Japan is gifting more than $10 million to the expansion of the capital’s National Maternal and Child Health Center (NMCHC), Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said yesterday.

“The Kingdom’s relationship with Japan has been developing day to day,” Kuong said. Cambodia has among the worst maternal mortality rates in the region.

At 250 women dying per 100,000 live births according to the 2013 State of the World Report, the number is nearly double the Kingdom’s 2015 Millennium Development Goal.

Japanese embassy counsellor Takayoshi Kuromiya and Tung Rathavy, director of the NMCHC, could not be reached for comment.