Urban planning needed: ADB

With a rapidly rising population exacerbating the country’s existing infrastructure, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) has highlighted in a new study the Cambodian government’s failure to install effective planning policies in its most densely populated urban centres.

The ADB estimates that, driven by work opportunities and higher wages in the country’s tourism, construction and garment sectors, 30 percent of Cambodia’s 15.6 million-person population is now living within 24 of the country’s most urbanised cities, ranging from the larger Phnom Penh and Siem Reap to the smaller cities of Prey Veng and Svay Rieng.

The ADB estimates that by 2030, with a total population of 18 million, at least 44 per cent of Cambodians will be concentrated in these urban areas.