Cambodia has adopted the City Development Strategy and formulated a Master Plan for the development of capital Phnom Penh, a senior official said.

Kep Chuk Tema, governor of Phnom Penh, said one of the important strategic orientations of the Master Plan is to create new urban centers to prevent urban sprawl and anarchic urbanization and to promote the development in the suburban area which are able to absorb the rapid urban growth.

Besides, we intend to implement the rural-urban linkage development approach to address the rapid urbanization issues of Phnom Penh, he added on the World Habitat Day, which has the theme of "The Millennium Development Goals and the City" this year.

With a land area of 357 sq.km., Phnom Penh now has a population of about 1.2 million, and numerous people continue to swarm into the city from the rural areas.

The governor said one of the greatest challenges in reducing urban poverty for the city of Phnom Penh has been the widespread growth in 'slum and squatter' settlements.

In 1997, there were 379 such settlements with a little over 30,000 households, but the figures have jumped to 569 and 62,000 respectively in 2005.

Phnom Penh is increasing its efforts, both in terms of physical resources and policy measures, to resolve the issues of slum and squatter settlements and fulfill the target put forward by Prime Minister Hun Sen to improve 100 settlements every year for the next five years.

In the year 2004, the municipality improved 104 settlements. " We are determined to improve more than 100 additional settlements by the end of the year 2005," said the governor.

Source: Xinhua