Brussels and meetings with the European institutions.

For several years Cambodia has been implementing a reform for deconcentration and decentralisation which has led to the creation of new tiers of government. The Cambodian Government which is conscious of the challenges posed by the implementation of decentralisation reforms supports the strengthening of the capacity of subnational governments and the structuring of two associations of local and regional governments.

UNDP and several European partners are working with the National League of Communes/Sangkat (association of municipalities) and with the association of provinces in this direction. 

The Cambodian Government also wishes to strengthen the voice of local governments within the ASEAN and to create a network of local governments with Indonesia, Thailand, Viet Nam and the Philippines. 

The PLATFORMA Secretariat presented European policy towards local and regional governments in partner countries and the work carried out in the context of the dialogue project in the South. The Secretariat also presented some decentralised cooperation projects implemented by European local and regional governments in Cambodia, including the city of Paris with the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

The meeting took place thanks to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.