National Report - Cambodia - United Nations Sustainable ...

Cambodian Government’s Achievements and Future Direction in Sustainable Development
• Poor condition of rural roads network. The
remote rural economy is becoming increasingly
dependent on the improved national road network,
yet the rural road network continues to deteriorate
because of the steady growth in traffic, combined
with a lack of maintenance financing, poor road
maintenance standards, inadequate institutional
capacity in road maintenance and management,
lack of private contractor capacity and design and
construction deficiencies 102 . Moreover, almost none
of the rural roads are paved, making them
vulnerable to rain and floods during the rainy
season.
• Costs resulting from inadequate
infrastructure. Inadequate transport infrastructure
imposes costs and delays on travel, raising the cost
of marketing goods or obtaining inputs, and limiting
access to facility-based health and education
services.
• Inadequacy of social and environmental
safeguards implementation. While the major road
building programs in Cambodia have contributed to
stimulating economic development, they have been
criticized for the inadequacy of their social and
environmental safeguards implementation 103 .
• High incidence of road accidents. Cambodia
has one of the highest incidences of road accidents
in the world with 18 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles in
2007. This is a 50% increase from 2000 and nearly
three times higher than that of neighbouring
Thailand. Thus, deteriorating road safety is a major
sector concern, especially with the increasing
growth of traffic in rural areas 104 .
• Traffic congestion in cities. The increase in the
number of vehicles (and little or no control over the
number of vehicles in circulation or single
occupancy), and lack of traffic facilities have led to
worsening traffic congestion in the large cities 105 .
• There is a lack of affordable and convenient
public transportation options 106 .
• Provision of facilities for pedestrians
(sidewalks, traffic lights)is insufficient.
• Little progress on the railway rehabilitation.
Policy recommendations
Overall
• Enabling environment. Continue promoting
and providing an enabling environment for publicprivate
partnerships for infrastructure development.
• Social and environmental safeguards.
Systematically implement environmental and social
safeguards on infrastructure projects to ensure that
they are environmentally and socially sustainable.
Roads
• Adequate implementation of social and
environmental safeguards on major infrastructure
projects.
• Promote public-private partnerships.
• Further strengthen and effectively enforce the
existing traffic law, promote public transit and
improve quality and quantity of sidewalks 107 .
• Promote regular control of vehicle engines to
ensure the quality and function of the engines, and
to ensure energy efficient combustion 108 .
• Promote the use of public transportation
through development of policies supporting PPPs
within this sector, to encourage greater private
sector investment in public transit development 109 .
• Promote vehicles that use gas or vegetable oil to
minimize carbon emissions 110 .
• Strengthen the cooperation and collaboration
between MPWT, MoE, PP Municipality and MoH to
prepare a sustainable transportation action plan
focusing on reducing environmental pollution in the
cities resulting from traffic congestion, reducing
• traffic accidents and minimizing the CO, and
CO2 emissions into the atmosphere 111 .
102
Adb.org.
103 CEP 2011.
104
http://pid.adb.org/pid/LoanView
105
Green Growth Roadmap 2009.
106
Green Growth Roadmap 2009.
107 Green Growth Roadmap 2009.
108 Green Growth Roadmap 2009.
109 Green Growth Roadmap 2009.
110
Green Growth Roadmap 2009.
111
Green Growth Roadmap 2009.
National Report for Rio +20 33