The government has not approved a large-enough budget to hold the 32nd General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly to be held in the capital from September 19 to 24, National Assembly officials said yesterday.

This will be the second time Cambodia has hosted the AIPA General Assembly. Cambodia spent about US$1.86 million in 2004 to host a previous AIPA meeting,  but there is currently a $600,000 shortfall for this year’s event, National Assembly member Cheam Yeap told the Post yesterday.

“The National Assembly will request a bigger sum of money, about US$1.9 million for the second meeting of AIPA,” he said.

He added that the government had only approved a budget of US$1.3 million. “It will not be enough for what we are expecting,” Cheam Yeap said.

The National Assembly proposed the sum of US$1.9 million in accordance with the current price of goods in the Cambodian market, Cheam Yeap said.

“It is an adequate amount of money to conduct this meeting because nowadays the price of goods is increasing,” he said.

“We will spend a part of the $1.3 million to strengthen the security, which will require the participation of the Ministries of Interior and National Defence and municipal authorities.”