China’s ODA in Cambodia had been executed since the 1950s with the remarkable evidence of the four factories’ construction in Cambodia during the 1960s, while the United States of America had also experienced providing funds to build roads and bridges and other humanitarian reliefs in Cambodia during the 1950s and 1960s. After the national election in 1993, foreign assistance was given to Cambodia to support the economic infrastructure and to fill the gap of government expenditure budgets of each year, since there was a huge amount of the trade balance deficit. China has been the largest donor and investor in Cambodia in exchange for high commitment of the country to support the “One-China Policy” and the Belt and Road initiative right after its commencement in 2013. Since then, Cambodia has received huge amounts of ODA from China in several sectors, especially the transportation infrastructure sector. This research focuses mainly on China’s ODA for transportation infrastructure development contributed to the GDP growth of Cambodia by focusing mainly on the public sector foreign aid and ignoring the private sectors (investment scheme). The researcher used a mixed-method to analyze the data collected by using Eviews 10 with the least-squares’ method to analyze the data. The research result showed that China’s ODA for the transportation infrastructure development in Cambodia significantly contributed to the GDP growth of Cambodia, with the scientific evident chance of occurrence of 99.81 percent, with only a 0.19 percent-chance of error.
Cite this paper
Vathanak, C. (2021). China’s Official Development Assistance: An Implication of the Transport Infrastructure Development in Cambodia. Open Access Library Journal, 8, e7697. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1107697.
Quiviger, W. (2020, February 6) What Is Foreign Aid and Does It Work? IE School of Global and Public Affairs.
https://www.ie.edu/school-global-public-affairs/faculty-and-research/ie-explains/foreign-aid-work/#:~:text=Foreign%20aid%20is%20assistance%20given,tracking%20mechanism%20for%20this%20aid
Kitano, N. and Miyabayashi, Y. (2020) Estimating China’s ODA: 2019-2020 Preliminary Figures. JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development Tokyo, December 14, 2020.
Kitano, N. (2019, September 27) Estimating China’s Foreign Aid: 2017-2018 Preliminary Figures. JICA Research Institute, Tokyo.
https://www.jica.go.jp/jica-ri/publication/other/l75nbg000018z3zd-att/20190926_01.pdf
Jakobson, L. (2009) China’s Diplomacy toward Africa: Drivers and Constraints. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 9, 403-433.
https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcp008
Dreher, A., Fuchs, A., Parks, B.C., Strange, A.M. and Tierney, M.J. (2017) Assistance, China, and Growth: Evidence from a New Global Development Finance Dataset. Assistance Data Working Paper #46. Assistance Data, Williamsburg.
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3051044
Wan, F. (2018, May 15) How “Unconditional” Is China’s ODA? DW Made for Minds. How “Unconditional” Is China’s Foreign Assistance? Asia. An In-Depth Look at News from across the Continent. DW. 15.05.2018.
Zhou, T. (2019) A Blend of “Hard” and “Soft” Assistance: China’s Assistance to Cambodia. In: Huang, M., et al., Eds., South-South Cooperation & Chinese Foreign Assistance, Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore, 95-111.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2002-6_7
Fernholz, T. (2018, March 8) Eight Countries in Danger of Falling into China’s “Debt Trap”. QUARTZ, Port Authority.
https://qz.com/1223768/china-debt-trap-these-eight-countries-are-in-danger-of-debt-overloads-from-chinas-belt-and-road-plans
Easterly, W. and Pfutze, T. (2008) Where Does the Money Go? Best and Worst Practices in Foreign Assistance. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22, 29-52.
https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.22.2.29
Burgos, S. and Ear, S. (2010) China’s Strategic Interests in Cambodia-Influence and Resources. Asian Survey, 50, 615-639. https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2010.50.3.615
http://online.ucpress.edu/as/article-pdf/50/3/615/77157/as_2010 _50_3_615.pdf
Dreher, A. and Fuchs, A. (2015) Rogue Assistance? An Empirical Analysis of China’s Assistance Allocation. The Canadian Journal of Economics, 48, 988-1023.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43818241
https://doi.org/10.1111/caje.12166
Naim, M. (2009, October 15) Rogue Assistance: What’s Wrong with the Foreign Assistance Programs of China, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia? They Are Enormously Generous. And They Are Toxic. Foreign Policy, Missing Links.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/15/rogue-assistance
Rowley, A. (2020, November 25) The Myth of China’s Debt-Trap Diplomacy. NIKKEI Asia.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/The-myth-of-China-s-debt-trap-diplomacy
Heng, P. (2018, August 29) Are China’s Gifts a Blessing or a Curse for Cambodia? East Asia Forum, Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific.
https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/08/29/are-chinas-gifts-a-blessing-or-a-curse-for-cambodia
Sok, K. (2019, April 30) Belt and Road in Cambodia: The Belt and Road in Cambodia: Successes and Challenges. The Diplomat. It’s Time for the BRI to Incorporate a More Participatory and Inclusive Approach in Cambodia.
https://thediplomat.com/tag/belt-and-road-in-cambodia
The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China (2011, April 21) China’s Foreign Aid (White Paper).
https://www.asienhaus.de/upload/pdf/nachrichten/2011-04-21Chinas-ForeignAid-WhitePaper.pdf
The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China (2014, July 10) China’s Foreign Aid 2014.
http://english.www.gov.cn/archive/white_paper/2014/08/23/content_281474982986592.htm
The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China (2021, January 10) China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era.
http://english.www.gov.cn/archive/whitepaper/202101/10/content_WS5ffa6bbbc6d0f72576943922.html
Fresh News (2021, April 24) Special Report: How China’s $3B Assistance Assists Cambodia’s Roads and Bridges (Video Inside).
http://www.en.freshnewsasia.com/index.php/en/localnews/15229-2019-09-07-03-03-43.html
Thou, V. (2020, December 6) Over 3,000 km of Roads Funded by China Loans, Says the Minister. The Phnom Penh Post.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/over-3000km-roads-funded-china-loans-says-minister
The World Bank (n.d.) GDP Growth (Annual %)—Cambodia: World Bank National Accounts Data, and OECD National Accounts Data Files.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=KH