From the Financial Times (link)
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered Cambodia $600m in loans and grant aid during a weekend visit intended to enhance Beijing’s strategic influence as a major patron of the impoverished south-east Asian country.
China’s financial contribution to the cash-strapped Phnom Penh government is roughly equivalent to what other international donors, including European governments and Japan, together recently pledged to give Cambodia in the coming year.
Nearly half the Chinese money will go towards financing a new hydropower plant. China’s state-owned Sinohydro Corp won a contract to build a $280m hydropower plant in south-western Cambodia last year.
