Cambodia is to receive $99m in grant funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for three development projects, out of which approximately $66m will be spent on a rural road development project.

Cambodian finance minister Aun Pornmoniroth and ADB country director for Cambodia Eric Sidgwick signed the deal.

As a part of the agreement, the grant will also cover a technical and vocational education and training development programme, in addition to a community-based disaster risk reduction project.

"These initiatives will improve the quality of life for poor and vulnerable people through a climate-resilient and cost-effective road network."

A total of $66m, which includes a grant aid of $12m, will be used for the rural road project, while $30m and $2.5m will fund the training programme and the disaster risk control project respectively.

The total funding involved in the road project is around $118m, which comprises a parallel loan of $41m from the Korean Government, a grant of $6.67m from the Australian Government and grant co-financing of $5.4m from the Nordic Development Fund apart from the grant from ADB.

The Cambodian Government will finance the remaining $11.16m cost of the project.

Eric Sidgwick said in a statement: "These initiatives will improve the quality of life for poor and vulnerable people through a climate-resilient and cost-effective road network, the development of a skilled workforce responsive to labour market needs and disaster management planning support to reduce disaster impacts in the country."

According to the the Rural Roads Improvement Project, 729km of rural roads in nine provinces with high-poverty incidence in Cambodia will be developed, such as Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Pursat, Siem Reap and Takeo.

Close to 800,000 rural people are expected to benefit from the project that will extend rural road asset management and axle-loading control programmes.