GOVERNMENT-DONOR COORDINATION COMMITTEE (GDCC)

Minutes of the Ninth Meeting of the
Government-Donor Coordination Committee (GDCC)
held on
12 February 2007, 8:30 am at CDC

1. H.E. Senior Minister Keat Chhon, Chairman of the Government-Donor Coordination Committee (GDCC) opened the meeting by welcoming all participants to the Ninth meeting of the GDCC. In his opening speech, His Excellency informed the meeting of the following points:

The meeting agenda regarding Legal and Judicial Reform including Anti-corruption Law, Public Administrative Reform and all land issues except that of economic and social concessions was to be discussed in a separate meeting with H.E. Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, as early as possible after the GDCC meeting.
His Excellency presented the JMI Progress Report, Consolidated Report on the Progress of the TWGs, and the final draft of the Guideline on the Roles and Functioning of the TWGs, which at that time was finalized and submitted to Samdech Prime Minister HUN SEN for endorsement.
The meeting would focus on two issues: economic and social land concessions and Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF) preparation.

2. The meeting agreed on the following points:

Integrity of Coordination Mechanism: coordinating mechanism, through TWGs and GDCC, should be maintained. TWGs and GDCC should be forum to discuss, exchange ideas and follow up reform progresses made by the Government. Any ad hoc meeting to discuss any reform issue in detail could be possible, but the ad hoc arrangement should not affect the integrity of the existing Government's coordination mechanism.
Harmonisation among basic laws: ensuring harmonisation and consistency among various basic law, such as anti-corruption law, penal and civil code, etc. should not be a pretext to delay the adoption of the basic laws.
That development partners would read out the statements that had been prepared on items that had been previously placed on the agenda.

3. Economic and social land concessions

Social land concessions: A statement was read by the Ambassador of Germany on behalf of the development partner community. His Excellency Senior Minister, Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction reported on progress in implementing the JMIs on land reform, particularly regarding state land management, the adoption of the Government's strategies on ethnic minorities, social land concessions, improvement of the utilisation of the land and the improvement in land registration. He also noted that even though some JMIs have not been implemented as scheduled, the Government has taken measures and the implementation of those JMIs is in progress. Overall significant progress had been made and this responded to the concerns raised by development partners in their statement. His Excellency Senior Minister Keat Chhon suggested that some technical issues raised by development partners be discussed in detail at the Land TWG and kindly asked the lead-donor facilitators to be proactive by cooperating with the TWG Chairs to resolve arising problems, and share information to respective ambassadors and development partners' representatives to avoid detailed discussion on technical issues at the GDCC. It was also noted that that some land-related issues were not sufficiently discussed in some TWGs, or that the current level of participation was inadequate to ensure a satisfactory dialogue could take place. The Chair requested that his Government colleagues ensure that representation issues were addressed and that land issues be fully discussed in respective TWGs.

Economic land concessions: His Excellency Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reported the progress in implementing the JMIs on economic land concessions in conformity with the recommendations of Samdech Prime Minister in his meeting with development partners on the 30th of June 2005 on the public disclosure of information related to the economic land concessions. His Excellency also welcomed any meeting with development partners who are willing to discuss with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries the issues of economic land concessions. Again, the need to ensure that the respective TWG provides an opportunity for dialogue was emphasised.

4. Preparation of Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF) in 2007

NSDP Annual Progress Report: His Excellency Ou Orhat, Secretary of State, Ministry of Planning and Chair of the Planning and Poverty Reduction TWG informed the meeting of the progress of the Planning and Poverty TWG, and progress in preparing the NSDP Annual Progress Report. His Excellency called for collaboration of relevant ministries and development partners on finalising the report by the end of March 2007 in order to submit to the Government for endorsement before presenting the report at the coming CDCF meeting.

CDCF Preparation: His Excellency Chhieng Yanara, Secretary General, CDC/CRDB, the RGC focal point for organizing the Forum, informed the meeting of the Aid Effectiveness Report and JMI Progress Report to be presented at the CDCF in addition to the NSDP Annual Progress Report. His Excellency Secretary General added that the Aid Effectiveness Report is a consolidated report, consolidating the Development Cooperation Report, analysis from ODA database, the OECD/DAC survey in 2006, and TWG progress report in implementing the H-A-R Action Plan. The JMI Report to be presented at the CDCF will be based on the current format, which will be updated before the CDCF. His Excellency Chhieng Yanara also reminded the meeting of three principles to be taken into account when preparing the new JMIs, which are subject to discussion at the GDCC, not at the CDCF. The three principles, previously discussed and agreed at the December 2005 GDCC meeting, are: (i) using NSDP as a basis to prepare new JMIs; (ii) identifying implementing ministries to implement project or programs; (iii) taking into account the capacity and resources made available to the Government and implementing ministries/agencies. Finally, the meeting proposed the date of 14-15 June 2007 for CDCF but discussions with Samdech Prime Minister must take place before the date can be confirmed.

5. The Ninth GDCC meeting adjourned at 12:15 PM.

6. Participants were around 120 persons. Participants were Excellencies, Chum Teav, Senior Ministers, Ministers, secretaries of State, Under-secretary of State, Representatives from ministries/agencies, TWG Chairs, Ambassadors and Representatives of Development Partners.

Note from the Secretariat:

All statements and documents shared at the ninth GDCC meeting are available on the CRDB/CDC website: