Roundup: Cambodia mobilized to ward off "oil curse"

Cambodia here on Wednesday convened a seminar named as "Avoid the Oil Curse," in efforts to prepare on legal and theoretical bases for the expected influx of oil revenues around 2010.

"We have to have the legal framework in order to avoid 'oil curse.' We have learned lessons from other countries bound with such a curse, especially Nigeria," Phan Sina, chairman of the Investment Committee of the Cambodian National Assembly, told the seminar.

Cambodia is trying to find legal assistance and technique from international institutions to help to prepare the law, he said.

"Except for the Cambodian Sea, we also have oil and gas in the Tonle Sap Lake, so we have to establish a clear legal framework to manage oil and gas benefits," he added.

Ian Gary, policy advisor for extractive industries from the Oxfam American, told reporters that Cambodia has to guard against the mentality that "let's just enjoy the party while it lasts," in case of its expectation for oil revenues.

The government has to think about how "to diversify and create new jobs, because oil by itself doesn't create jobs," he said.

NGOs like the Oxfam American will also "encourage the government to be more transparent about how money coming from the oil industry is being managed and spent," he added.

Meanwhile, other experts and technicians at the seminar warned that Cambodia needs to keep its expectation under control, as it still remains unclear exactly how much oil is under the sea and whether the kingdom can become a significant energy producer at last.

Oil revenues are also expected to give equal benefits and chances to all the Cambodians and not to cause rebellious movement on basis of inequality and injustice, they added.

Back to February, the United States Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli said that the Cambodian government should avoid the situation that "a small corrupt elite siphons off revenue that should go to improving the welfare of all the people."

Leaders of the countries should have the political will to demand that the revenues from these extractive industries be used solely for the improvement of the country, he told a national economic conference.

Addressing the same occasion, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that "the revenues from the recently confirmed discovery of oil reserves will provide additional money for financing development projects in Cambodia. These revenues will be directed to productive investment and poverty reduction."

"We will make sure that oil is a blessing but not a curse," he said, adding that the kingdom, with 35 percent of its people still living in poverty, will adopt a way of independence to develop the future industry rather than depending on other countries or partners.

"Oil curse" used to mean that countries rich in oil can't benefit from the resource but instead become trapped with corruption and injustice due to their poor management capability.

Oil buzz started in Cambodia in 2005, when U.S. energy giant Chevron Corp discovered petroleum off its coast, striking black in four of five test wells.

Since then, firms from France, South Korea and Japan have been reportedly seeking for exploration licenses from the Cambodian government.

Currently, Cheveron from the United States, LG from South Korea, and a Japanese company have invested and conducted exploration in the oil and gas fields in off-sea Cambodia.

The government declines to give exact figures about the oil reserves. The World Bank has put them at two billion barrels while the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirmed 700 million barrels.

A UNDP study implied that future oil revenues alone could provide over three times the kingdom's official development assistance received in 2005.

Source: Xinhua.