CAMBODIA has qualified for US$59.4 million in Asian Development Bank (ADB) concessional loans and grants to help it respond to the global economic crisis.

The money has been made available through the bank's Asian Development Fund (ADF), which received a $400 million boost Tuesday as part of a much broader $3.4 billion fiscal spending package approved by the bank's directors.

The ADF resources are intended to finance key development investments in those low-income countries that are among the most fiscally constrained in responding to the crisis.

ADB Country Director for Cambodia Arjun Goswami said the Cambodian government was currently determining which sectors most needed the additional economic stimulus to offset the impact of the economic crunch. "We haven't gone through the list yet to nail down exactly which ones," he said by telephone from Thailand where he is attending a regional conference.

He said half would be in the form of an ADF grant and half a concessional loan.