Wearing a dark-blue uniform, with red trim, and standing next to a huge ironing machine in a garment factory in Phnom Penh, 20-years-old, Son Sean, smiles and responds: “My family has better living conditions now,” she pauses and continues while pushing a collar into the machine, “From my earnings, my mother has been able to build a 5 by 7 meter brick house with a tiled roof, and my 15 year-old sister has been able to continue her schooling.”
Son Sean is one of many garment workers who come from the poor Cambodian province of Svay Rieng, located about 120 km east of Phnom Penh. She earns on average about US$70 per month, depending on how much overtime she gets, and each month, Sean sends US$50 to US$90 cash home to support her 50-year old widowed mother and her younger sister, who studies in the fifth grade.
Sean’s co-worker, Vong Pak, 39, smiles proudly when asked whether she supports members of her family with her earnings. “From my salary I support my 68-year-old mother, my four children and I pay for my children’s schooling,” she says while sewing a shirt. Pak is the breadwinner of the family. Three of her four children, who are 14, 12, 7, and 3 years old, are in school now.
Both Sean and Pak work at the New Island Clothing garment factory (NIC), along with more than 800 other workers. NIC is one of 290 garment factories in Cambodia which exports goods to the United States and Europe. NIC operates in six countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Lithuania and Mauritius.
The company produces men's and ladies’ formal and casual shirts, supplying these to Marks & Spencers, as well as to premium overseas customers. New Island is a winner of Cambodia’s First Corporate Citizenship Awards which were sponsored by the World Bank Group’s private sector financing arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2005.
Cambodia’s garment industry is the country’s main industry and its leading export revenue earner. In 2006, exports totaled US$2.5 billion and the sector employed 330,000 mostly poorer rural women, who in turn support extended families. In total, an estimated 1.7 million people depend on the garment industry directly or indirectly.
According to the report Export Diversification and Value Addition for Human Development which was published by the Economic Institute of Cambodia in June 2007, garment industry workers earn an average of US$73 per month, 29 percent of which comes from overtime work.
Representing almost 80 percent of Cambodia’s total exports, the sector is crucial to Cambodia’s economy. However, increasing global competition makes the industry vulnerable, and so a variety of approaches are needed to help the industry sustain itself.
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Monday, August 06, 2007
Cambodia : Garment sector competes & thrives
Community Project: Fair Trade Fashion From Cambodia
When Japanese art critique Marie Furuta moved from Mexico to Cambodia in 2004 she soon decided to set up "something small" in her new home that would support the community and involve fair trade. Finding a strong fashion industry in Cambodia in general and looking at local, traditional materials, she decided to set up a new fair trade accessory label and simply called Sait - meaning beauty in Khmer!
Now she manages 5 different communities in Cambodia around Siem Reap to produce the accessories from scratch: anything from planting the trees for wild silk worms to grow, to gathering the cocoons for the precious Cambodian silk used for her bags and scarfs, creating the fabrics, designing and finally manufacturing the accessories. There are currently about 150 Cambodians making a fair living by working for Sait (http://www.republiqueair.com/ - sorry only really Japanese at this stage).
To share this spark of positive entrepreneurship today - read on!
Worldchanging: Marie, how did you start your fair trade company "Sait"? What were the first steps?
Marie: It all started little by little. By summer 2005, one year after living in Cambodia, I focussed my formerly vague idea of "helping the communities" on working with silk products, pitched my business plan to local NGOs, raised some money and looked for workshops who were interested in my project. I basically went around Cambodia and talked to the crafters to find out what problems they were facing and how to help them best. I now have 5 communities that I chose to work with and who agreed on this idea of creating bags and products with artisans to be sold in Japan and Spain.
It took me about one year to really fix the ideas of the workshop, create optimal working conditions and find buyers. In 2006 we started selling and things have been going well since then - step by step.
Worldchanging: What would you say is different about the way you run your fair trade company compared to others around?
Marie: There are lots of workshops in Cambodia already and lots of fair trade companies, so people don't view me or Sait as extraordinary as such, but they know that we are one of the few "fair" ones amongst all of those who "claim" to be fair.
I set up 3 important agreements with the people from my workshops:
1. The project must be community based, so it needs to stay relatively small. There are lots of big companies here doing fair trade, but instead of just creating a place for the crafters to go and "give them more work to do", I really wanted them to be able to work from their communities based on their schedules.
2. They have to be involved in the design of the actual product. This protects them from dull labour work and forces them to be creative, think about what they are producing, it educates and makes them more independent - and happier - in the end.
3. Maximum transparency. I have to tell them for how much I am selling their accessories in Japan and Spain, how much the shipping costs, how much the store keeps, how much money I spend for internet purposes etc. so things are kept as transparent as possible. They really need to understand how much things costs and recognize their own and the products' value in the chain of retail. Also we decided to sell the product very cheap (about 1500Yen for a middle size handmade 100% pure silk handbag) so that we sell more and make more profit in the end.
Worldchanging: Why is it so important or the crafters to stay in their community to work?
Marie: It is a real problem to provide work in Cambodia, since there are so many handicapped people due to land-mines. 3 managers out of 5 from my workshops are disabled. Many can actually still work but in order to get to or from work, or onto the chair etc. requires someone to help them. That is why working in a community makes it easy from the start.
On a normal day there could be 5 crafters from one community actively working, but one of them would do all the domestic tasks (helping the disabled, cooking, looking after the children etc.) and the others work on the accessories. The next day they would switch roles to keep everyone involved.
Since they are all good in making the products, it also allows them to go in and out. A while ago someone's brother had a problem and joined the community for some time,
stayed to earn money and once he had enough he left again to look for a new job. That gives people a lot of support in a country where there isn't such a system as social security established yet.
Worldchanging: How do you see the whole aspect of design in your project?
Marie: Design is one of the most important factors, definitely. I want our customers to buy our products because they really love the design - and as a result they are also helping. You cannot build on the idea of wanting to help through fair trade, since - hopefully - one day the country grows and there would then be no need for buying their "products to help" anymore.
The crafters have to learn how to create products of great value that are unique, have a local feel to them but also suit the needs of the customers (e.g. smaller "party size" bags for Spain, stylish silk bags to match Kimono in Japan or bags with an extra compartment for laptops). That is why I am really pushing for locally crafted and designed products that come from Cambodia. If our products convince as a product and you are surprised to realize all the story behind it - then buying these bags is twice as good as purchasing an ordinary product and we achieved our goal.
Also I really believe in handmade things. You feel it somehow! Also - knowing that the product has a greater value than another mass produced item might keep you using it for another year or two - adding to a healthier environment in that respect.
Worldchanging: A lot of culture and an overall identity has been destroyed in Cambodia and it is now on its way to re-define itself. Where do you see your role in this as a young entrepreneur?
Marie: Using traditional materials like silk for our accessories but trying to come up with something new on their own is one way to help our crafters to create a rooted but new identity to touch.
Also 10% of all our sales go to the Modern Art Project in Cambodia supporting contemporary local artists - which makes our crafters understand, that they are also contributing to help their own country flourish by supporting the arts.
This Modern Art Project raises money for Cambodian artists to exhibit their works in Cambodia or abroad - through small donators like us, bigger ones like Art Pacific (http://www.aapmag.com/) or from charity auctions of the artworks.
2005 was the first time that all Cambodian artists got pulled together which raised the awareness that there is such a thing as an emerging art scene in Cambodia in the first place. You should keep an eye on artists like Vann Nath and Svay Ken!
Worldchanging: Any last words from you? Future plans?
Marie: The one thing I am trying to improve right now is that we switch to using organic dyes. Somehow our crafters see the organic, traditional colors and all they can think of are traditional style Khmer bags! They simply freeze. So for now we work with toxic free dyes (http://www.twn.tuv.com/english/Services/product/approvals/tox.htm) from Oekotex (http://www.oeko-tex.com/OekoTex100_PUBLIC/index.asp), Germany. It is a slow process to convince them but we really only just started this, so there is a big learning curve ahead!
Also I am constantly looking for designers who would like to collaborate with us - designing new patterns or coming over to do a workshop.
Thank you Marie and good luck for that!!!
Sait's web-page (http://www.republiqueair.com/) is - unfortunately - only in Japanese at this point. For more info about their products or where to buy them in your country please contact Marie directly marie.furuta@republiqueair.com
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Russian telecommunication operators’ landing in Cambodia
The Russian Telecommunication companies have broken through in their international expansion, having entered the Southeast Asia market. The Altimo Holding has bought Sotelco, the Cambodian mobile and wireless operator. The given operator has no network of its own, so Altimo is likely to resell it in the near future.
The Altimo Telecommunications Holding announced buying a 90% stake in Sotelco, providing WiMax wireless services in Cambodia and having a license for GSM 900/1800. That is the first transaction on purchasing the Southeast Asia assets by a Russian telecommunications company. Besides Cambodia, Altimo is going to make some purchases in Vietnam and Indonesia. Dmitri Vosianov, handling Altimo stake in MegaFon, is to supervise the given line.
Altimo indicates neither the transaction charge, nor the seller’s name, nor the bought operator performance index. When preparing the given publication, it was impossible to get any of the company’s representative for comments. The operator is likely to have been granted the cellular license not long ago, so it has not even started providing the services. At present there are three GSM-operators in the Cambodian market. They are CamGSM (operating in the 900 MHz range under the Mobitel brand, owned by the Millicom International Cellular international corporation), Cambodia Shinawatra (Camshin, 1800 MHz) and Telekom Malaysia International Cambodia (900 MHz, Hello GSM trading mark). Cambodia Advance Communications (Cadcomms) and Applifone also own the unrealized license for the 1800 MHz range.
Thus, Sotelco is the only mobile operator possessing frequencies in both GSM ranges. But Sotelco has no license for the 3G communication. At the same time, CamGSM and Cadcomms have license for 3G compatible with GSM UMTS, while CDMA-200 is owned by Azcom (800 MHz range) and Camshin (450 MHz).
Cambodia population is 14 mln., the absolute market leader being CamGSM with 1.3 mln. subscribers. “The mobile communication penetration in Cambodia is a little bit more than 10%, - Mr. Vosianov notes. – However, the country is rich in natural resources, including offshore oil, its economy growth exceeding 7% a year. We believe Cambodia cellular market growth potential is high”.
However, holding controlling interest is not characteristic of financial investors, such as Altimo. Of all it assets the Holding holds control only over Metrosvyaz CDMA-operator, a small Russian operator. According to a person, familiar with the situation, Altimo is to resell Sotelco, VimpelCom is likely to be the buyer. Altimo owns 44% of voting shares in the mentioned operator and has been reselling its mobile assets in Russia and CIS to VimpelCom so far.
Although the mentioned transaction was the first telecommunication assets acquisition in the Southeast Asia for the Russian investors, the CIS companies has already got assets in the mentioned market. According to CNews, a group of Kazakh investors launched Spice Nepal Private cellular network in Nepal in 2005, which is the second mobile operator in the republic after the public Nepal Telecommunications Corporation. The Kazakh partners in the given projects are the local governmental authorities businessmen. It is interesting the same investment group together with Altimo owns BiTel and SkyMobile, the Kirghiz mobile operators.
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Lao president arrives in Cambodia for official visit
Phnom Penh - Lao People's Democratic Republic President Choummaly Sayasone arrived in Cambodia Monday on a three-day state visit at the invitation of King Norodom Sihamoni.
The Foreign Ministry said that apart from an audience with the king, Sayasone and his delegation would also meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior politicians during his visit.
Lao borders Cambodia to the north and the two nations - both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - have made increasing bilateral trading ties a priority.
Sayasone, who was appointed president in June 2006, is also head of state of Lao.
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Genocide tourism: Tragedy becomes a destination
By Steve Silva
August 5, 2007
Julie Dermansky is a genocide tourist.
Since visiting the former Nazi death camp at Dachau in 1997, Dermansky, a 40-year-old from Santa Monica, Calif., has seen the killing fields in Cambodia, walked through mass grave sites in Bosnia and stood among human remains in Rwanda. She is, in her own words, obsessed.
"Why go to Club Med," Dermansky, a photographer, asks, "when you can witness this kind of history?"
She is not alone. An increasing number of tourists are traveling to places of horrific human catastrophe. In Rwanda, Bosnia and Armenia, travelers pay their respects to victims of genocide at popular memorials and cemeteries. Even Kurdistan in Iraq, scene of an ethic cleansing campaign during the 1980s, is promoting its horrible past with a genocide museum. Tragedy has become a destination.
Nearly a million tourists visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in 2005, up from half that the year before. Other former death camps have seen a similar increase in recent years.
Lately at Auschwitz, the growth in tourism has made for some odd juxtapositions. Visitors dine in a newly renovated cafeteria built within the large room where thousands of Nazi victims were processed upon arrival at the camp. This blending of modern tourist convenience and the apparatus of organized death disturbed Dermansky.
"It's a tourist jungle," she says.
While they are perhaps the best known, the concentration camps scattered across Germany and Eastern Europe are not the only genocide sites seeing an increase in visitors.
To accommodate the swelling tourist trade, the Cambodian government last year hired a Japanese firm to build a visitors center and hotel adjacent to the Choeung Ek killing field near Phnom Penh. When the visitors center opens next year, the new company will charge a $3 admission fee rather than the current 50 cents. The town of Anlong Veng in northwest Cambodia is building a genocide museum in the renovated houses of former Khmer Rouge officials to attract tourists.
Tourism Cambodia, a private travel company based in Phnom Penh, offers an assortment of tours specifically geared to genocide tourists. In addition to Choeung Ek, the company highlights excursions to the Tuol Sleng Museum, a school-turned-prison where some 17,000 people were killed between 1977 and 1979; the Kamping Puoy Reservoir, a Khmer Rouge work project made famous by the late Haing S. Ngor in his book "Survival in Cambodia's Killing Fields"; and the civil war museum in Siem Reap. The Tourism Cambodia Web site warns that these sites are "not for the squeamish."
Bosnia on the list
Sarajevo, Bosnia, is another center for genocide tourism. According to the Bosnia-Herzegovina Tourism Board, visits to the country were up 25 percent in 2005 from the previous year and are running nearly 20 percent ahead this year.
"We've come to terms that there are places in our country that attract tourists because of war history," Arna Ugljen, the tourism board's director of public relations, said.
Teri-Lynn Spiteri is one such visitor. She was deeply moved by the plight of Bosnians during the war in the 1990s, especially the massacre of 8,000 civilians at Srebernica in 1995. Watching the news at the time, Spiteri, who has been to the former Nazi death camp at Dachau twice, was reminded of the Holocaust.
"I recalled hearing over and over during history class in high school how 'nothing like this will ever happen again' and 'those who forget the past are bound to repeat it,'" she says.
Spurred by the 10th anniversary of the massacre at Srebernica and compelled to see for herself the impact of the events she'd witnessed on television, Spiteri, 42, traveled to Sarajevo in 2005. Her friends and family didn't understand why she needed to go. And although Spiteri regularly traveled alone, they were also concerned for her safety. Seeing the anniversary coverage on the news, Spiteri's mother was convinced that the war was ongoing and tried daily to talk her into staying home.
"Once I left," she says, "I had to call every day, and if I missed a day I paid dearly for it on my next call home."
While she did not get to Srebernica on that trip -- NATO peacekeepers she met in Sarajevo warned her that something was "brewing" in the area -- Spiteri did encounter a Serbian general being interviewed by Italian television. Speaking through an interpreter, the general expressed his surprise that she was a tourist.
A need for reflecting
For Spiteri, the trip to Bosnia was the culmination of a decade of fascination with the struggle and recovery of the local people. She says she worries that other travelers bent on visiting genocide sites might not be so reflective.
"If you are going just for thrill seeking, hoping to find 'remains,' or perhaps get a kick out of others' misery, I'm disgusted by that," she says.
Not everyone is sanguine about the development of genocide tourism. Tessa Somerville of the Kurdistan Development Corporation, a private commercial investment firm working with the Kurdish government, is repelled by the idea of dark tourism.
"How can people vacation when mothers are giving birth to babies who are affected by the chemicals which rained down during Saddam's Anfal Campaign and there are many people still searching for loved ones who have disappeared?" she asks.
Some in the travel industry are ambivalent about the spread of genocide tourism.
"To each their own," says travel agent Steve Murphy of Kumuka Worldwide in New York. "I guess people wouldn't offer it if there wasn't a market for it, whatever your own decision on it."
Murphy is afraid that genocide tourism exploits the local population while enriching a few tour operators.
'He cried like a baby'
Rajan Tiwari, director of Kiboko Tours & Travel in Kilgali, Rwanda, shares some of Murphy's feelings about genocide tourism and prefers to point out more conventionally uplifting attractions -- like a temperate climate and endangered gorillas.
"The genocide was and still is painful," he says, "Personally I feel it is quite important that visitors visit to understand the Rwandans better, and they do."
Tiwari remembers an American accountant who while at the genocide site in Ntaramta broke down and collapsed in Tiwari's arms. "He cried like a baby," he recalls.
For Tiwari the genocide exists in two worlds -- a heartbreaking past that lingers each day and a future that holds the promise of understanding and recovery.
Standing in a church in Rwanda where Hutus murdered 5,000 ethnic Tutsis in 1994, Dermansky faced a similar quandary. As she surveyed a scene of horror -- disintegrating clothing and shoes scattered among bones and other scraps of human remains -- she thought about the visitors who would come after her.
If the local authorities cleaned up -- or "sanitized," in her words -- this place, would future visitors feel the same sense of horror that she felt? Was she being selfish in her desire to witness such devastation?
Dermansky is already planning her next trip. It's simply a matter of where to go next.
"Nowhere has a monopoly on injustice," she says.
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Official land grab in Cambodia mirrors situation across region
TRAPEANG KRASAING, Cambodia: Monsoon rains have brought new misery to the residents of this resettlement site outside the Cambodian capital.
Already uprooted from their homes, the hundreds of families living here now have to contend with near daily downpours that flood their shacks with putrid water.
“Living here is a misery,” said Chan Bory, one of the thousands who authorities in Phnom Penh pushed from their homes in a city slum that had been earmarked for multi-million dollar development.
The pre-dawn eviction a year ago to this remote site 22km away was one of the largest single forced moves from Phnom Penh since the Khmer Rouge evacuated the capital’s population to the countryside after seizing power in 1975.
“A lot of children are getting diseases,” said Sithan Phann, coordinator with the Housing Rights Taskforce, a coalition of non-governmental organisations.
“There’s no place for the water to drain. The people’s shelter is not adequate. It’s very terrible for the people living there,” he said.
Forced evictions are nothing new in Cambodia, where tens of thousands have been displaced in recent years amid a scramble for land to feed the country’s booming real estate market.
The facts of the Trapeang Krasaing case have become depressingly familiar, both in Cambodia and throughout Asia: the poor, with little or nothing to prove ownership, lose their land to the rich, either through trickery, shady government investment schemes or outright violence.
“Land-grabbing by the powerful — the abuse of power to evict people — follows the same pattern” across Asia, said Lao Mong Hay, an analyst with the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.
In China, the ruling Communist Party has admitted that land rights disputes are one of the biggest drivers of rising social unrest.
Corrupt local government officials working hand-in-hand with property developers and industrialists to kick farmers off their land and evict city residents from their homes have proved to be one of the most bitter features of the nation’s economic development.
In communist Vietnam, where street rallies are rare, one form of public protest has become an increasingly familiar sight in recent years: angry farmers camping outside state offices to complain of illegal land grabs.
Almost invariably the villagers say local officials short-changed them in compensation payments when they appropriated their ancestral land and rice fields to build a new road, bridge, office block or industrial park.
As Vietnam launches itself head-first into a new economic era, booking more than 8% growth a year two decades after it abandoned central planning, the number of land disputes is only set to rise, say experts. Expanding economies elsewhere have also sparked an explosion in land grabs.
In Cambodia, the government has granted some 59 “economic land concessions” totalling almost 1mn hectares to private companies, often without fulfilling legal requirements such as impact studies.
These concessions are part of a wider government policy to make fallow land ready for export-quality agricultural goods.
But the result is that huge swathes of land used for decades by subsistence farmers are suddenly taken away, most likely without adequate compensation.
“In a functioning market system, increased demand would mean landowners would reap adequate financial rewards to secure housing,” said one land rights advocate.
“In Cambodia, however, the system is so corrupt that the deals are conducted between investor and a politician who takes a personal profit to ensure that the police force rightful residents off of their land.”
In India, similar “special economic zones” (SEZ) have seen farmers persuaded to sell their land to projects encouraged by the government to spur industrialisation, infrastructure development and economic growth.
So far, India has approved 303 SEZs and set aside 1,400sq km of land on which to build them.
While the land owners are paid, the money is never enough to sustain them in a world away from their life of farming, advocates warned, adding that SEZs have also led to violence.
Fourteen farmers were killed in March when police entered their village to evict them from land designated an SEZ area — causing a furore and polarising public opinion.
“These are enclaves of privilege, insulated from the laws of the land — whether it is labour laws or environment laws,” said social activist Vandana Shiva.
As with many land disputes in Cambodia, the Trapeang Krasaing case highlights the near total lack of documentation — common in countries where landownership has largely been historic and traditional — to determine who owns what property.
Land records in Cambodia were largely destroyed during the 1975-79 rule of the communist Khmer Rouge, which abolished private ownership.
A land titling programme has made little headway in restoring ownership records, which even when they do exist are often simply ignored by those handing out eviction notices.
Tangled bureaucracies elsewhere have also exacerbated the problem, making land grabs easier to pull off and harder to resolve.
In Indonesia, the grabbing of long-neglected plots of land has led to a mushrooming of disputes that are only made worse by rampant corruption and a poor registration system.
One particular type of grabbing on the rise involves the encroachment of agricultural fields and settlements into protected forest areas and parks, a serious cause of environmental degradation.
Chalid Mohamed, executive director of Walhi, the country’s leading environmental watchdog, said the grabs have become “a major problem found in almost all forested areas in Indonesia”.
In the densely-populated province of Lampung at the south end of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, illegal encroachment has reached critical levels, said Sutono, the deputy chief of the Lampung forestry office.
“In Lampung, this encroachment has been going on for a long time, even back 30 to 40 years,” he said, adding there were now even registered official villages inside what should have been protected natural forest areas.
He estimates about 65% of a million hectares of protected forest area in Lampung has been grabbed and converted to settlements and farmland.
“The root cause of this illegal occupation is the absence of work opportunities, and most of the people involved in this usually are willing to leave the forest if they can get jobs or livelihoods elsewhere,” Sutono said.
Ownership disputes have also led to an explosion of court cases in Thailand after the 2004 tsunami displaced thousands of villagers from the Andaman coast.
Many either had no documents to prove they owned the land, or lost their property deeds in the waves.
Some 387 court cases have been filed by companies against villagers since the tsunami, with more than 200 still before the courts.
Another 800 eviction notices are in mediation, according to Suttipong Lyetip of the National Human Rights Commission. Most of the cases that have been settled were resolved through compromise, often with the companies paying out some compensation.
But that is an unlikely outcome elsewhere. Worsening violence has come to characterise the growing number of disputes that erupt in China, where at least half of all land deals are thought to be illegal and the victims get nothing from the transaction.
“The crux of the issue is that governments at all levels plunder the land resources, the commoners see little if any of the money,” said Hou Guoyan, a retired professor from the China University of Political Science and Law.
“Violators get off scot-free and the (central) government is at a loss to solve the problem.”
Beijing has issued a series of regulations aimed at increasing scrutiny over land deals, experts say, but has little power to enforce the law in the provinces.
“The main problem is that standard compensation levels for villagers are too low,” said Liu Xiaoying, a rural issues researcher at the China Academy of Social Sciences. “This is very difficult to solve.”-AFP
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Sunday, August 05, 2007
World Bank chief says Cambodia needs broader-based economy
PHNOM PENH (Thomson Financial) - Cambodia's economy is too narrowly focussed on its garment sector, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said Sunday, suggesting it needs to build on its successes to draw investors to other industries.
"Cambodia has a particular opportunity and need to develop a global brand," Zoellick said at the end of a two-day visit to the country, which has carved out a lucrative niche by selling itself to buyers as a labor-friendly textile producer.
"It's been able to stay in the game and grow, in part because for some buyers there is special value to the social responsibility that it's included in that industry," he said.
Cambodia's garment sector continues to expand, employing some 330,000 people in more than 200 factories and accounting for 80 percent of the country's export earnings.
But Zoellick said that this is "too narrow a base on which to develop" and that to attract other businesses, it was essential for Cambodia to create the right investment climate.
"Cambodia is a small country. It needs to be distinctive to get on the map and I believe it can be distinctive by emphasising its heritage, better labor practices, better transparency, fighting corruption," he said.
"This is all important if Cambodia is going to draw foreign investment and create jobs."
Economic growth has been projected at 9.0 percent this year by the International Monetary Fund.
While it continues to expand at a healthy rate, the economy has shrunk from a growth high of 13.5 percent two years ago and relies almost solely on garments and tourism to drive it.
During his visit Zoellick met Prime Minister Hun Sen and held lengthy discussions with other top officials.
His talks here were focussed largely on the bank's continued role in Cambodia, a relationship that has not always been easy.
The government is still paying back millions of dollars that were found to have been stolen from three bank-supported projects last year, forcing their temporary suspension.
"As we tried to make clear from the recent past, we can't be in a position where the money that we are ... devoting to Cambodia gets stolen," he said.
Cambodia, which also fell foul of the World Bank in 2003, when graft was uncovered in a project to demobilize soldiers, remains one of the world's poorest countries, and last year was ranked 151 out of 163 in Transparency International's corruption perceptions Index.
Zoellick said the government acknowledged its problems with corruption.
"Governance and corruption issues are at the front and center of people's agendas," Zoellick said.
"Cambodia draws about 690 million dollars a year from international donors, which is no small sum in the world of competitive aid," he said.
"To be able to continue and strengthen that support it will need to build a positive record and counter the challenge of corruption," he said.
"This is not just a question of pleasing the external world. It's a question of being fair to the Cambodian people ... and that means making sure that, whether it be foreign aid or government revenue, [money] is spent appropriately."
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World Bank's Zoellick arrives in Cambodia
Zoellick, who took office in July, is to meet with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Sunday on his first visit to the kingdom, forming part of his first official tour of Asia.
He was scheduled to hold talks with Cambodian Economy and Finance Minister Keat Chhon late Saturday, officials said.
Zoellick's visit comes as Cambodia continues to pay back millions of dollars siphoned off in a massive corruption scandal that forced the World Bank to suspend three key aid projects last year.
The programmes have since been reinstated, but the bank has demanded Cambodia repay 2.9 million dollars after contractual irregularities involving agricultural and flood prevention funds were discovered.
The issue sparked a row with the Hun Sen government which initially refused to repay, saying the World Bank must provide more evidence of irregularities.
Cambodia, which is plagued by corruption at almost every level of government, also fell foul of the World Bank in 2003, when graft was uncovered in a project to demobilise 30,000 soldiers.
A major environmental group, which published a damning report in June accusing Cambodia's political elite of illegally plundering the country's forests, Friday urged Zoellick to address corruption.
"This visit is an opportunity for Robert Zoellick to set the tone for his presidency and lay the foundations for the Bank's approach to kleptocratic governments everywhere," Global Witness said in a statement.
Zoellick also visited the Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng prison Saturday, a former high school that was converted into a torture centre during the 1975-79 communist terror regime.
Reeling from three decades of civil war, Cambodia's economy is expected to rise 9.0 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund said this week.
But the country is among the world's poorest nations as some 35 percent of Cambodia's 14 million people live on less than 50 US cents a day.
Zoellick, who travelled to Cambodia from Australia, is to visit Vietnam and Japan before returning to the United States on August 9.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Dung DNA helping to unlock the secrets of the elephant
An Australian DNA laboratory is helping international conservations to study the habits of Cambodian elephants.
Fauna & Flora International, the world's oldest conservation organisation, is using DNA fingerprinting to monitor elephant populations in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains with the help of Australian scientists.
Elephant dung is being collected by field biologists and trackers, and transported to DNA Solutions, a laboratory in suburban Melbourne, where the DNA will be extracted and analysed. Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains are blanketed by virtually undisturbed forest stretching over 10,000 square kilometres. Field biologists can spend weeks searching for elephants to record the vital data needed to properly monitor elephant populations. DNA analysis can yield this vital information much more quickly and efficiently.
Estimating the size of elephant populations in Cambodia is extremely difficult, due to their habits and the size of their habitat. They are also extremely secretive animals. Joe Heffernan, an elephant biologist with Fauna & Flora International, has been playing hide and seek with the largest of all land mammals for years.
"It's incredible how these immense creatures are like silent ghosts in dense forest," Heffernan said. "They can pass within metres and simply not be heard.
"This is the first time a closed population has been surveyed, so the results stand to be the most sophisticated ever recorded.
"In addition to the difficulties of observing elephants in the wild, their tracks and feeding signs can only reveal so much. DNA from their dung, however, can reveal the age, sex and health of the individual that produced it. Because each fingerprint is unique, the size of the population can be accurately estimated."
Vern Muir, director of DNA Solutions, said: "DNA Solutions is essentially a big team of biologists, so I can speak for everyone when I say we are all feeling proud to be able to help the cause of elephant conservation.
"It is extremely rewarding to be able to use genetic techniques that for so many years have been used to solve other people's paternity issues, for something that instead gives all of us greater personal satisfaction."
The information will be used to refine long-term elephant management strategies and identify future protected areas. The Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) also plans to use the data to monitor illegal elephant killing and forecast trends.
Cambodia is critical to Asian elephant conservation, but work is hampered by the scarcity of field data. Fauna & Flora International is leading surveys of remote forest areas and working with the Cambodian Wildlife Protection Office and Ministry of the Environment to ensure that these elephant strongholds are protected.
Fauna & Flora International is also working with communities within the Cardamoms to understand their needs so that they do not harm elephants that stray close to their villages.
The first batch of samples will arrive in Melbourne next month, with initial data projected to be processed by November.
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In Cambodia, Journalists Learn How to Report on Justice for Genocide
“The Cambodian press plays a crucual role in informing the public on the Khmer Rouge trials,” said French journalist Thierry Cruvellier, who has covered war crimes tribunals in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Colombia. “Cambodian citizens need access to accurate, informed reporting to be assured that victims of the Khmer Rouge are receiving some measure of justice.”
Led by Cruvellier, Internews Cambodia has begun a series of workshops on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) that has reached more than 160 newspaper and radio reporters, editors and news directors in Phnom Penh and the provinces. This is the first in-country, hands-on training for Cambodian journalists on covering this topic.
Training has provided Cambodian journalists with background on international criminal justice, a better understanding of the specific judicial process at the KRT, and basic training on how to report on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes trials at the pre-trial stage.
“I know the KRT law and its legal process better,” said a Pailin-based newspaper reporter, who recently published a KRT-related front page story. “I can improve my story ideas on KRT cases. I dare write any story about this court which in the past I dared not. Now I know its law, I am not intimidated by it. I just keep writing on it.”
The training has been received enthusiastically. One editor, whose reporters had never been trained in court procedures, reported that he had noticed an immediate improvement in trial stories.
Current workshops are focusing on procedures to be followed in pre-trial investigations culminating in trials expected to begin in mid 2008. They also discuss specific challenges for reporters covering war crimes trials, such as witness protection and presumption of innocence. The training will expand to help Cambodian journalists improve general coverage of police and court matters.
Cruvellier, editor of the online newspaper International Justice Tribunal, which covers war crimes justice news, joined Internews Cambodia as a consultant in April. Cambodian Senior Resident Journalism Adviser Mike Fowler, a lawyer with stateside experience as a prosecutor and defense attorney, will join Cruvellier and Phann Ana in preparing and presenting these workshops. The program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia.
Internews Cambodia is also planning to take weekly feeds of court action provided by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) public affairs office and produce high-quality video reports to bring news of the tribunal to remote parts of the country.
This effort will build on Internews’ experience in Rwanda, producing newsreel reports on justice processes for the Rwandan genocide, and airing these in prisons, community halls and churches around the country. No other organization has similar experience of such undertakings. Internews has also provided coverage of the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Cambodia to open embassy in South Africa next year
Cambodia plans to open an embassy in South Africa in 2008 to strengthen relations and cooperation between the two nations, local media reported on Friday.
The plan was born after an Aug. 1 meeting between Ouch Borith, secretary of state of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and a visiting South African delegation led by Gloria Nonzwkazi Swartbooi, member of South Africa's Portfolio Committee, said Cambodian-language newspaper the Rasmei Kampuhcea.
Nonzwkazi Swartbooi said that he welcomes the establishment of a Cambodian embassy in South Africa to improve relations and cooperation between the two countries, the paper quoted the secretary of state as saying.
During the meeting, Ouch Borith requested that South Africa support Cambodia's non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council for a 2013 to 2014 mandate following an election to be held in 2012, reiterating his claim that the kingdom wants to enhance relations with South Africa and other African countries.
Source: Xinhua.
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FBI Has a New Outpost in Southeast Asia
When Laro Tan was a child, his family was forced to flee Cambodia during the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge. Today, he’s back in his native land as an FBI agent working to stand up our new overseas office in its capital city of Phnom Penh.
The office—called a Legal Attaché or “Legat”—is one of some 60 Bureau outposts around the world. Each is headed by a special agent (also called a Legat) who serves as a formal member of the diplomatic staff in the U.S. Embassy and works to build close, mutually beneficial relationships with his or her international colleagues.
We call on these partnerships quite often. “So many of our investigations these days have an overseas connection,” says Tan, who was appointed acting Legat when the office officially opened in May. “We don’t have the authority to make arrests or track leads ourselves in other countries, so we go to our partners and ask for help. In return, we offer assistance in their cases with U.S. connections and encourage their agencies and officers to take advantage of the many training programs we offer.”
Why an office in Phnom Penh? Before, Cambodia was covered by the Bangkok Legat—which is more than 330 miles away from Phnom Penh—making relationship building more difficult. Now, Legat Tan handles both Cambodia and Vietnam, providing more on the ground coverage in the growing region of Southeast Asia.
The day-to-day work of the Legat. “It’s extremely busy, I can tell you that,” says Tan, who is permanently assigned to our Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate in Washington. “The FBI office in New York, say, might need help in tracking a suspect who has fled to Cambodia or who has bank accounts in this country. Or there might be an Asian gang in San Francisco that has ties to Cambodia or Vietnam that needs to be explored. And I’m constantly evaluating and providing assessments of threats that might migrate to U.S. shores.”
His specific partners include the Cambodian National Police, and in Vietnam, the Interpol office of the General Department of the Police, a division of the Ministry of Public Security.
Thanks to these relationships, in place long before the Legat was opened, we’ve shared several key successes in recent years:
Information and support provided by Cambodian officials helped lead to the capture of wanted terrorist Riduan Bin Isamuddin—aka Hambali—who orchestrated the bombing in Bali that killed more than 200 people in October 2002. Hambali was arrested in Thailand in 2003.
In November 2000, Cambodian Freedom Fighters tried to overthrow the government by attacking sites throughout Phnom Penh. A joint investigation led to the arrest of several of the subversives.
“In this day and age, the relationships we’ve built and continue to build in Cambodia and Vietnam are invaluable,” says Tan. “That’s why I’m here—to get to know my colleagues personally, to be a bridge between our countries. For me, especially as a native of Cambodia, I consider it an honor.”
Source:FBI
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Thursday, August 02, 2007
IMF chief lauds economic progress in Cambodia
International Monetary Fund (IMF) President Rodrigo de Rato has lauded the stellar growth of Cambodia's economy and its effective implementation of macroeconomic strategies, but hinted that more work is needed in poverty reduction, local press reported Thursday.
Rato arrived in Cambodia on Wednesday afternoon for a two-day official visit, during which he met with Prime Minister Hun Sen, National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Economy and Finance Minister Keat Chhon, National Bank of Cambodia Governor Chea Chanto and Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh, the Koh Santepheap newspaper reported.
"I have been impressed by the rapid growth of Cambodia's economy, and by the overall prudent approach to implementing macroeconomic policies. Sound fiscal and monetary policies have helped boost confidence and increase private sector activity, and these trends should continue in 2007," said Rato at a press conference in Phnom Penh, according to an IMF statement.
He added that the IMF expects the nation's economy to grow by 9 percent this year and inflation to remain low.
During a meeting with Hun Sen in Kandal province's Ta Khmao district, the IMF president expressed approval of the government's recent passing of a comprehensive customs law and its improved tax collection measures. He assured the premier that the IMF will continue to offer Cambodia aid in the financial sector, said Eang Sophallet, advisor to the prime minister, the Kampuchea Thmey reported.
Rato told the government to broaden the tax base in the 2008 budget and to use the proceeds to increase spending on high- quality infrastructure projects, strategic civil service reform, and priority areas such as health and education, the Koh Santepheap newspaper reported.
He stressed that there needs to be some improvements in governance "not only for enhancing the investment environment in Cambodia but also for strengthening the linkages between growth and poverty reduction".
Source: Xinhua.
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Cambodia, Thailand to fight malaria on border
BANGKOK, Aug 2 (TNA) - The Royal Thai Army medical department in cooperation with Cambodia's Ministry of Defense have launched a joint two-year development project to both prevent and contain malaria along their mutual border, deputy Thai Army spokeswoman Col. Sirichan Ngathong said Thursday.
The cooperation to combat the mosquito-borne disease officially begins October 1, 2007 extending through September 30, 2009.
Under the cooperative framework, the two countries will promote skill development of their medical staff and instruct the public to protect themselves from the disease.
Cambodia and Thailand will also develop joint diagnosis, treatment, and research on drug resistance.
They have designated at-risk zones in the two countries to focus on surveillance and disease control in special areas in Thailand's Surin, Trat, and Nonthaburi provinces and in Pailin, Koh Kong, and Udonmeechai on the Cambodian side.
Besides the establishment of a working committee, the two countries will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as a framework for the project. The cooperation to fight malaria will pave the way for the two parties' cooperation in eradicating other diseases along the border in the future. (TNA)-E004
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Dengue fever crisis in Cambodia
A steep rise in dengue cases has found the country unprepared and struggling to cope
Cambodia has run out of its main weapon for fighting dengue fever, a chemical that kills mosquito larvae, as the aid-dependent country battles an unprecedented outbreak of the sometimes fatal disease that mainly affects children.
The medical staff at the national dengue control center are optimistic that the worst is over, however, and are hoping that the drop in new cases that began in the third week of July will continue.
Still, another 13,000 or so dengue cases are predicted during the next five months, bringing the total for the year to “not less than 40,000”, according to a forecast made over the weekend. Last year there were about 12,300 dengue cases in Cambodia.
“We’ve run out of Abate,” Dr. To Setha said on Monday, referring to the granular form of the chemical that is used to kill the larvae of the dengue mosquito in its main breeding site in Cambodia – water-storage containers.
His center, which has a staff of nine and an annual budget of $150,000, depends on various donor agencies, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, for money to buy Abate, insecticide, spraying machines, and to conduct emergency public education.
The result is that Cambodia has to limit its dengue prevention efforts to “preemptive strikes” on areas of high population density. Its “Abate distribution area” is limited to 15 of its 23 provinces and even within these provinces it is further limited to districts with more than 200 people per square kilometer.
This year outbreaks began in districts adjacent to the abate distribution area, To Setha said.
Even though the rainy season arrived two months earlier than usual, a round of Abate distribution – which costs about US$1 million – had been completed in the targeted area, he said.
Staff at his center had known in mid January, and informed global health bodies, that a surge in dengue cases was likely in the coming rainy season due to a higher than usual number of cases in the preceding months, as well as a change in the prevailing serotype of the virus, which has four.
Dengue is a fast-moving disease that causes a sudden onset of fever and severe bone and muscle aches, followed by a bright red blood rash that often appears on the legs before spreading to the chest.
“We can’t do what we want to do [for prevention],” To Setha said. Cambodia lacks the resources to expand its prevention efforts and additional funding from donors does not arrive until after outbreaks begin, regional and local officials say.
Donor agencies are swift to send out press releases trumpeting their assistance, but those dependent on them say the funds are often slow in arriving and officials are sometimes left scrambling to borrow from other projects or paying out of pocket while they wait for the money to arrive.
To Setha identified the long time it took to import Abate is another hindrance. An order placed with a private company last year did not arrive until the end of June. All of that has been used, along with more than 30 tons Thailand rushed over, and it could be two months before Cambodia receives more Abate, he said.
The Abate is crucial because it can be safely added to containers storing drinking water. Most Cambodians lack piped water and collect rainwater in concrete storage containers. Researchers say the containers comprise 80 percent of the dengue mosquitoes’ breeding sites in Cambodia but their efforts to develop inexpensive and durable mosquito-proof lids have failed.
They have been testing alternatives to Abate for several years and believe they have found one that is cheap, effective, community-based and environmentally safe. A pilot project that began in a 14-village commune west of Phnom Penh in 2004 has used guppy fish to eliminate larvae from water-storage containers.
Some of the villages have been dengue-free this year and there have been only a few cases in the entire commune, say residents of Roilang Gruel village, where the project began, as well as researchers. The commune, Trapeng Kong, is in Kampon Speu province, which so far this year has had the fourth highest number of dengue cases per capita in Cambodia.
Researchers are excited by the project but say they lack the staff and funding to train the local volunteers needed to expand the project throughout rural Cambodia. They estimate the annual cost of maintaining the project at 20 US cents per household.
Meanwhile, hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with dengue patients, with shocked parents and grandparents filling in for nurses.
For example, at Kompang Cham Hospital, about 200 kilometers north of the capital, the death toll from dengue reached 47 last Wednesday, compared to 9 last year and 4 in 2005, said the chief of the Pediatric Department Dr Chroeng Norith. In the small provincial hospital, patients crowd in and there is no room left. The admissions ward has been shifted outdoors.
With timely and proper treatment dengue patients can be saved, but they are arriving at the hospital too late, says Dr. Chroeng, or after they have received the wrong treatment at privately-run clinics. The hospital has treated 1,109 dengue patients so far this year, most since May, he adds. The pediatric ward has just 25 beds. Nursing students have been recruited to pitch in and Medicins Sans Frontiers sent an emergency medical team.
Most of the children who died from dengue at this hospital did so in its bird flu ward – where the severe cases of dengue are treated. It was empty when the crisis began and, because it was built with overseas funding, well-equipped.
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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Attitudes towards violence against women in Cambodia slowly changing
"Before, a husband would beat his wife and children, now he just insults them..." chilling yet sobering words from a woman surveyed by LICADHO's Women's Rights Office (WRO) following the end of its pilot project in Kandal Province, which aimed to educate the community on violence against women issues.
On July 30, 2007 LICADHO's WRO celebrated the conclusion of the first of three education pilot projects with a community forum in Angsnoul district, Kandal province. The pilot project was funded by the University of Quebec in Montreal and the Canadian International Development Agency and the community forum brought to a close, planning and organising which had commenced as far back as December 2005.
The pilot project was designed to promote ownership of women's rights by equipping women in the community with practical knowledge, strategies and resources to prevent and seek redress for domestic violence, rape and trafficking violations. As part of the program 39 women, selected from eight villages, were chosen as 'focal points'. It was intended that these women would disseminate what they learnt from workshops through out the community. Similarly, 23 local authorities, comprising police, village chiefs, commune chiefs and members of the legal sector, also participated in learning about violence against women issues. Training and follow up workshops were held from August 2006 to March 2007, with a final evaluation of the project's impact in the community being conducted during the first half of 2007.
One major focus of the pilot project was learning to understand domestic violence, the impact it can have on a family and the community, the concept that it is not just an internal family issue and how to deal with and prevent it. In Cambodia, domestic violence has long been a product of cultural values and the status of women in society's eyes. Even with the passing of the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and the Protection of Victims in 2005, attitudes towards the acceptance of domestic violence as an issue concerning the community and not something to be kept private have been hard to change. The perceptions of both the public and the authorities still hold true to their long held beliefs of silence and ignorance.
Cases reported to LICADHO demonstrate the brutal extent of domestic violence in Cambodia, where husband and boyfriends subject their wives, girlfriends and children to beatings, rape, threats, burnings, acid attacks and murder. In one recent case a victim of prolonged and repeated domestic violence over 13 years was beaten and stabbed, by her husband. Her husband, in an apparent drunken rage attacked her and cut off one of her fingers. After being treated for her injuries in hospital the victim said she didn't want to divorce her husband nor file a complaint against her husband.
In the first six months of 2007, LICADHO's WRO has received reports of 102 cases of domestic violence and 44 cases of rape. According to LICADHO's monitoring of Khmer newspapers, 98 cases of domestic violence and 150 cases of rape were also reported in the same period. As LICADHO continues to investigate cases of domestic violence and rape, the WRO pilot project in Angsnoul district is one of the first important steps towards prevention of violence against women at the community level. In the coming months the WRO will move the pilot project activities to Kompong Thom and Kampot province, refining the workshops which hope to change and evolve the attitudes of the community and the authorities towards violence against women issues.
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Cambodian men charged with terrorism in failed bomb plot
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A Cambodian court charged two men with terrorism Wednesday in connection with a recently failed plot to blow up a monument in the heart of the country's capital, officials said.
Sok Roeun, a prosecutor at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said he charged Kem Toeun, 53, and Son Than, 42, with terrorism, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Police arrested the two men Monday, a day after explosives disposal experts defused bombs planted at the city's Cambodia-Vietnam friendship monument, said police Maj. Gen. Chhay Sinarith, who is chief of the Interior Ministry's information department.
"Their main purpose was to destroy the monument because it is a symbol of good relations between the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments," Chhay Sinarith said, adding police were looking for more plotters.
The three homemade bombs found Sunday — made of a mixture of TNT and fertilizer packed in three buckets — were planted at a monument dedicated to Vietnamese soldiers who invaded Cambodia to topple the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
The monument is located in a park about 500 meters (yards) from the southern wall of the Royal Palace, where King Norodom Sihamoni and his parents live.
The monument was erected by a pro-Vietnamese Cambodian government nearly 20 years ago.
Both arrested men are members of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Liberation Front, said Chhay Sinarith. He said the group is based outside Cambodia and advocates taking back territory in southern Vietnam that used to belong to Cambodia.
Many Cambodians resent neighboring Vietnam, which is a traditional enemy that they feel has designs on their country's land. But government-to-government relations are good — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was originally part of a puppet regime installed by Hanoi after the Vietnamese invasion.
Hun Sen's political opponents view the monument as a symbol of a humiliating decade-long occupation by Vietnamese troops following their invasion.
Protesters partially destroyed it during an anti-government demonstration in 1998.
The monument was later restored, and visiting Vietnamese leaders often go there to pay respects to their fallen soldiers.
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Vietnam and Cambodia set up national border gate
A ceremony to set up My Qui Tay-Som Rong border gate between Vietnam and Cambodia was held in Vietnam’s southern Long An province on July 31.
The border gate is located in Long An province of Vietnam and Svay Rieng province of Cambodia, which share a 137.7 km land border.
Addressing the ceremony, the authorities of the two provinces agreed to speed up measures to develop the border areas economically and held the belief that the establishment of the border gate would contribute to improving the living conditions of people residing in the two countries, particularly the two provinces. (VNA)
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Cambodia: FCO minister comments on the first arrest in the Khmer Rouge tribunal
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE News Release issued by The Government News
Network on 1 August 2007
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia (officially called the Extraordinary
Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia or ECCC) arrested and charged its first
suspect yesterday.
FCO Minister, Meg Munn MP commented:
"I welcome the news that the ECCC today charged Kaing Khek Ieu with genocide
and crimes against humanity. The Cambodian people have waited many years
for the judicial process to begin. This is an important opportunity for
Cambodia to break with the past and bring to justice those responsible for
serious violations of Cambodian and international law.
"The United Kingdom is a strong supporter of international justice and looks
forward to seeing progress made in the upcoming months by this historic
Tribunal, the first of its kind in Asia."
Notes to editors
1. The Khmer Rouge regime took power on 17 April 1975 and was overthrown
on 7 January 1979. During that time the Khmer Rouge killed more than one
million people.
2. The United Nations (UN) and the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) have
been involved in negotiations over the creation of a tribunal since 1997
when the RGC asked the UN to help establish a tribunal like those in the
Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
3. In 2000, the UN agreed to participate in the first "mixed tribunal"
in which there would be a majority of Cambodian judges and co-prosecutors,
but with international colleagues.
4. On 6 June 2003, the UN and RGC signed an agreement that would bring the
E Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) into force.
5. Prior to yesterday's announcement, only one senior Khmer Rouge official,
Kang Kek Ieu (alias Duch) was in pre-trial custody. Another who was in
pre-trial custody, Ta Mok, died in late 2006. Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge's
notorious leader, died in 1998 while three other regime members, Ieng Sary,
Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan have been at liberty in retirement.
6. The UK has contributed funds of £1.5 million to the ECCC.
FCO Press Office: 020 7008 3100
Press Office, Downing Street (West), London SW1A 2AL Telephone: 020 7008
3100 Fax: 020 7008 3734
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Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Asian Tourists Love to Click and Go
When 29-year-old Sabrina Fu decided to spend a week exploring the ancient temple ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, she turned to Chinese online travel site Ctrip.com (CTRP). She long ago became sold on the convenience and ease of researching and booking her vacations online. "The first thing I do when I decide to go somewhere is to log onto the worldwide Web," says Fu, who works at a multinational company's Shanghai office.
With its emerging middle classes and rising disposable income, Asia has one of the fastest growing tourism sectors in the world. Still, the industry has endured some rough luck this decade, with the region's 2004 earthquake and resulting tsunami, sporadic terrorist incidents, and uncertainty about the direction of Avian flu.
Even so, plenty of destinations such as the Maldives, Bhutan, Thailand, and Cambodia saw their tourism businesses expand more than 10% last year, according to figures compiled by the Pacific Asia Travel Assn. Indeed, the tourism sector accounts for more than 10% of the economic output of Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/23/07, "Guiding Tourists to Asia").
One-Third the Size of the U.S. Market
Not surprisingly, a number of regional online sites and established international ones hope to prosper from the Asia travel boom. To be sure, the size of the region's online travel market is still small compared to mature markets such as the U.S. Online travel sales in Asia Pacific are estimated to reach $25.6 billion this year. That's only about one-third of the U.S. market forecast, according to New York Internet research firm eMarketer.
Yet online travel in the region is likely to experience explosive growth the rest of the decade. From 2006 to 2010, India is expected to grow at 271.6% annually, while Vietnam's online travel sector is forecast to expand 202% and China's and Indonesia's in the 70% to 83% range. (The biggest markets in revenue terms outside of Japan are India at $300 million and China at $200 million.) The U.S. online travel biz, by contrast, will grow 17% on an annual basis during the same time.
Another crucial difference in the U.S online travel market, where sites such as Travelocity.com. Expedia.com, and Travelport.com are big players, is that the growth in new customers is quite slow, given most Americans already have Net access and are familiar with online travel planning.
Planting Seeds for Growth
In Asia, the race is on to capture the interest of the first-time user and build up some brand loyalty to sites. "In the U.S., companies are fighting to take over consumers. But in Asia Pacific, there is opportunity to acquire new users who are using the Internet for the first time," says Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer. "You want to plant the seeds now because that's going to be the future growth engine."
That's why the big international online travel sites are now ramping up their marketing and online service efforts in the region. Paris-based Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a worldwide business travel management company, has big aspirations for Asia. "The big four markets in Asia Pacific, Australia, Japan, China, and India will see their online (managed business) travel adoption rate go up to 40% in three or four years," says Nicolas Pierret, director of global accounts for Asia Pacific.
Site Traffic is a Leading Indicator
IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), which owns Expedia and Hotels.com, invested $166.7 million in 2004 for a 52% stake in eLong (LONG), China's second-largest online travel booking site by market share. Though eLong reported a $2.1 million operating loss in 2006, Expedia is seeing Asia Pacific markets represent a bigger share in its worldwide sales. In the first quarter, Expedia's bookings from Australia, China, Japan, Europe, and other countries grew from 25% of worldwide bookings to 29%. In revenue terms, that's about $1.47 billion worth of business.
The Australian site HotelClub.com, acquired in 2004 by Orbitz Worldwide (OWW), witnessed the fastest growth in Asia Pacific. "Traffic grew 70% and revenue grew 45% year to date in Asia Pacific," says Chloe Lim, managing director of HotelClub. "Some people focus on sales revenue, but traffic is actually the first sign of sales growth," says Lim.
China is estimated to overtake Germany and become the third biggest personal and business travel market by 2011, valued at about $300 billion a year, according to eMarketer. (Last year, the Chinese market was worth $134 billion.)
China's biggest online travel company is Nasdaq-listed Ctrip.com, with a 54.2% market share. Last year, it pulled in $80 million in gross profit on $100 million in revenues. Ctrip.com Chief Executive Officer Min Fan thinks online bookings will blow away the growth of the overall Chinese tourism industry. "The growth of online travel will be at least double the speed of travel spending growth," says Fan. "There is the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the World Expo in Shanghai following [in 2010], which creates a beneficial environment for both international and domestic travel."
In China, right now at least, local players dominate. Ctrip and eLong enjoy a combined market share of 72%, and other, newer sites such as Qunar.com and Soobb.com are trying to get a piece of the action. The reason for the optimism is that the market penetration for online bookings is still quite small. "Only a very small percentage of travel transactions are done online in China," says Fritz Demopoulos, CEO of Beijing-based Qunar.com. "The prospects for future growth are encouraging."
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