[VIETNAM]Samsung keen to raise investment in fast-growing Vietnam market

Samsung Electronics Co. is increasing its presence in Vietnam, one of the world`s fastest growing economies. Its Vietnamese operation Samsung Vina Electronics Co., shortly called SAVINA, has achieved 15-30 percent annual growth rates for the past several years.

Vietnam is now responsible for 5 percent of Samsung Electronics Southeast Asia region sales, but the country`s portion is expected to become larger, according to Samsung Electronics Southeast Asia Pacific president Park Sang-jin.

Southeast Asian regional revenue hit $10 billion in 2006, up from $8.7 billion in 2005. Samsung aims to earn $11.7 billion from the region this year and $20 billion in 2010.

In case of LCD TVs, sales recorded 250,000 units in 2006, up six times from 40,000 units in 2005. Figures are not available as a single business unit in Vietnam but in larger Southeast Asia Pacific market, according to the company.

President Park said during an IR seminar held late last year in Singapore, "We`re trying to give a little bit of changes in our Southeast Asian market strategies, as the ASEAN Free Trade Area or AFTA pact is to take effect in 2008."

"As the first step, we positively consider building an IT plant in Hanoi, Vietnam."

Plan for IT plant

The newly envisioned plant in Vietnam will be optimized to mass produce PC monitors and printers, as Samsung`s current Ho Chi Minh City plant is rolling out TVs.

Park added that the company`s Southeast Asian businesses will be clearly divided into TV/white-color home electronics in Taiwan, audio/DVD players in Indonesia, TVs in Vietnam, LCD TVs/PC monitors in Malaysia.

Samsung has the lion`s share of the Vietnamese market in products such as flat-panel TVs, digital light processing or DLP TVs, side-by-side refrigerators, MP3 players, DVD players and mobile phones.

The company has sticked to its premium strategy in the market, as Vietnam, with 8.4 million population, shows high economic growth rates approaching 8 percent annually.

Demands are almost explosive in Vietnam`s most populated areas such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang.

"No country can hardly catch up with Vietnam for the next 20 years, as the country excels in labor productivity. An average Vietnamese works 48 hours a week including Saturday, and there are only eight holidays in a year. About 54 percent of its workforce is under the age of 30, out of a total of 84 million population," said Yom Sang-youl, general manager at Samsung Vina Electronics.

Samsung recently slightly changed its marketing strategies to include low-end segments as well. It now sells mobile phones priced below $100 in the Vietnamese market.

The regional demand for their CDMA and GSM-compatible handsets is so overwhelming that there is a perennial supply shortage, officials said.

Samsung`s handsets are being supplied via S-Telecom, under the brand name "S-Fone," where Korea`s largest wireless carrier SK Telecom has a 86 percent share.

The country, now with about 20 percent wireless penetration rate, has a promising outlook, officials said.

Samsung`s liquid crystal display TVs are also enjoying growing popularity. The LCD TV lineup includes 26-, 27-, 32-, 37-, 40-, 46- and 52-inches with the brand names of Bordeaux, Mosel and Sonoma.

The Bordeaux TV series, whose shape resembles that of a wine glass, particularly sell well in the region as the Vietnamese puts more and more value on design, officials said.

The new TV lineup was completed with softer lines and transparent materials, enhancing their clean-cut design.

"We think Southeast Asia as key for the growth of our home electronics business. The market actually grows about 20 percent every year," said Hwang Jin-oh, an official at the company`s public relations team.

"We are riding on the Hallyu or Korean wave which draws many Vietnamese to Korean pop culture, which leads to an increased brand recognition," he said.

As its recent feat, the electronics maker won the "Vietnam Quality Award" in the manufacturing sector in November last year.

Quality award

The award, given by the Directorate for Standard Measurement & Quality under the Vietnamese ministry of science, honors enterprises` achievements in quality and performance, meaning the top-notch privilege and honor, Samsung said.

The annual Vietnam Quality Award, modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award of the United States, is given to businesses - manufacturing and service, small and large - that apply and are judged to be outstanding in seven areas such as management results, process management, management leadership and customer satisfaction.

About 500 domestic and overseas companies participated in the competition for the award this year.

The jury recognized Samsung`s efforts on the management process, ranging from manufacturing to service, which is systemized and can be rightly translated into concrete data, according to Samsung.

Further, as part of its social contribution activities, Samsung is helping Vietnamese children suffering from heart diseases and aftereffects of defoliant in the Vietnam War.

Samsung Vina Electronics, along with Samsung Medical Center, plans to fund $250,000 for children`s heart operations and medical equipment by 2007. Read more!

U.S. ambassador praises former Khmer Rouge photographer for apologizing

The Associated Press
Thursday, January 25, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia shook hands Thursday with the former chief photographer at a notorious Khmer Rouge torture center and praised him for apologizing for his role in the regime that caused nearly 2 million deaths in the 1970s.

Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli said Nhem En had "set a good example for apologizing for his part in those atrocities," which included executions, starvation, overwork and inadequate medical care during the radical communist group's 1975-79 rule.

"Contrast what he has done with the fact that no Khmer Rouge leader has ever stepped forward to admit guilt or accept blame for the regime's brutal crimes," said Mussomeli, who posed for pictures beside an American flag at the embassy with Nhem En.

Nhem En photographed thousands of prisoners at the infamous Khmer Rouge S-21 prison before they were locked up, tortured and executed.

He asked for forgiveness and offered his apology Thursday, two days after announcing his plan to set up a museum with pictures of the former Khmer Rouge leaders.

He said he was the chief of six photographers at S-21 who worked in shifts, photographing prisoners when they were brought there, often blindfolded.

"After the blindfolds were removed, prisoners would ask what wrong had they done. I would just tell them I don't know anything and that my duty is to photograph them," Nhem En said.
Haunting photos of the victims are the centerpiece of the former prison site, also known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

"During that era, I was merely a cog in the (Khmer Rouge) machine," he said. He called on surviving Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan to issue public apologies for the crimes committed under their rule.

No senior Khmer Rouge leader has been tried for the atrocities. The movement's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998, and Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge army chief, died last July while in detention pending trial by a joint Cambodia-United Nations special tribunal. Read more!

Dispute Threatens Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders

By SETH MYDANS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Jan. 25 — _ The Cambodian judges were on one side and the foreign judges on the other this week, in a dispute that captures a decade of difficulties in bringing to trial the last surviving leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge.

If the judges cannot agree on procedural rules soon, analysts and officials at the tribunal say, some of the foreign judges may walk out. That would cast an even deeper shadow over a process that some critics say is already so compromised as to be of doubtful value.

Seventeen Cambodians and 12 foreigners were empaneled as judges and prosecutors in the matter last July, inaugurating a United Nations-sponsored process that mixes Cambodian law with international standards of justice.

It is an awkward formula, made all the more questionable by the meager qualifications of the Cambodian judges, who were appointed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and are answerable to him.
Pragmatists say that a flawed trial is better than none at all, and that there is no choice but to proceed with the tribunal one has rather than the tribunal one might wish to have.

Three decades have already passed since the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia with a brutal hand, causing the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979 through killings, torture, starvation and overwork.

The trial, meant to be of “those most responsible” for the crimes, is expected to focus on, at most, a dozen targets. Most of the potential defendants are very old and some have already died — notably the supreme leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, in 1998. Among those still alive, only one is now in custody; the rest live freely in Cambodia.

Robert Petit, the Canadian lawyer who is serving as co-prosecutor in the case, has been actively gathering evidence but has not said where it is leading him.

In an interview, he said he was ready to propose his first indictments once the judges had formalized the court’s rules, at a plenary session tentatively set for March. The trial itself might then begin by the end of the year.

Cambodia and the United Nations reached an agreement on the structure of the mixed tribunal in 2003, after years of negotiations over both technical and political differences.

Those differences remained at the heart of the disagreements that have stalled the process since last November.

A rules committee of nine judges is trying to resolve the differences. Sean Visoth, a Cambodian who is the tribunal’s coordinator, said, “If there is no compromise and there is no plenary, the international judges will walk away.”

The delay has revived an old concern that Mr. Hun Sen may not in fact want the trial to proceed, and may instead be creating the latest roadblocks in a long series that have impeded progress for years.

Among other things, he is believed to be under pressure from China, which presumably would be embarassed if a trial directed international attention to Beijing’s former close ties to the Khmer Rouge.

There are more than 100 procedural rules, some quite complicated, for the judges to agree on. But the core disputes appear to involve one fundamental, long-running issue: securing the trial’s independence from Cambodian political manipulation.

On the Cambodian side, control is an important concern, according to the American ambassador to Cambodia, Joseph A. Mussomeli. “The government in general tries to keep tight control over the judiciary and anything that could have negative consequences,” he said.

In a country where the politics of the present remain tangled in the past, the proper scope of the indictments is contentious. Some former middle-ranking Khmer Rouge officials are prominent in the current government, including Mr. Hun Sen — although experts say he bears no responsibility for the regime’s atrocities.

Some potential defendants may also have powerful patrons who are trying to protect them.
According to people briefed on the negotiations, the judges are at odds over a complex proposed rule that would in effect allow an indictment to proceed without the agreement of the Cambodian side. That provision is one of several balancing acts in the tribunal’s supermajority system, which in most respects gives the foreign and Cambodian judges veto power over one another’s decisions.

The Cambodian side is also seeking to limit the right of defendants to be represented in court by foreign lawyers, which it says is a violation of Cambodian legal sovereignty. Foreign analysts say the Cambodians do not want aggressive defense lawyers who are independent of any political guidance to move the case in unpredictable directions.

A British lawyer, Rupert Skilbeck, who will coordinate the lawyers’ work, said defendants would be placed at a disadvantage if they could not select their own lawyers.

“It’s important that the trials are very fair, because if they’re seen as show trials, then there will be no justice,” Mr. Skilbeck said in November, speaking to the Cambodian Bar Association, which is closely allied with Mr. Hun Sen and which opposes participation by foreign lawyers.

Mr. Mussomeli said the Cambodian government, accustomed to controlling the judiciary, might be reacting defensively to Mr. Petit, who has taken on his job as prosecutor with an energy and independence that is unfamiliar here.

In the interview, Mr. Petit sought to calm these concerns, saying he was aware of the sensitivity of his role and of the possibility that the tribunal could be derailed by an overaggressive prosecution. “We have to apply the law in the context of Cambodia,” he said. “I’m not stupid. You have to exercise discretion.”

Mr. Petit has been involved in international tribunals in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Kosovo and East Timor, and he said he understood that in cases like these it was not possible to follow the law blindly, without reference to its context.

“We all have a sense of our responsibilities,” he said. “Our primary responsibility is to deliver justice to the victims of these crimes.” That would not be possible, he said, if the process is shut down for any reason.

He said he did not yet know how many cases he would forward to the next level of the tribunal, the investigating judges, who are to issue indictments.

“In this particular tribunal there are very specific expectations,” he said. “Everyone ‘knows’ what happened: We’ve got the evidence there, you just have to pick it up and carry it into court.” But in fact, he said, matters are not that straightforward.

“We have to grasp events of great magnitude that happened 30 years ago and be legally and morally convinced that we have cases against individual people,” he said. Read more!

Cambodia : ILO seeks explanation for PM Hun Sen’s remarks

January 25, 2007

Geneva based International Labor Organization (ILO) has asked Cambodia for clarification of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s allegations about ILO misrepresenting the state of local apparel units.

Country’s garment sector brings in maximum capital from abroad. Hun Sen had asked ILO to rectify all bogus reports it prepared on the sector. Due to US and EU imposing restrictions on import of Chinese garments, country’s apparel exports have risen to US $2.2 billion per annum in past few years.

About 3,20,000 labourers work in 286 Cambodian garment factories.ILO in turn demanded an explanation from Cambodia for Hun Sen’s comments.

Geneva headquarters has dispatched a letter in this regard to the Government and is waiting for reply. ILO is operating a project to supervise working conditions in local apparel units from 2001. Read more!

U.S. warship to pay port visit to Cambodia for first time in over 30 years

The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

A U.S. navy warship will dock at Cambodia's main sea port next month for the first time in more
than three decades, a high-ranking American military commander said Wednesday.

The USS Gary, a guided missile frigate with 200 officers and crew, will arrive at the Sihanoukville port in southwestern Cambodia on Feb. 9 and will stay until Feb. 13, said Adm. Gary Roughead, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

"The purpose of the visit is to bring our navies closer together," Roughead said after meeting with Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh. "We believe that it marks a beginning of a strong navy-to-navy relationship with many opportunities for the future."

Tea Banh hailed the planned visit by the USS Gary as "a new era" in military ties between the two countries.

The United States halted military assistance to Cambodia following a 1997 coup in which Hun Sen grabbed full power after ousting his co-premier, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Hun Sen remains as prime minister.

Roughead is the second top U.S. military official to visit Cambodia in the last six months in the latest move to re-establish military links.

During a visit in July, Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the
United States could help train Cambodian military and provide it with non-lethal assistance.

The two-day visit by Roughead, scheduled to end Thursday, was billed as a familiarization visit. He was appointed to his position in 2005.

According to his US Navy biography, Roughead is responsible for the world's largest combined fleet command, encompassing 102 million square miles and more than 190 ships and submarines, 1,400 aircraft, 191,000 sailors and marines and 30,000 civilians. Read more!

Cambodian leader slams ILO for 'untruthful' reports about garment factories

The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Prime Minister Hun Sen accused the U.N. labor agency Wednesday of false reporting about working conditions in Cambodia's garment factories.

Speaking at a meeting with investors, the prime minister echoed complaints from a representative of clothing industry employers protesting factory monitoring work by the Geneva-based International Labor Organization.

Damaging reports by the ILO about "any factories could create risk not just for factory owners but for the workers," Hun Sen said during a forum with businessmen Wednesday.

Since 2001, the ILO has been running a project to monitor working conditions in Cambodian garment factories.

Hun Sen called on the U.N. labor agency to correct any "untruthful reports" it has produced about industry, which is Cambodia's leading foreign exchange earner. He did not refer to any specific ILO findings but was addressing complaints raised by an unidentified investor at the meeting.

The prime miniser went so far as to suggest that some ILO staffers may be using blackmail tactics in their work.

"ILO is a good organization, but there could also be some bad people working for it," Hun Sen said. "Sometimes, some of its staffers may even try to extort money from factory owners, like, 'If you give me money, I will write a good report about you.'"

The ILO office in Cambodia did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The garment industry employs 320,000 workers in 286 factories. Garment exports have grown to more than US$2.2 billion (€1.7 billion) annually in recent years, largely because of restrictions imposed by the United States and the European Union on garment imports from China.

Investors have expressed concern about the future of Cambodia's garment industry following the accession of Vietnam, another low-cost and labor-intensive producer, into the World Trade Organization.

Exports from Vietnam to the world markets "will intensify," Hun Sen said, asking "what kind of impact will Cambodia get from such competition?"

To help the industry survive, the government has decided to offer investors tax breaks totaling 116 billion riel (US$28.6 million; €22 million) this year and 121 billion riel (US$30 million; €23 million) in 2008, Keat Chhon, Cambodia's finance minister, said at the meeting Wednesday. Read more!

Roundup: Labor report shows shrink of Cambodia's garment industry

Altogether 62 garment and shoe- making factories were closed in Cambodia in 2006, while 20 others have suspended their operation, a sign of shrink of the kingdom's pillar industry, an official report said on Tuesday.

As a result, 27,644 workers became unemployed, 20,441 of them women, while 150,000 went home to wait for their factories to re- open, if possible, said the labor report released to the media during a seminar organized by the Ministry of Vocational Training and Labor here on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the report said that from 2004 to 2006, there were 594 labor disputes, 288 of them organized by unions, or 48.48 percent of the total.

Some 557 factories were vexed with such disputes, 180 in 2006, 148 in 2005 and 229 in 2004, it said.

The report did not say the rise of labor disputes led to the shrink of the industry, but local media have widely reported that the disputes and ensuing strikes, together with Vietnam's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO), have driven garment and shoe makers to directly close their factories in Cambodia, or close first and then transfer to the neighboring country to enjoy better operation climate.

In addition, the report said that there are currently in Cambodia 420 garment factories and 19 shoe factories with 287,005 workers, 256,934 of them women.

Earlier on Jan. 15, reports said that the number of strikes and labor disputes in the garment industry in 2006 has been the largest that the kingdom ever experienced.

Compared to 67 cases of garment strikes in 2005 in Cambodia, 2006 saw 103 such incidents, according to a recent report from the Labor Ministry's Labor Dispute Department.

Labor disputes also increased from 148 cases in 2005 to 217 last year, a number significantly higher than the one that was disclosed on Tuesday.

Some 65 percent of the disputes were resolved with ministry brokering and the rest sent to the Arbitration Council, a body that issues awards on labor disagreement.

Out of last year's strikes, 78.61 percent occurred due to employers' failure to respect the labor law, 3.5 percent due to employee demands for compensation as their factories closed and bosses ran off to dodge the responsibility and 1.4 percent due to discrimination against unions, said the department's report.

"This year (2006) was bad. Workers took industrial action, failing to seek prior negotiation with factory management. They should clarify reasons behind a strike," said Van Sou Ieng, president of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia ( GMAC), adding that strikes claimed 15 million U.S. dollars of loss for the industrialists in 2006 or 40 percent higher than the previous year.

Due to the strikes and after rounds of negotiations, the minimum monthly wage for an average garment factory worker has been increased from 45 U.S. dollars to 50 U.S. dollars starting from 2007, a good news for the employees but another burden for the producers.

Garment has been one of Cambodia's major pillars of foreign currency attraction.

In 2005, the kingdom exported 2.29 billion U.S. dollars' worth of garment and textile products,
accounting for 79 percent of its total exports.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Spanish psychologist evaluates Cambodia's 'jungle woman'

Phnom Penh, Jan 25. (AP): Cambodia's "jungle woman" smiled for the first time, showing a childlike appreciation for a puppet show put on by a visiting Spanish psychologist, the man who claims to be her long-lost father said on Wednesday.

Hector Rifa, a doctor of psychology from Spain's University of Oviedo, was spending several days with the woman in the hope of unraveling some of the mystery surrounding her since she emerged from the forest on January 13, naked and unable to speak, after what may have been nearly two decades in the wild.

Rifa is the first foreign medical professional to meet the woman who is believed to be 27-year-old Rochom P'ngieng, who disappeared in the jungles of Cambodia's northeastern Rattanakiri province while herding water buffaloes when she was 8.

"He put on a short puppet show, and my daughter smiled," Sal Lou, who claims to be the woman's father, said by phone from the remote northeastern village of Oyadao.

"He sang and danced" to try to cheer her up, he said. When asked if this was the woman's first smile since the family took her in, he replied: "Yes."

Sal Lou's family, members of Cambodia's Pnong ethnic minority, say they are certain the woman is Rochom P'ngieng because of a childhood scar on her right arm.

With no other evidence supporting their claim and others have speculated that the woman may have a history of mental troubles and simply became lost in the jungle much more recently.

Villagers began calling her "jungle woman" after she emerged from the forest walking like a monkey. Read more!

Girl, 6, embodies Cambodia's sex industry

Story Highlights•

More than one million children in global sex trade each year, U.S. State Dept. says• 50,000 to 100,000 women and children involved in Cambodia's sex industry• Gang rape, AIDS, torture afflict the women and children in this field.

By Dan Rivers CNN

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- At an age when most children might be preparing for their first day of school, Srey, 6, already has undergone trauma that is almost unspeakable.

She was sold to a brothel by her parents when she was 5. It is not known how much her family got for Srey, but other girls talk of being sold for $100; one was sold for $10.

Before she was rescued, Srey endured months of abuse at the hands of pimps and sex tourists.
Passed from man to man, often drugged to make her compliant, Srey was a commodity at the heart of a massive, multimillion-dollar sex industry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

"It is huge," said Mu Sochua, a former minister of women's and veteran's affairs who is an anti-sex trade activist.

The precise scale of Cambodia's sex trade is difficult to quantify. International organizations -- such as UNICEF, ECPAT and Save the Children -- say that anywhere from from 50,000 to 100,000 women and children are involved. An estimated 30 percent of the sex workers in Phnom Penh are under the age of 18, according to the United Nations. The actual figure may be much higher, activists say.

Global sex industry

Around the world, more than one million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade each year, according to the U.S. State Department. The State Department believes Cambodia is a key transit and destination point in this trade.

"Trafficking for sexual exploitation also occurs within Cambodia's borders, from rural areas to the country's capital, Phnom Penh, and other secondary cities in the country," the State Department wrote in a 2006 report. "The Government of Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so."

Sochua said that with millions of Cambodians struggling to live on less than 50 cents a day, many women turn to the sex industry. Poverty is also often what drives parents to sell their child or themselves on the streets.

"Always a child is left behind, often a girl, who is preyed on by traffickers," Sochua added.

An unlikely saviour

Srey was rescued from the life of a sex slave by Somaly Mam, a former prostitute who runs shelters for the victims of Cambodia's sex trade. Somaly has rescued 53 children, so far. Many of them have profound psychological trauma. Some clearly are mentally ill.

"A lot of them, when they arrive, have psychological problems ... very big problems. ... And they never have love by the people, by their parents," Somaly said.

One girl at Somaly's shelter appears especially disturbed. She was rescued after being imprisoned for two years in a cage, where she was repeatedly raped.

She needs psychiatric care, but there is none available. Somaly says she does her best to give this girl love and support, but that it's not easy with so many other needy children around.

Somaly herself suffered terrible ordeals when she worked the streets, including seeing her best friend murdered. She is determined to build something positive out of so much despair.

Her work has caught the attention of world leaders, celebrities and religious figures. Her office in Phnom Penh is adorned with photos of her meeting Pope John Paul II and messages of support from governments and charities.

Despite the attention, Somaly said the situation on the street is not getting better. Gang rapes of prostitutes are becoming more common, she said, and many of the attackers don't use condoms. Instead, they share a plastic bag.

"Poor women, they have been raped by eight, 10, 20, 25 men ... they hit them. They receive a lot of violence," she said.

HIV-AIDS also remains a persistent, though declining, problem among Cambodia's female sex workers.

About 20 percent of Cambodia's female sex workers are HIV-positive, according to Cambodia's Ministry of Health. This compares with the 39 percent of sex workers who tested positive in 1996, according to the Health Ministry.

To help sex workers transition to a more normal life, Somaly is hoping to expand her refuge in the countryside outside Phnom Penh, where former sex workers attend school and learn skills like weaving and sewing.

Asked what the future holds for Srey, Somaly stroked the girl's hair and paused.

Srey is HIV-positive, she said.

In such a poor country, without decent hospitals or medical care, Srey's future is bleak. Somaly just hopes she can make this girl's life bearable for as long as it lasts. Read more!

Former Khmer Rouge photographer seeks redemption through museum

Tuesday January 23rd, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - A former chief photographer at a torture centre run by Cambodia's Khmer Rouge wants to set up a museum, featuring pictures of the notorious group's leaders, as his way of apologizing for the death and destruction they caused.

Ngem En, now 47, documented for the Khmer Rouge the thousands taken into Phnom Penh's S-21 prison for torture and eventual execution in the late 1970s. Haunting photos of the victims are the centrepiece of an existing genocide museum at the prison site, also known as Tuol Sleng.

Historians estimate that more than 1.7 million Cambodians died of execution, starvation, overwork and inadequate medical care due to Khmer Rouge policies. Ngem En wants to set up a museum at Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in northern Cambodia where he now serves as a deputy district chief.

The project would be his "opportunity to apologize to all the victims who have suffered during that era," he said Tuesday. He would exhibit pictures of all Khmer Rouge leaders who ruled Cambodia from 1975-79, including Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Son Sen, he said."

It was these leaders who caused destruction and misery to Cambodia."The project would "let the next generation of Cambodians understand about Pol Pot's cruel regime," he said. Khmer Rouge chief Pol Pot died in 1998 but other former leaders of the group are still alive and living freely in Cambodia. Ngem En said he has a collection of photographs he has taken or obtained over the past few decades and that as many as 1,000 pictures could be suitable for display. The project, if realized, could also help the local economy, he said.

The museum would be an added attraction for tourists coming to visit Anlong Veng, where Pol Pot died and the Khmer Rouge movement finally collapsed in 1999. The government has designated Anlong Veng, about 300 kilometres northwest of Phnom Penh, an official historical site. Tourist attractions include the house of Ta Mok, the former Khmer Rouge army chief who died in July last year, and the spot where Pol Pot was cremated. While apologizing for his work as a photographer for the Khmer Rouge, Ngem En said he had no choice if he wanted to survive."I deeply regret it but nobody could help anyone," he said.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, an independent group researching the Khmer Rouge's crimes, said Ngem En's readiness to apologize publicly through his project provides an example to the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders and would help national reconciliation. He said he admires Ngem En's "frankness, courage and initiative" in undertaking a project based on his own work."

He came to us with a bunch of photographs saying that he wanted to tell the history to the public as a Khmer Rouge person," said Youk Chhang, himself a survivor of the regime. Ngem En said he does not know yet how much the project will cost and is looking for interested partners to join in the venture. Read more!

The Chinese Government had signed approval for loan to Cambodia

Cambodian children are in debt for 207 million US. dollars more. Will Cambodia be able to pay back all the Debts or Cambodia will sell its conscience to the Maoist regime like Khmeer Rough? Or will it sell the Kingdom to China to deal with debts?

Officials here on Monday signed an agreement for China to provide 207 million U.S. dollars of loans to Cambodia to develop its infrastructure construction.

Li Jun, Vice President of the China Import-Export Bank, and Cambodian Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhun signed the agreement in the presence of Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jinfeng.

According to a press release issued by the Cambodian Ministry of Economy and Finance, 190 million dollars' worth of preferential buyer's credit loan will go for the construction of National Road No. 8 from Khsach Kandal to the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, the Perek Tamak Bridge, the Prek Kdam Bridge, and the National Road 76 from the junction of National Road No. 7 in Snoul to Sen Monorom District, Mondulkiri Province.

Meanwhile, 17 million dollars of preferential loan will be used for the construction of the Cambodian section of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Information Superhighway.

During the ceremony, Keat Chhun expressed appreciation for China's consistent help, while Li said he expected the loans to contribute more to Cambodia's economic development and the Chinese- Cambodian ties.

Foreign loans have been one of the major economic propellers for the kingdom, which altogether received some 6.2 billion U.S. dollars of various loans from 1922 to 2005, according to official statistics. Read more!

Cambodia reopens Sihanoukville airport

Tue, Jan. 23,200

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The airport at Sihanoukville, Cambodia's main coastal city, has reopened with hopes high that it will further spur travel and the country's burgeoning tourism industry. A Soviet-made Antonov-24 plane belonging to a locally owned airline company landed at the Sihanoukville airport following an opening ceremony Jan. 13, said Norinda Khek, spokesman for Societe Concessionnaire des Aeroports, or SCA, a subsidiary of the French construction group Vinci.

He said the plane flew from Siem Reap province, Cambodia's main tourist hub, and that it carried 11 passengers, who were airline staff flying on the promotional trip. It was the first landing at the airport in the last three years, he added.

The airport had been closed for reconstruction.

The airport, located about 115 miles southwest of the capital Phnom Penh, is expected to serve as the first air link between Sihanoukville and Siem Reap, home to the famous Angkor temples, deputy tourism minister Thong Khon said.

He said he hoped the airport's reopening would encourage tourists to extend their stay to enjoy Cambodia's sandy beaches after touring the temples.

"This is part of our strategy in linking the two tourist destinations," he said, adding that 1.7 million tourists visited Cambodia last year, about a 20 percent increase over 2005.

Tourism has become a major source of income for the cash-strapped Southeast Asian country.
Norinda Khek said that the airport will host only domestic flights because its mile-long runway can accommodate only propeller planes.

But he said the company plans to extend the runway to 1.4 miles to handle jet aircraft by the end of the year. Read more!

Cambodia will claw poachers

BANGKOK, Jan 23 (IPS) - A regional wildlife body is aiming to spread its net wide to trap poachers and illegal loggers, now that a section of Cambodia's nature crime investigators have been armed with new legal tools. A week-long training programme held at Sihanoukville, the main beach resort in that South-east Asian nation, was geared to plug a gap that has long helped major wildlife criminals to get away -- investigations that were too weak to build legal cases.

''Prosecution has always been a problem in Cambodia. There have been very few successful cases,'' Steven Galster, director of field operations at WildAid, the global conservation lobby, told IPS from the site of the training, which ended Tuesday. ‘'We have trained them to set up long-term investigations and to build strong cases to catch the criminals.'' The skills that the 31 Cambodian officers from agencies like the police, the forest department and the customs have acquired are part of a drive by the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) to mount a counter offensive against the region's illegal wildlife trade, a multimillion-dollar industry. ASEAN, which stands for the Association of South-east Asian Nations, is a 10-member bloc that includes Brunei, Burma (or Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. ASEAN-WEN was set up in December 2005.

The need to save Cambodia's wildlife is best captured in the fate of one of its prized predators, the tiger, which is on the verge of extinction. WildAid has also documented other species that have been targeted by poachers, such as pythons, elongated tortoise and pangolins. Other conservation groups like TRAFFIC, the global wildlife trade monitoring network, say that Cambodia's bears, monitor lizards, crocodiles and macaques are as vulnerable to the claws of the poachers. Cambodia's wildlife has become increasingly in demand as ‘'stocks run dry in Vietnam,'' James Compton, TRAFFIC's South-east Asia regional director, said in an interview.

The growing demand from Vietnam and China, neighbouring countries which have been enjoying a long spell of rapid economic growth, has seen the demand for wildlife and wildlife products rise, he said. ‘'(They are used) for traditional medicine, wild meat, pets and private zoos.'' TRAFFIC recently noticed Vietnamese traders on the Vietnam-Cambodian border ‘'commissioning Cambodian poachers to hunt a shopping list of wildlife species,'' Compton revealed. ‘'Wildlife trade is very lucrative and is therefore attracting the business and entrepreneurial community who stand to gain significantly from this trade.''

A study by the World Bank in 2005 offers a glimpse at the profits involved. The wildlife trade in Vietnam in 2002 was estimated at 66.5 million US dollars, the Bank noted in ‘Going, Going, Gone: The Illegal Trade in Wildlife in East Asia and Southeast Asia.' In Indonesia, the study added, an average of over 50 tigers were killed every year from 1998 to 2002. Cambodia's wildlife had been part of this supply chain in the 1970s, too, when the country, caught in a bloody civil war and drawn into the war in Vietnam, came under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. ‘'By the late 1970s, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge had traded 25 million dollars worth of wild animal parts to the Chinese for weapons and supplies,'' adds the Bank's study. And as Cambodia's small team of rangers working in the country's pristine forests well know, trying to fight the poachers or illegal loggers comes with a high risk, including being attacked by poachers.

In September 2005, for instance, two forest rangers were killed by loggers along the boundary of the Phnom Aurual Wildlife Sanctuary, which lies east of Phnom Penh. A daunting challenge, says the London-based environmental group Global Witness, is one posed by the corruption linked to highly-placed government officials thriving on the illegal logging trade, which has severely depleted the forests. ‘'Wherever there is a forest in Cambodia, there is illegal logging,'' Jon Buckrell, forest policy coordinator at Global Witness, told IPS. ‘'It goes hand-in-hand with systemic corruption. Illegal logging is the preserve of the powerful and well connected -- if you are a poor farmer you cannot simply walk into a forest and start cutting down valuable trees.''

Recent policy decisions by Phnom Penh are expected to worsen this environment, Buckrell said, pointing to new economic land concessions granted ‘'to create plantations'' in natural forest areas. ‘'These permits are illegal and designed to provide a pretext for companies to undertake clear-cutting operations and sell the timber.'' Cambodia's loss of an estimated 2.5 million hectares of forest cover between 1990 and 2005 has even alarmed the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Troubled by the rampant scale of illegal logging in the 1990s, the IMF cancelled a 120 million US-dollar loan. Galster, of WildAid, concedes that corruption will be an issue for the newly trained nature crime investigators, ‘'Corruption is an issue, but half the problem is the lack of skills to deal with the major criminals.'' Read more!

Psychologist seeks to examine 'jungle woman' in Cambodia

Jan. 23,2007

A SPANISH psychologist traveled to see Cambodia's "jungle woman" yesterday to evaluate her condition since she was recently discovered naked and unable to speak after apparently spending nearly two decades alone in the wild. Hector Rifa, a doctor of psychology from Spain's University of Oviedo, said he wanted mainly to make sure the woman was treated properly for what appears to have been a traumatic experience. But it is also possible he may find clues to the woman's true identity - whether she is indeed a local girl who went missing in 1988, as claimed by a family in northeastern Cambodia who has taken her in as their long lost daughter.

Rifa was driving 13 hours yesterday from Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh to meet with the woman in Rattanakiri province's Oyadao district. The family of a village policeman there, Sal Lou, says they are certain the woman is Rochom P'ngieng because of a scar they can recognize on her right arm. The girl disappeared while tending water buffalo when she was eight years old.

With no other evidence supporting the claim, however, her actual identity is a mystery to other people, who speculate that she may just be a troubled person who became lost much more recently in the jungle. In any case, her inability to communicate and evident attempts to escape from the family that has given her shelter indicate she is in a difficult psychological situation."We need to make an evaluation of the situation because until now nobody was taking care" of her, said Rifa, who has been working in Cambodia on health promotion for indigenous people in the province over the past four years for the Spain-based group Psychology Without Borders.

He said he thinks the woman's case may not be anything more extraordinary than that of any other person having difficulty adapting to normal life after being lost in the jungle for an extended period."It is not extraordinary ... or anything coming from another world," he said.

Many villagers believed she may be possessed by a jungle spirit. On Monday, two Cambodian human rights groups expressed fear the woman may be suffering from the spotlight cast on her since she emerged from the wild, and offered to provide any necessary medical and psychiatric treatment. Read more!

EU increasingly impatient with Cambodia over anti-corruption law

Jan 23, 2007, 7:55

Phnom Penh - International donors are increasingly impatient with delays in implementation of a long-awaited anti-corruption law, German Ambassador to Cambodia Pius Fischer said Tuesday.

Fischer, who is the acting European Union (EU) president, called it an important issue for EU policy in Cambodia and could not be sidestepped.

'We strongly advocate the fight against corruption and the early adoption of an anti-corruption law in Cambodia,' he said after addressing a seminar on EU-Cambodian relations in Phnom Penh.

'We cannot debate any longer. For 10 years the royal Cambodian government has discussed a law against corruption. Now is the time to act and implement that law.'

Fischer also warned that implementation was as important as the law itself, and donors would be happy with no less than a politically independent anti-corruption body which can 'locate, integrate and develop cases against corruption.'

Endemic corruption has consistently been cited as a major hurdle to Cambodia's development.
Last November, Berlin-based Transparency International ranked Cambodia at 151 out of 163 countries in its 2006 corruption perceptions index survey.

The group made its ranking on a definition of corruption as 'the abuse of public office for private gain.' Cambodia scored just 2.1 points out of 10, earning it the second lowest position in Asia, ahead of only Myanmar.

Donors have repeatedly threatened to withhold funds from aid-dependent Cambodia if it continues to delay adopting the law. The government promised a new law by the end of last year but later announced that it needed to make changes to the penal code first.

As well as being an important donor to Cambodia, the EU is also a powerful trading partner, ranking as Cambodia's second most-important destination for exports and its sixth leading source of imports, according to 2005 trade statistics, with Germany at the top of the list. Read more!

Hun Sen to allow firms to import oil over borders

Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced that he will allow private companies to import gasoline from Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in order to cut down its prices and contain smuggling, local media said on Monday.

The high price of gasoline because of gas smuggling by paying the sum to currupted border authorities. The price of gasoline had been staying high for several months and causing economic harship. The government had lost million dollars in tax.

Hun Sen declared his decision during a meeting at the Council of Ministers here on Friday, after Ministry of Finance and Economy failed to convince the five main gas traders operating in the country to lower their prices, the Cambodian Daily quoted government spokesman and Information Minister Kiheu Kanharith as saying.

"Hun Sen is allowing any company to import lower-priced gasoline to Cambodia. We can not wait for the companies (to lower their prices), or it will be too late," he said.
The five companies are Caltex Cambodian Ltd, Total Cambodge, Sokimex, Kampuchea Tela Co. Ltd, and PTT (Cambodia) Ltd.

They told the paper that the introduction of new traders to import gasoline will not affect the current gasoline price, but it may help combat smuggling. The question is why is not going to affect gas prices? are some of the above gas companies belong to high ranking government officials, may be? or they have to pay some bribe to high ranking officials.

About 30 percent of gasoline price is paid to the government as tax, they added.
The opposition Sam Rainsy Party has been pressing the government in recent months to make efforts to decrease gasoline price in order to benefit the mass.

Cambodia's gas prices are among the highest in the region, almost one U.S. dollar per liter. There is something wrong in somewhere that force the gas price have to be high in order to survive their business. Or may be the Law disorder in Cambodia is good for the looting. Read more!

France donates over 124 mln euro to Cambodia

France has donated 124.5 million euro (some 161.5 million U.S. dollars) for Cambodia to promote its work in various sector from 2006 to 2010, an official told Xinhua here on Monday.

"The finance will be used for help Cambodia upgrade its work in the sectors of health and anti-HIV/AIDS missions, education, agriculture, court and law system, environment and bio-diversity, food security, French language study, irrigation system, restoration of ancient temples in Angkor Wat complex, training of Cambodian judges, scholarship for Cambodian students to study in France," said Ros Simara, director of Information Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

About 4.5 million euro (some 5.8 million U.S. dollars) of the fund will be going for Siem Reap to optimize its tourism layout to facilitate influx of more foreign visitors.

The donation was made recently when Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Nam Hong met with a French delegation, she said.

The deputy prime minister also requested the French to help Cambodia develop its rubber plantation sector, she added.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Bomb substance for Bangkok blast not from Cambodia: Official

The chemical substance for making the bombs of the Bangkok explosion on the eve of the new year is not from Cambodia, government spokesman Khieu Kanharidh said here on Monday.

Thai people could buy the chemical substance for making the bombs in their own country, they did not have to buy them from Cambodia, said Kanharith, who is also Information Minister.

Thai security authority should show the evidence while telling out the powder provider for the blast that killed three and injured about 40 Thai people, he said.

Cambodia has been cooperating closely with other countries to fight against terrorism and other criminal acts, he added.

The minister made his remarks after a Thai security agency official told an Australian Newspaper that the Jihad Islam (JI) terrorist group bought the chemical substances in Cambodia to make the bombs of the New Year's Eve explosion.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Experts: Cambodia Needs Tourism Overhaul

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia should not rely on its famous Angkor Wat temple complex to sustain its tourism industry, and should be looking to develop other destinations as well, officials said Monday. Cambodia has so many beautiful things that could be developed as tourist places.

The advice was given by tourism experts at the launch of a booklet meant to encourage tourists to stay longer to enjoy other attractions that Cambodia has to offer beside its centuries-old monuments.

The country's tourism sector has been developing rapidly in the past few years, becoming a major source of income for the cash-strapped Southeast Asian country. About 1.7 million tourists visited Cambodia last year, roughly a 20 percent increase over 2005.

About half of the visitors went to see Angkor temples in Siem Reap province, Cambodia's main tourism hub.

"One never can take rising streams of tourists for granted," Daniel Haas, first secretary of the German Embassy in Cambodia, said at the launch of the "Stay Another Day Cambodia" booklet.
"Having a wonderful attraction like Angkor Wat is no guarantee that tourists will keep coming to Cambodia," he said, noting the country has attractions beyond its historic culture.

The booklet features products and services including eco-tours, local cuisine and cooking classes, traditional massage, visits to development projects, orphanages, rehabilitation centers, artisans and the concerts of master musicians.

Kate Lloyd-Williams _ tourism program manager of the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility, which produced the booklet with sponsorship from Germany _ said most tourists simply "fly away" after touring the temples, buying some souvenirs and taking some pictures.

"As we all know, tourists spend less time and money in Cambodia than they do in neighboring countries," she said. Read more!

Japan donates 10.5 mln USD for Cambodia to develop economy

Japan has donated 10.5 millions U.S. dollars to Cambodia to help it construct infrastructure and improve its economic structure adjustment, Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong said in Phnom Penhon Monday.

"This grant aid will be used for the detailed design of the execution of the project for flood prevention and drainage improvement in Phnom Penh and the improvement of the economic structure adjustment efforts by the Royal Government of Cambodia, said Hor, who is also Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

"The finance can help develop the Cambodian economy and social development," Hor added at a press conference held at his ministry.

Earlier, Hor and Japanese Ambassador Fumiaki Takahashi signed the exchange of notes about the extension of the grant aid in presence of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Meanwhile, Phnom Penh Governor Ke Chu Tema told reporters that later this year Japan is expected to offer 22 million U.S. dollars for Phnom Penh to build riverbanks, flood prevention facility and drainage system.

Since 1993, Japan has extended more than 142 million U.S. dollars of non-project grant aid to Cambodia to help solve its economic difficulties, according to official statistics.

Source: Xinhua Read more!