PHNOM PENH - THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Thursday it will invest around US$500 million (S$613 million) in Cambodia over the next three years to reduce poverty, mainly through infrastructure and agriculture projects.

The soft loan forms part of a new 'country partnership strategy' for 2011 to 2013 between the government and the bank, said Peter Brimble, senior country economist for ADB in Cambodia.

Under the new plan, the ADB aims 'to reach out to Cambodia's poor' with a focus on agribusiness enterprises and rural-to-urban transport links, Mr Brimble told reporters at a press conference in the capital Phnom Penh.

The strategy will also include investments to expand rural water supply and sanitation and to improve access to secondary education and vocational skills training.

Cambodia's economy is expected to grow by more than six per cent this year, according to the government.

Written off as a failed state after the devastating 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and several decades of civil war, the South-east Asian nation has used garment exports and tourism to help improve its economy.