Italy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Cambodia to allow its citizens to adopt Cambodian children, making it the first country to do so since a 2009 ban on foreign adoptions was lifted last month, the Ministry of Social Affairs said on Wednesday.

“Until now, we have one country who signed an agreement with Cambodia to process intercountry adoptions, and that is Italy,” Minister of Social Affairs Ith Sam Heng said on the sidelines of a workshop in Phnom Penh dealing with children’s rights.

Mr. Sam Heng said that Italy had already started to set up agencies to process paperwork for potential adoptive parents. “But so far, we haven’t given any agency a license yet,” he said, adding that Italy would prioritize adoptions of disabled children.

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