ABSTRACT
In the, 1999 Asian Development Bank (ADB) issued a press release announcing a US$1.45 million technical assistance grant to the National Bank of Cambodia to strengthen the capacity of financial institutions and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in providing small-scale financial services in rural Cambodia. 1 At the time, the ADB's input was a critical intervention in Cambodia's development. An increasing demand for credit could not be met by the country's NGOs, which were serving as the main supplier of small-scale credit, but which could reach only a tiny fraction of the population living in rural areas. Nor could demand be met by Cambodia's commercial banks, which the ADB's press release noted were mostly confined to Phnom Penh and eight (out of 24) provinces.
