Funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and implemented by Cowater International, the CAPRED Facility is Australia’s flagship bilateral economic development program in Cambodia, focusing on economic recovery and resilience over the next five years with a possible three-year extension.

The Facility supports Cambodia in implementing a range of necessary economic interventions and reforms to maintain the country’s economic transition. These interventions and reforms are primarily aimed at encouraging more productive and inclusive public and private investment, which promotes a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable economy (RISE). CAPRED interventions fall under three technical components including: Agriculture and Agro-Processing; Trade, Investment and Enterprise Development, and Infrastructure Development; and one cross-cutting component comprising: Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI); Climate Resilient initiatives, and policy support. GEDSI is at the heart of all that CAPRED does.

In the Infrastructure Development component, CAPRED is working to improve both enabling policies and the private sector’s investment in water and energy infrastructures. Under the Energy Workstream, CAPRED aims to support Cambodia’s energy sector in moving toward a green and efficient system. One of the supports is to develop a pilot demonstration of the ESCO model for energy efficiency in the agro-processing sector. In this regard, the pilot demonstration will initially target three sub-sectors: rice milling, food processing, and animal farming. Moving forward, 10 project owners will be selected to proceed with Investment Grade Audit (IGA). As ESCOs are a new concept in Cambodia, therefore, the related factors including, IGA, implementation modalities, financing mechanisms and contractual arrangements are still in the nascent stage of development.