Despite major foreign aid budget cuts at home, Australia had upped its assistance to Cambodia by about US$17.4 million for 2012-2013, the embassy here said yesterday.

Australia would provide a total of $95.3 million in “official development assistance to Cambodia”, the embassy said in a statement.

“From 2012 to 2015, Australia will help Cambodia implement a National Crime Database and a Court Register to strengthen the administration of law and justice nationwide,” the statement reads.

The Australian government has come under fire recently for announcing it would scale back foreign aid to generate a budget surplus, a move World Vision executives said could cost up to 200,000 lives.

The release yesterday also said Australia would continue to assist in the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s national railway.

The Post reported that Australia’s Toll Group recently pulled out of a partnership to operate the railways because rehabilitation was taking too long.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at [email protected]