Cambodia offering incentives to Indonesian investors

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Cambodia wants to step up and develop its export and import trade with Indonesia and is offering incentives to Indonesian businessmen willing to invest in Cambodia, a Cambodian trade official said.

Cambodia wants to increase and develop its business cooperation with Indonesian businessmen, Son Koun Thor, president of the Chamber of Professional and Micro Enterprises of Cambodia (CPMEC), said when visiting the National Agency for Export Development (NAFED) here Monday.

He said Indonesian businessmen willing to invest in Cambodia would be given incentives such as tax relief and the tax exemption facilities given to Cambodia by certain other countries including China.

The tax exemption facilities from China and other countries had so far remained unused because Cambodia was still unable to make the goods according to the quality standards required by those countries. Son hoped Indonesia and Cambodia could set up a joint venture company capable of producing goods that would qualify for the tax exemptions offered by China and the other countries.

Son is Indonesia at the head of a 12-member business and trade delegation from Cambodia.

He said his country was also willing to develop cooperation in the fields of tourism, handicraft, agriculture and construction with Indonesia.

During its stay in Indonesia, the Cambodian delegation would meet with the management of state oil and gas company Pertamina and the Solo branch of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).

Meanwhile, Lili Suliani, head of the Center for Development of Markets in the Asian, Australian and New Zealand Region, expressed hope Indonesian businessmen would take the Cambodian offer.

She said Indonesian businessmen needed to get a stronger foothold in Cambodia as Indonesian products had only slightly penetrated the Cambodian market.

According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the value of Indonesian non-oil/non-gas exports to Cambodia reached US$103.648 million in 2006, an increase of 10.34 percent from 2005 when the figure was only US$93.94 million.

Meanwhile, Indonesia`s imports from Cambodia in 2006 totaled US$1.06 million or an increase of 44.05 percent compared to 2005 when the figure was US$732.600. (*)
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Cambodia: Cambodian Genocide Tribunal To Rule On Bail Hearing For Detained Khmer Rouge Suspect

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal prepared to rule Monday (3 Dec) on an appeal against the detention of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, who is facing charges of crimes against humanity.

Defense lawyers for Kaing Guek Eav, who headed the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, demanded last month that he be released on the basis that his human rights had been violated by the more than eight years he has already been in jail without trial.

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was detained at a Cambodian military prison on war crimes charges after his arrest in 1999 before being transferred to the tribunal's custody in July.

Prosecutors said Duch was a "flight risk" and argued that he should remain behind bars for his own safety and in the interest of public order.

Canadian prosecutor Robert Petit told a Nov. 21 hearing that if Duch was released, he could be harmed by both "accomplices wishing to silence him and by the relatives of victims seeking revenge."

Chea Leang, a Cambodian prosecutor, said Duch's trial may begin in mid-2008 but gave no specific date.

Duch, 65, oversaw the S-21 prison, which has since been converted into the popular Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

As many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured at S-21 before being transported out of Phnom Penh and executed at a site known as "the killing fields." Only 14 people are thought to have survived.

The Khmer Rouge has been blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 rule. Some observers fear that the group's surviving leaders might die before being brought to justice. The movement's notorious chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

Duch is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders held in connection with the communist regime's brutal rule of Cambodia.

He became the first defendant to appear before the tribunal's judges. (AP)

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