Phnom Penh, February 23rd, 2018 – Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading on-demand transportation and mobile payments platform, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), today announced a cooperation agreement that aims at improving living standards in urban areas by reducing pollution and urban traffic congestion.

Both partners agreed to explore working together in following key areas under this MoU. Firstly, the reduction of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions through the promotion and use of clean urban vehicles and biofuel; secondly, the support of the development of institutional capacities in managing and reducing traffic related costs through the collection and analysis of traffic data and statistics; thirdly, the development of sustainable urban transport measures by sharing knowledge and research; and fourthly by using traffic data to increase road safety and save lives.

“Grab’s mission is to improve lives through our technology platforms” said Mr. Wee Tang Yee, Country Head of Grab Cambodia. “As a locally-incorporated company, we are committed to supporting the long-term growth of the country and uplift the livelihood of the Cambodian people. We continuously seek to work with local partners and stakeholders to drive positive change in their home countries, and across ASEAN. We believe this partnership with the UNDP will help us to further our ambition to make Southeast Asian cities cleaner and more liveable through improved traffic management.”

Traffic congestion and urban pollution are major problems in most Southeast Asian cities including Phnom Penh. With rapid economic and population growth, there have been initiatives in response to air pollution and a constantly growing number of vehicles on the roads, reflecting a real need for innovative sustainable traffic planning and solutions. The data provided by  Grab can also be used to help explore better public transport and mass transit options, allowing for a holistic and more powerful way to improve transport for Phnom Penh.

With over 2.4 million driving-partners across the region, Grab’s driver’s app produces real time GPS data which anonymously translates the positions of vehicles and smartphones into real-time and historical traffic statistics. These valuable data can be used in various ways to help  ease traffic jams by optimizing traffic routes, analyzing the best travel times, determining traffic congestion patterns, and designing transportation infrastructure to avoid clusters of urban pollution. Besides working with the UNDP to promote the use of clean and biofuel-powered vehicles, under this partnership, Grab will support related organizations in Cambodia in finding solutions for environmental and traffic challenges by providing these data and analytics.

“This Partnership with Grab is a major step for us to apply ride-hailing, app-derived data and technology to solve urban pollution and traffic problems. We are excited about this and look forward to working together with Grab to improve sustainability and the quality of lives for Cambodian people”, said Mr. Nick Beresford, Country Director, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Cambodia.

On average, Grab’s ride-sharing services have helped remove around 16,000 cars from the roads in cities where these services were available, and enabled almost 3.2 million kg in carbon emission savings across the region each year during 2012 – 2016.

In January 2018, Grab has announced its strategic partnership with South Korean automaker Hyundai to expand smart mobility services. The partnership includes exploring the usage of electric vehicles to reduce pollution and vehicle maintenance costs for commuters.

For more information about Grab, please visit: https://www.grab.com/kh/