Beginning in 1993, Paris has for over 20 years, been in close cooperation with Cambodia involving technicians from Paris City Hall and an active partnership with Apur.
Phnom Penh is a city which, after a long period of inaction, entered into a phase of rapid and spectacular transformation at the beginning of the 2000s.
For the Governor of Phnom Penh, help to create the management tools for this transformation was a priority need in order to provide municipal technicians with the means with which to create an indispensable, urban policy. With the support and funding of the European Union in the context of the Asia Urbs programme, a decentralised cooperation project was redeveloped in 2001 and 2002 by the cities of Phnom Penh, Paris and Venise.
Since then, with support from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French Development Agency, numerous projects have been instigated in the fields of urban management and more specifically in the making of planning and development tools, studying the way drinking water and sanitation services work, the development of public spaces around the central market while accompanying its renovation, the management of traffic and mobility…
In 2016, the two capitals, wanting to continue their partnership, developed a new triennial urban cooperation programme from 2016-2018 called “Institutional support and assistance in mastering urban development”.
At the end of 2019, the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF - Association internationale des maires francophone) held their 39th congress in Phnom Penh, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the end of the Khmer Rouge regime. It was devoted to “The Resilience of Cities after Catastrophes”.
Apur contributed to preparing the contents of the conference, participated in the debates and was responsible for coordinating the ensuing publication of proceedings. The publication “Resilient Cities - Thinking about the challenges of urban reconstruction” gives an account of the communication that took place at the congress and a summary of the debates.
An iconographic collection was gathered throughout the course of these studies, bringing together photos, maps and historical documents. A mission to study the city’s urban heritage between 1994-1996 led to the creation of 744 inventory sheets and the publication in 1997 of the book: Phnom Penh - Urban Development and Legacy. This collection of files was subject to a first digitalisation campaign which was completed in 2021 by a second campaign that focused on a selection of the image collections. Apur has wished to make a selection of photos, maps and heritage documents available to the greatest possible number of people for online consultation and downloading.
Reproduction is authorised on condition that the source and ownership be clearly mentioned for each document. The entire paper and analogue collection will be transferred to the Archives de Paris which will ensure their conservation and distribution.
