Ministry of Rural Development - Royal Government of Cambodia
The overall objective of the Rural Infrastructure Improvement Project (RIIP) was to improve the living conditions and economic opportunities of the people living in the project area. Within the framework of this overall goal, the project had two, very distinct and specific immediate objectives.
One was to effectively implement a set of rural infrastructure interventions which would contribute to the improvement of the conditions of the people in the provinces.
The other was to develop the capacity both in the MRD and its provincial offices to be able to effectively plan, design, manage and implement similar rural infrastructure works. In terms of the rural development and the provision of economic opportunities, the project was designed to achieve this objective through a series of interventions related to rural infrastructure such as:
improving the efficiency of markets,
The project team worked within the MRD, developing capacity at head-quarters and its provincial departments by assisting them step by step through the process of implementation of the interventions defined above. The concept of the project was that the local staff should learn by a combination of formal and on-the-job training. Technical assistance to the project was provided through a multi-disciplinary team, consisting of local and expatriate staff recruited by I.T. Transport and ARD Inc.
The total value of the project was $31.4 million of which the Asian Development Bank provided $25.1 million as loan funds. The project had a total duration of six years, however the construction works was completed in three years. The actual works was divided in three groups:
600 km of rural road construction and maintenance,
improvement of rural markets, and
small-scale rural infrastructure projects.
The strategy was to construct these works in such a way that they provided a comprehensive, integrated package of works which together improved the living conditions and economic opportunities of the people living in the project area. The project assisted the provincial departments of MRD to develop an effective planning system that allows and promotes such integration of projects of rural infrastructure.
