CAMBODIA: Donors pledge $1 billion but criticise corruption

PHNOM PENH, (IRIN) - Donors pledged the largest aid package in Cambodian history this week while at the same time scolding the country for failing to implement various reforms.

Donors pledged US$1.1 billion in aid for this year - up from last year’s $950 million - during a two-day conference ending on 3 June. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen insisted his government would use the funds effectively, calling reform a “life-or-death issue for Cambodia”.

But rights groups say donors should take a tougher stance to weed out corruption; the country was last year ranked the world’s 22nd most corrupt by Transparency International.

Activists say much of last year’s money has been diverted from the projects they were intended for, such as schools, roads and hospitals.

“The onus for protecting donor aid falls squarely at the door of the donors themselves,” said Ou Virak, head of the Phnom Penh-based Cambodian Centre for Human Rights.

Donors needed to do more to make sure their aid was put to good use, he added.

The World Bank is also unconvinced there has been adequate progress. "It is important for the government to take the lead in aligning resources to development priorities," Annette Dixon, country director for the World Bank, said at the conference.

The Bank said the Cambodian government had to be more transparent with its public finances and handling of natural resources after allegations that foreign oil companies paid bribes for oil exploration deals in the Gulf of Thailand, off Cambodia’s southwest coast.

Last summer, Carol Rodley, US ambassador to Cambodia, said Cambodia lost about $500 million to corruption each year, a remark the government condemned as "politically motivated”.

"It's normal that these donor countries raise this issue of corruption,” Phay Siphan, a government spokesman, told IRIN. "The new anti-corruption law will reduce those improper activities."

Some lawmakers have praised the anti-corruption law, passed in March, which requires government and military officers to disclose their wealth to an anti-corruption body.

But critics say the law was passed hastily and that it contains disturbing amendments, including prison time for whistleblowers.

Various drafts of the law lingered in the National Assembly, the lower house, for 15 years before the bill suddenly went to the floor in March.

Friction

Despite the prime minister’s assurances, Cambodian officials have in recent months issued increasingly bold warnings to donor governments and the UN, complaining of interference in internal matters when they urge officials to clean up corruption, halt arbitrary land evictions and curtail defamation lawsuits against opposition lawmakers.

In March, Cambodian foreign minister Hor Namhong threatened to have UN country head Douglas Broderick expelled after Broderick had requested the government spend more time drafting the anti-corruption law. The foreign minister called this an “unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of Cambodia” in a letter to Broderick. The UN has stayed silent on the issue.

Cambodian officials claim the country has been transformed from a war-torn pariah state to a politically stable destination for tourists and investors.

But activists say that is not enough. “The aid situation has done pretty well in infrastructure,” Donald Jameson, a former US embassy official in Phnom Penh, told IRIN by telephone from Washington DC. “But there is very little being done about the quality of education, healthcare or corruption in the judiciary.”

About one-third of Cambodians still live on $1 a day or less, according to government statistics.

Playing the China card

Some analysts contend that China, Cambodia’s largest donor, is shaking things up by increasing the size of its aid packages each year, with few conditions. Cambodia now makes more decisions in the interests of China, observers say.

In December, Cambodia deported 20 Uighur refugees from Xingjian, a province in northwest China. The UN and US condemned the decision, claiming it was against international refugee law.
After the expulsion, China awarded $1.2 billion in aid and soft loans to Cambodia.
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6th SEA Junior Table Tennis Championship opens in Cambodia

The 16th South East Asian Junior Table Tennis Championship opened Thursday at Olympic Stadium with 86 table tennis players taking part in the competition.

This will be the first time Cambodia has hosted the annual event which was held last year in neighboring Thailand, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

Eight countries took part in the five-day competition starting from June 3 to 7. The countries include Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and hosts Cambodia.

Bun Sok, secretary of state of Cambodia's Education, Youth and Sports Ministry attended the opening ceremony. He spoke highly of the development of table tennis in Southeast Asia, and expressed his excitement for Cambodia having the chance to host the regional table tennis championship. He believed that it will further strengthen the cooperation between countries in the region through the organization of competitions, and also help Cambodia to accumulate more experience for hosting more international events in future.

Im Sethy, minister of Cambodian Education, Youth and Sports Minister said in his message that table tennis is one of the major international sports events. Many people enjoy the sport because it helps to cultivate people's endurance and rapid reaction capacity, and people of all ages young and old can participate.

Chan Foong Keong, Secretary-General of Southeast Asian Table Tennis Association, said after the first Southeast Asian Junior Championship was successfully held in Kuala Lumpur, the competition has been developed continually. The competition aims to train the national table tennis player for future international competitions.

The tournament will feature men's and women's singles, doubles, and mixed teams for U18s, and U15s. The Cambodian team will field 13 males and 2 females.

Source: Xinhua Read more!

Watchdog Renews Call for Oil Transparency

The US oil giant Chevron and the Cambodian government need to improve transparency in the management of oil revenue, a Cambodian watchdog said Monday.

“What we want to know is how this revenue from natural resources is being managed, because it is a new sector,” Mam Sambath, chairman of Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency, told “Hello VOA.” “We want to see this revenue being managed transparently and accountably so that Cambodian people and their future generations benefit equally.”

Mam Sambath, who attended Chevron’s annual meeting last week in Houston, Texas, to advocate for a payment disclosure policy, said greater transparency will work in the company’s interest.

“The disclosure will instead promote a good image of Chevron in a country it operates,” he said. “And it will also attract other highly responsible companies to follow suit and invest in that particular country.”

Cambodia insists it has been transparent in managing state revenue.

“We don’t have a problem [if a company makes their payment public],” Hang Chuon Naron, secretary-general of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, told VOA Khmer. “The prime minister has authorized us to do that, and we have been doing that all along.”

However, a caller from Banteay Meanchey province expressed skepticism in the government’s transparency efforts. Villagers are seldom fully informed of gold mining operations in the province, the caller, who gave his name as Ny, said.

Transparency advocates say Cambodia would do well to become a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, or EITI.

“On natural resources, the international community must push the government to be a member of EITI to ensure effectiveness in management of revenues and expenditure from mineral resources,” said Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. “Sooner or later we will extract oil and gold, and revenue from this sector is gigantic. If we manage it properly we will be rich.”

Yim Sovann called for openness for input from the public, lawmakers and the international community for the drafting of a management law for natural resources currently underway.

Mam Sambath agrees.

“I strongly urge the government to consider becoming a member of EITI, so that we can better manage revenue from natural resources and help better manage our economy,” Mam Sambath said.
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In Donor Meeting, Hun Sen Vows Deeper Reforms

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday moved to assure international representatives and aid agencies he was committed to deepening government reforms and fighting corruption, as an annual donor meeting got underway.

Speaking at the opening of the Cambodian Development Cooperation Forum, where donors are expected to pledge more than $1 billion in aid to Cambodia, Hun Sen said the government had made the “utmost efforts to firmly and deeply implement various reform programs and consider them as life or death issues.”

The government will present a $6.2 billion development plan to donors this week, part of an updated five-year strategy for continued reform and poverty alleviation. More than 100 participants from donor countries and international aid groups such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund joined senior government ministers for two days of talks.

“The Royal Government considers the fight against corruption as a top priority during its fourth mandate,” Hun Sen said in a speech that lasted more than an hour. “We have a strong will for implementing these reforms.”

Speaking on behalf of the donors, Annette Dixon, the World Bank’s country director, said meetings would center around “key reforms, which the government is undertaking, particularly in decentralization, public financial management and reforms of the civil service.”

“Further strengthening transparency and accountability in the management of Cambodia’s public finances and natural resources will be fundamental for ensuring more sustainable and inclusive growth,” Dixon said, adding that the government had made important achievements in passing an anti-corruption law and updated penal code.

Critics of the anti-corruption law have said it lacks the teeth to root out the country’s endemic corruption.
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Researchers offer solutions to poisonous well-water crisis in southern Asia

Over 100 million people in rural southern Asia are exposed every day to unsafe levels of arsenic from the well-water they drink. It is more than doubles their risks for cancer, causes cardiovascular disease, and inhibits the mental development of children, among other serious effects.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has referred to the situation in Bangladesh, where an estimated 60 million people are affected, as 'the largest mass poisoning of a population in history.'

In the May 28 issue of the journal Science, researchers from Stanford University, the University of Delaware, and Columbia University review what scientists understand about this groundwater contamination crisis and offer solutions for the region, which spans Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

Holly Michael, assistant professor of geological sciences in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of Delaware, is a co-author of the article, with Scott Fendorf from Stanford and Alexander van Geen from Columbia University. Fendorf received his doctorate from UD in 1992 and is now chair of environmental and Earth system science at Stanford.

Michael earned her doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and joined the UD faculty in 2008. She travelled to Bangladesh to study the groundwater contamination problem firsthand during her postdoctoral training with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Arsenic occurs naturally in the Earth's crust. Tasteless, odourless, and colourless in solution, the element is a known carcinogen and can be detected in water only through testing.

The source of South Asia's arsenic contamination is the Himalaya Mountains. Minerals from rocks, eroding coal seams, and sediments contain arsenic and are carried into the major rivers that flow out of the mountains, including the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irawaddy, Meghna, Mekong, and Red rivers. The flat, low-lying floodplains of these major rivers are the areas affected by groundwater contamination.

A logical solution is to dig deeper wells to reach uncontaminated aquifers for supplying safe drinking water. However, farmers also want access to this water to irrigate their rice paddies. And that's a problem, according to Michael's research.

In 2008, Michael showed through numerical modelling of groundwater flow in the Bengal Basin that an uncontaminated domestic well more than 500 feet (150 metres) could remain arsenic-free for at least a thousand years. However, she projected an entirely different scenario for deep irrigation wells, which use mechanised pumps instead of hand pumps to bring groundwater to the surface. The high volumes of water drawn by these irrigation systems induced a much faster downward migration of arsenic-contaminated surface water into the deep aquifer.

'To protect drinking water from arsenic contamination, we recommend that deeper wells only be used by individual households for drinking water and not for crop irrigation,' Michael says.

In addition to preserving deep wells specifically for drinking water, she and her co-authors also recommend these measures:

- Reinvigorating well-testing campaigns by governments and international organisations.

- Better use of existing geological data and the compilation of test results to target zones that are low in arsenic for the installation of community wells.

- The re-testing of tens of thousands of deep wells, particularly those that have been used for both domestic and farming purposes.

- The choice of mitigation option can be situation-dependent: filters or other alternatives may be the best choice in some areas.

'Obviously, arsenic-contaminated drinking water is a huge problem from a human health perspective,' Michael says. 'We've shown that there are some viable options in South Asia, but there is much more that we need to understand.'

Currently, Michael is working to model arsenic transport, how it may move in the future in the aquifer system in Bangladesh. She also is working with the World Bank on a study of groundwater sustainability in Bangladesh related to water supply and vulnerability of coastal groundwater to sea-level rise.

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Cambodia upholds opposition MP defamation case

Mu Sochour's Parliamentary immunity was lifted so she could face charges

Cambodia's highest court has upheld a ruling that a leading opposition figure defamed the prime minister.

Prime Minister Hun Sen had sued Mu Sochua for defamation after she accused him of making derogatory remarks about her.

The former women's minister has refused to pay the $4,000 (£2,725) fine and says she is willing to go to jail.

Mu Sochua, the current MP for Kampot, called the ruling "a travesty of justice".

She had no defence counsel in court as her lawyer quit the case and joined the governing party after Cambodia's bar council accused him of malpractice.

The courts dismissed her complaint and the national assembly voted to lift her parliamentary immunity from prosecution so the prime minister's case could go ahead.

The ruling came as Cambodia's international donors met government officials to discuss their aid pledges for the coming year.

Local human rights groups have described freedom of expression in Cambodia as in a "perilous state".

A coalition of pressure groups has asked donors to link their payments to Cambodia's progress on human rights issues.

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Foreign donors concerned about accountability in Cambodia

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's donor conference opened Wednesday with warnings that access to land, improved transparency, and accountability for use of natural resources will be essential for the country's development goals.

World Bank country head Annette Dixon noted that 4 million Cambodians - about 30 per cent of the population - live in poverty while many more 'live precariously near poverty.'

'Life continues to be extremely challenging for the majority of Cambodian rural families, who remain vulnerable to shocks,' she said.

Dixon applauded reforms in managing public finances, and said the government had strengthened social protections for the poor.

She said donors remained 'strongly committed' to development efforts help the poor, despite global financial woes, 'which in turn heightens the need to improve aid effectiveness and accountability for results.'

Cambodian officials, non-governmental groups and foreign donors are meeting for two days to discuss the country's most pressing issues. On Thursday, donors will announce how much money they will give to help the government for it development goals.

In 2009, donors provided 951 million dollars, around half the government's budget. The finance ministry said it expected pledges of more than 1 billion dollars this year.

Prime Minister Hun Sen told the conference that good governance was 'the most important prerequisite for a sustainable and equitable economic development and social justice.'

'In the context of this vision, the Royal Government considers the fight against corruption as a top priority,' he said, citing a new anti-corruption law, and an ongoing crackdown on illegal logging and fisheries, as evidence of the government's commitment.

Hun Sen said agriculture was the top development priority for the predominantly rural population, saying it could bolster economic growth and ensure food security.

He also pledged to pay more attention to granting land concessions to the poor. Land concessions are a highly contentious subject, with large investors in possession of more than a million hectares.

Non-governmental organizations said improvements in some health indicators showed similar gains could be made in governance, land use and natural resources. They called for reform of the judiciary, which is seen as corrupt and inefficient.

On Tuesday, the Britain-based organization Global Witness, called on donors to pressure the government to deliver meaningful reforms in the face of 'gross mismanagement' of its natural resources.

Global Witness is not participating in the conference.
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SKorea to fund Angkor road

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia) - South Korea has provided US$9.2 million (S$12.9 million) to Cambodia to build a new road that will circle the famed Angkor temple complex and reduce traffic in the area, officials said Monday.

The 21-kilometer road will be closed to trucks to reduce pollution, noise and vibrations that could damage the ancient ruins, said Soeung Kong, vice secretary-general of the Apsara Authority, the government agency that oversees the temples.

Construction will start this year and take three years to complete, he said. It will be the second road in the Angkor area funded by South Korea, connecting with existing roads to the north and northwest of the temples, said South Korean Embassy official Son Sungil. The first road extended south from the temple complex.

Tourism is a major foreign currency earner for cash-strapped Cambodia, which hosts nearly 1.5 million foreign tourists each year, mostly from South Korea, Japan and the United States. More than half of the tourists visit Angkor, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northwestern Siem Reap province.

The temples were built when Angkorian kings ruled over much of Southeast Asia between the 9th and 14th centuries.

Conservationists have long expressed concerns about tourism's impact. They say uncontrolled pumping of underground water to meet the rising demand of hotels and residents in the nearby town of Siem Reap may be destabilizing the earth beneath the temples. -- AP

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Cometh the hour, cometh the man with the wrecking ball (Feature)

By Robert Carmichael


Phnom Penh - A blue sheet-metal fence around an old building in Phnom Penh is a bad omen for those keen on Cambodia's dwindling stock of colonial architecture.

'The presence of these fences is a worrying sign,' says one architectural historian, 'because when these fences go up it normally means the buildings are going to come down.'

The historian, who has lived in Cambodia for 16 years but does not want his name used, says the pace of destruction has accelerated in recent years.

'It is speeding up, and it has almost gone past the point of no return,' he says. 'I would think that more than half of the buildings I can remember as being important have now gone in 16 years.'

The latest building to be screened off is the venerable Renakse Hotel adjacent to the Royal Palace near the riverfront. Earlier this year the Renakse was the focus of a squabble between the leaseholder and the country's ruling party, which owns the building. The case went to court; the party won.

Should the hotel be demolished, which seems likely, it will be the fourth colonial-era building of merit to be knocked down this year alone, says French architect Michel Verrot, who has lived in Cambodia for 11 years.

By his count, 40 per cent of the capital's several hundred colonial buildings has been swept away in two decades.

Verrot runs the French-funded Mission du Patrimonie that assesses what is left of Phnom Penh's architectural heritage.

It also helps with restoration efforts on some colonial buildings, the oldest of which were constructed between 1885 and 1892.

'They are the first places in Phnom Penh where the new architecture was built which became the colonial architecture in Phnom Penh,' says Verrot.

When it comes to architectural heritage, Cambodia is defined by Angkor Wat, the magnificent ancient temples around the town of Siem Reap in the north-west.

Verrot says the domination of Angkor Wat blinds the government to the value of other heritage buildings, whether of colonial architecture or the 1950s and 1960s designs of Vann Molyvann, the country's foremost living architect.

Regarding the capital, Verrot says the biggest problem is not preserving architectural heritage, substantial though it is.

He bemoans the lack of attention paid to its urban heritage: the concept of a town with well laid-out gardens, wide avenues and unobstructed views between iconic buildings.

'Now all the views are becoming very disturbed without any global idea of town development,' Verrot says of the mushrooming of tower blocks and glass skyscrapers. 'There is no vision.'

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts oversees the country's heritage, but secretary of state Samraing Kamsan says it has limited authority to preserve the buildings. A key challenge is that Cambodians prefer modern buildings.

'They do not understand or love the traditional and the old-style building,' he says. 'You need to teach them to understand the value.'

There are other difficulties too. Some old buildings have numerous poor families living in them. One chapel, for example, contains more than 20 families, but they are in no position to pay for repairs.

Samraing Kamsan says colonial buildings in provincial capitals are also in trouble - years of strife and poverty meant preservation was not a priority. And there is the rocketing value of land.

'I do believe this is a problem,' he says, before adding a lack of cash to the queue. 'If we have no money to preserve, we cannot stop the development of the modern building.'

Verrot says the government's desire to see Phnom Penh emulate Bangkok and Singapore is undoing what is left of the city's colonial architecture.

'(The government's view is that) the heritage is in Siem Reap, and tourism must be at the seaside and in Siem Reap, but not in Phnom Penh,' he says. 'It's wrong, it's clearly wrong, but it is (the view).'

The architectural historian cited earlier believes the government, which wants tourists to remain in-country longer than the usual three days spent seeing the temples, is missing a trick. After all, Phnom Penh is not going to compete with shopping cities such as Singapore.

'When you look at Phnom Penh, all the things tourists come to see are almost all architectural. There's not really anything else,' he says. 'How are they going to attract people to stay in Cambodia
- Phnom Penh in particular - if there isn't architecture to look at?'
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'Di was murdered because she planned to expose UK's role in arms trade'

London, June 1 (ANI): Princess Diana was murdered because she planned to expose Britain's role in the deadly arms trade, according to a leading defence lawyer.

Buzz up!Michael Mansfield QC claimed that she was planning to publish a diary replete with details of those closely involved with British land-mine manufacturing.

"Everyone remembers she raised the profile of the land mines.

"Everybody is aware that the British involvement in the arms trade, particularly land mines, is and was a huge vested interest.

"It seems to me she had planned various visits. She had already been to Angola and she was going to Cambodia.

"A large number of land mines had been manufactured by the British. She claimed she had an explosive diary in which she was going to expose the people most closely involved in the British arms trade," The Daily Express quoted him as saying in the Hay Festival in Powys, Wales.

Mansfield said her anti-land mine campaign and plan to reveal the secrets behind the trade were "not unrelated" to the car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997 that killed Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed.

He also spoke of a witness who claimed that the diary existed along with a missing box of papers that could contain crucial information.

He told a Spanish newspaper, "Diana had given interviews attacking the Royal Family but what most annoyed the authorities was that she became very actively involved in the campaign against land mines."

A spokeswoman for Princes William and Harry said they had "no comment" on the latest allegations surrounding their mother's death. (ANI) Read more!

New £16m Hindu temple opens in Wembley

By Catrin Nye
BBC Asian Network


Wembley's newest looming landmark has opened it doors after 14 years of construction.

It is the £16m Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir, which loosely translates as the all-inclusive temple.

There is none of the metal core most buildings have and, instead, it has been built using ancient techniques based on Hindu scriptures.

The method dates back thousands of years and was used to construct the world famous Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Many of the temple's component pieces have been hand carved in limestone in the tiny town of Sola - located in the Indian state of Gujarat - before being flown over and pieced together in the UK.

There were also 41 marble deities made in India especially for the mandir.

The temple covers 2.4 acres (9,700 sq m) on the Ealing Road and, at its highest point, is 66ft (20m) tall.

Its bright sand-coloured walls stand out in stark contrast to the unassuming surroundings.

A ceremony called Pran Prathistha was held to "infuse the spirit of God into the statues" as part of the temple opening.

A VIP opening was then held with donors, sponsors and local dignitaries in attendance.

Ajay Jobanputra is governor of Shri Vallabh Nidhi UK (SVNUK), the charity which raised the funds to build the Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir.

He hopes the temple will provide a place of worship for all Hindus and welcome those of other faiths.

"Famous spiritual leaders and forms of Gods from other religions are featured in the carvings such as Mother Teresa, Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji (a Sikh Guru), Meerabai, Lord Swaminarayan and many more.

"It's about showcasing the importance of respect, love and compassion for all religions, making the temple dynamic and universal.

"The message being promoted is of Vasudev Kutumbakaum, a Hindu term to describe the world as one big family."

The chief priest at the Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir is Dr Raj Pandit Sharma, who said the new temple may stand out as a structure but it fits in with the eclectic local community.

"I think it will add to the charm of the area," he explained.

"Ealing Road already has mosques and churches and I think this temple will stand out as something unique that can be seen from some distance.

"I would hope that anybody who comes to the temple would find it a place where they will feel relaxed. It's like a sanctuary of peace amongst the bustling heart of London."

Special events

Each morning there will be prayers at the new temple in line with Hindu tradition.

It will house special events for such occasions as Diwali and Navratri as well as annual religious functions to celebrate the birth of Hindu saints and Gods like Jalaram Jayanti (Saint Jalarambapa) and Janmasthami (Lord Krishna).

Mr Jobanputra says the temple is expected to draw crowds from across London and visitors from much further afield.

"We're estimating around 400 to 500 local people will visit us during the weekdays and double that on weekends.

"We also expect visitors from other parts of the UK and Europe.

"We have already had visit requests from Spain, Portugal and Switzerland." Read more!

Unresolved Land Disputes Rising: Rights Coalition

Rights groups say they are concerned with a spike in reported land disputes that have gone unresolved under the current law.

The increasing number is because the government is providing economic land concessions while powerful government officials are also seizing land from the people, Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum, told reporters Tuesday.

Land disputes reported to NGOs under the umbrella organization climbed 27 percent in 2009, from 173 cases in 2008, and another 32 percent in in first five months of 2010, according to the NGO Forum.

Nun Pheany, spokesman for the Ministry of Land Management, denied the reports that land disputes were increasing. The ministry received 5,000 complaints since the beginning of 2009 from 24 provinces and municipalities and has resolved 70 percent of them, he said.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the Coalitions of Civil Society Organizations said most land dispute cases were still unresolved.

“Most land dispute cases involve companies including both local and foreign investment companies as well as wealthy and powerful people,” the group said. “They affect large number of families and are mostly disputed with companies who obtained an economic land concession. It’s worth to note that in the past, land dispute cases usually involve dealing with violence and end up unresolved. Only few cases have been settled legally.”

The statement of concern comes ahead of a large donor meeting scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

The coalition recommended more participation of poor communities in land decisions, fair resolution and compensation in existing land disputes, a stronger resolution mechanism, a cease to arrests made in land disputes and the empowerment of authorities to solve land dispute cases.
“Please stop using the military or police forces to protect the company,” the group said.
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NGOs Call on Donors To Strengthen Conditions

Cambodian Non Governmental Organizations workers shout slogans during a demonstration in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Leaders of Cambodia’s leading development organizations said Tuesday they want the international community to put conditions on development aid pledges, which are expected to be more than $ 1 billion when they meet with senior government officials this week.

A donor meeting Wednesday and Thursday will focus on the government’s national development plan, which is expected $6.2 billion over the next five years.

The meeting, officially known as the Cambodian Development Cooperation Forum, gathers Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cabinet with representatives from the US, the European Union, China, Japan, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, UN and others.

Local and international non-governmental organizations will also be represented by NGO Forum and the Committee for Free and Fair Elections.

“We request international donors to present the list of recommendations on what to demand from the Cambodian government before agreeing to provide future development aid,” Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum, a consortium of development organizations, said. “We have concerns over the management of land and natural resources, which the government and the donors should think about deeply.”

Much of Cambodia’s annual budget is supported by aid from other countries and larger development banks and agencies. In recent years, that has included large aid packages from China, who Cambodian officials say grant money without the conditions typically imposed by the West.

“The stance of the NGOs is of reflection and discussion,” Chhith Sam Ath said. “We don’t want to prevent development aid. We welcome the aid, but we want the aid provided to Cambodia to be used directly and effectively.”

Aid conditions have nettled Cambodia’s leaders in the past, although some critics say the donors do not use enough leverage to push the government to do more to fight corruption, poverty and human rights abuses.

Ahead of this week’s meetings the outspoken critic of Cambodian policies, Global Witness, called on donors to do more.

“The Cambodian government has been promising to reform for years, but nothing had changed,” Global Witness Campaigns Director Gavin Hayman said in a statement Tuesday. “Our latest report shows that the political elite has no intention of loosening its stranglehold over the country’s natural resource wealth. Donors simply cannot continue to turn a blind eye.”

Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, said the donors should “put condition pressure on the government for providing aid to end human rights violations and evictions, as well as recommend to the government legal and judicial reform and anti-corruption [where] reform is slow.”

“The donors should have influence or power over the Cambodian government to respect human rights and democracy,” Hang Chhaya said.

Ros Sopheap, executive director of Gender and Development organization, said the government’s policy to promote gender equity has not been effectively implemented.

“So we would like the government and the donors to take care of solving the challenges to women, like poverty, low education, domestic violence and trafficking,” she said.

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Cambodia coastal development strategy moves ahead

Cambodia has begun implementing its master strategy for attracting development in the country's four coastal provinces over the next 20 years, local media reported on Monday, citing officials at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.

"This is a good plan and a way to develop Cambodia into the future," the Phnom Penh Post quoted Land Management Minister Im Chhun Lim as saying at a conference detailing the plan on Thursday.

Calling Sihanoukville the "dragon's head", Im Chhun Lim said that the plan priorities improving development in Sihanoukville, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong provinces in order to increase economic activity and provide jobs.

"We're insuring a balance between protecting the environment in coastal areas with attracting both local and foreign investors," he said at the conference.

The strategy will focus on attracting local and foreign investment to the region, with an eye to strengthening export industries, said Pen Sophal, director at the ministry's Urban Planning Department.

"Government wants sustainable, transparent development on coastal areas to attract investors," he said on the sidelines of a conference on drafting a final strategy for the "National Integrated Coastal Area".

He added that the pan is slated to run until 2030.

The plan, called The Study of Strategy National Integrated Coastal Area and Master Plan Sihanoukville Sustainable Development, focuses on strengthening infrastructure and special economic zones servicing Sihanoukville Port.

"We focus on Sihanoukville because the province has potential for growing faster due to its proximity to the international port for industry, agriculture and services," he was quoted as saying.

Source: Xinhua
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China gives trucks to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH - CHINA has promised more than 250 new military trucks to Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday, signalling deeper military cooperation between the two nations.

PM Hun Sen said a donation of 257 military trucks and 50,000 military uniforms was agreed during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Shanghai earlier in May.

'They are all brand-new trucks... from the factory,' PM Hun Sen said during a ceremony to open a Chinese-funded bridge.

The trucks will arrive in Cambodia June 18 and then be featured in a parade, said PM Hun Sen, who went on to praise Chinese leaders for 'talking less, but doing a lot' to help Cambodia.

The announcement of Chinese military aid comes after the US in April stopped a shipment of military trucks to Cambodia as punishment for sending ethnic Uighur asylum-seekers back to China in defiance of international appeals.

Cambodia in December deported the 20 Uighurs, members of a largely Muslim minority group in western China, even though they were seeking UN refugee status and said they would face torture if returned. The decision to deport the Uighurs came a day ahead of a visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, during which he agreed US$1.2 billion (S$1.69 billion) in aid and loans to Cambodia with Hun Sen. -- AFP

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MOffY Cartoon Land Now Available at Tigo of Millicom in Laos

MOffY Cartoon Land is available at Tigo of Millicom in Laos. Miillcom is one of the top carriers and provide wonderful mobile entertainment content to mobile users.

MOffY Cartoon Land featured with different cute and hot characters from Japan and Korea has arrived Laos. It bring the latest Korean hits such as Ddung, Mashimaro, Heart Bear to mobile users who can have their favorite wallpaper, screensaver, theme, video in mobile anywhere, anytime with their latest mobile gadgets.

MOffY Cartoon Land is available at various mobile carriers in the Greater China Region and South East Asia.

For cooperation with MOffY, please kindly contact Ms Winnie Chen, E: winnie[.]moffy.com.

About MOffY Limited

MOffY incorporated in Hong Kong has been in mobile contents development, distribution, publishing and consultation since 1999. Currently, MOffY with its content management system holds over 3000 games and application titles. Along with different types of mobile games, mobile games and applications are featured with famous characters, movie titles, and celebrities. MOffY (moffy.com) is actively involved in mobile contents business, licensing and consulting. MOffY branded services channels are available in China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. MOffY also run a number of online web portal in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.

MoffY is in the Asian market since 1999. MoffY is developing, publishing, and operate mobile game and licensed contents with mobile carriers in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, etc. Since 2009, MoffY is actively involved in social network game and application. MoffY is headquatered in Hong Kong with operation team in Guangzhou, China, and staffs are located in Taipei, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta. Read more!

Cambodian FM to Visit Iran in August

TEHRAN (FNA)- Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong is scheduled to visit Iran in August, Iranian Ambassador to Phnom Penh Seyed Javad Qavam Shahidi said on Sunday.

"During the trip, the Cambodian foreign minister will meet and talk with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki as well as other high-ranking Iranian officials," Qavam Shahidi told FNA.

He reiterated that Namhong's visit to Tehran is aimed at further activation of bilateral relations between the two countries.

Meantime, an Iranian parliamentary delegation left Tehran for Phnom Penh on Saturday to discuss bilateral ties and other issues of mutual interest with Cambodian officials.

"During the three-day trip, the two sides will hold discussions on inter-parliamentary relations and discuss paving the ground for developing ties and other related issues based on the Islamic Republic of Iran's view on the East Asian countries," Head of the delegation Mohsen Kouhkan told FNA.

The delegation, comprising five Iranian legislators, is also due to meet with the Cambodian prime minister, foreign ministry officials, their Cambodian counterparts and members of some of the country's parliament commissions.

Qavam Shahidi said expansion of parliamentary cooperation between the two countries, closer cooperation in the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) and the two sides' cooperation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) are the main goals of the Iranian delegation's trip to Phnom Penh.
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Unrest May Signal New Phase in China Economy

The strike at the Honda transmission factory in Foshan has shut down four auto plants as well.

By Keith Bradsher

FOSHAN, China — Add another entry to the list of worries for the global economy and financial markets: labor unrest in China.

Rapidly rising industrial wages are beginning to allow China’s workers to share in their country’s rising prosperity. The question is whether these gains can be maintained and even increased without disrupting supply lines to companies around the world, and without discouraging much future investment by Chinese and global companies alike.

The biggest eye-opener for multinationals in China recently has been a nine-day-old strike at a sprawling Honda transmission factory here in Foshan, about 100 miles northwest of Hong Kong.

The strike, which has forced Honda to suspend production at all four of its joint venture assembly plants in China, has shown that Chinese authorities are willing to tolerate work stoppages at least temporarily, even at high-tech operations on which many other factories depend.

Chinese policy makers are trying to let wages rise to create the foundations of an economy driven by domestic demand, without derailing the export machine that has produced the world’s strongest economic growth over the last three decades.

Even before the strike, manufacturers and buyers of low-cost products were already actively seeking alternatives to China, like Vietnam and Cambodia, said Richard Vuylsteke, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

“They’re looking very seriously, and we’re seeing that in apparel and footwear,” he said. “A lot of our members are seeing appreciating wages.”

Honda has been making increasingly generous offers — or perhaps desperate offers — to settle the strike. The company has already offered increases in total compensation of close to 50 percent, according to crumpled-up copies of the offer provided by striking workers.

Roughly half of the 1,900 workers are recent hires from high schools and vocational schools who are paid training rates of just 900 renminbi, or $132, a month, pay slips showed. More experienced workers at the three-year-old factory earn up to 1,500 renminbi, or $220, a month.
Honda’s offer would raise total compensation for trainees to $202 a month, including benefits like a new food allowance; older workers would get slightly smaller raises. The strikers rejected the offer because nearly half of the raises consisted of increases in benefits that might be revoked later. The strikers are demanding an extra 800 renminbi a month, or $117, all in cash.

Takayuki Fujii, a Beijing-based spokesman for Honda, said Saturday evening that negotiations were continuing, but he declined to provide details.

There were signs on Saturday that the Honda strike was beginning to test the government’s patience. After two days of allowing surprisingly extensive coverage by state-controlled media, the authorities imposed a blanket ban on domestic coverage, reverting to their usual policy of hushing up labor disputes.

Local newspapers had no mention of the strike this morning, and many references to the strike had disappeared from Chinese Internet sites. But there was no sign of police at the factory or one of its dormitories.

Labor advocacy groups say that they hear of frequent strikes in China, with work stoppages occurring somewhere every day. But strikes are typically hushed up and are often resolved in a day or two by the authorities, either with the police or through pressure on employers and workers to resolve their differences.

Honda is not alone in facing intense pressure to raise wages. Foxconn, a giant electronics manufacturer near here in Shenzhen, said on Friday that it would raise wages by about 20 percent after being deeply embarrassed by a series of suicides by workers this year and criticism of working conditions.

The overall effect of wage increases on China’s competitiveness is not entirely clear, because of incomplete national data on average wages and productivity. Nicholas Lardy, a specialist in the Chinese economy at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that Chinese productivity was rising so quickly that actual labor costs per unit of production appeared to be flat.

One surprise of the strike here is that it involves laborers whose wages appear to have already roughly doubled in the last five years: blue-collar workers in export factories in the Pearl River delta region around Hong Kong.

By contrast, the wages of young college graduates have actually declined in recent years as China has rapidly expanded its universities and built new ones, creating a surplus of more highly educated workers.

The president of a big Chinese corporation, who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of labor issues, said that his company paid 4,000 renminbi a month a decade ago for recent graduates with computer science degrees, which is $585 at current exchange rates, and only 3,500 renminbi now.

If anything, conditions are growing worse for new college graduates, not better. A survey in Beijing released earlier this month by the Communist Youth League Beijing Committee and the Beijing Youth Stress Management Service showed that a fifth of new college graduates with bachelor’s degrees and a tenth of graduates with master’s or doctoral degrees were willing to work for free in their first jobs because they despaired of finding paid work.

The government has tried to respond to the glut of college graduates by ordering state-owned enterprises to hire large numbers of them and try to find tasks for them to do. But these enterprises are increasingly expected to be profitable and have not absorbed all of the graduates, with the result that big cities in China have growing numbers of unemployed or low-paid college graduates.

These graduates are typically the only child in a family because of China’s one-child policy, and their families have frequently invested much or all of their savings in their educations.

Partly because so many young Chinese now go to university and partly because of a declining birth rate, the number of young Chinese available for factory work is falling far short of the demand from employers. That is producing higher wages for blue-collar workers and giving them leverage to demand even more, as the Honda strike shows.

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Government Bolsters Efforts Against Squatters

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a legal circular that instructs provincial and municipal authorities to seek resolutions to illegal settlements on state property.

The order tells authorities to first meet with community representatives on state land to inform them of development projects and to then discuss compensation for residents.

The circular creates a regulation for measures already practiced by authorities, critics said Friday, and it does not address situations where residents refuse to leave.

Cambodian officials have steadily found themselves at odds with squatter communities, where land values have boomed and development projects are springing up.

The order is to “inform all provinces and municipal authorities to solve illegal construction on state land through discussion with residents,” according to the draft pass by the Council on Friday.

The order is meant “to solve the anarchic construction [done] without order on the state land, where the occupier has come to settle illegally and to construct a house without order [creating] a lack of road passage and lack of hygiene.”

The order now gives officials more authority to act against squatter communities who may not be getting enough compensation, opponents said Friday.

“This [order] is good, but we worry about the concrete implementation of it, because the government has not provided fair compensation to people in exchange for their removal,” said Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. “If there are effects to the people because of the [order] we would like the government to respect the constitution and to fairly compensate people through the market price.”

The measure is not clear about compensation, leaving room for authorities to offer low prices to residents, which can lead to conflict, said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc.

Thai Navy, a 39-year-old resident of the Boeung Kak lake community, which has been locked in a dispute with Phnom Penh over a giant development project since 2008, said representatives were not happy with the measure.

“The resolution to remove houses is the same as before,” he said.

The city’s policy is to pay Boeung Kak residents $8,500 per family or to offer lots of land on the outskirts of the city. Residents have said that is not enough, but there has been no forced eviction in the area to date.

The order comes as Cambodia faces increased criticism of forced evictions of the urban poor.

In an annual report issued Thursday, Amnesty International said “a wave of legal actions against housing rights defenders, journalists and other critical voices” had “stifled freedom of expression in Cambodia.”
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Vietnamese firms set on mining gold reserves in Cambodia

The recent discovery of around 8.1 million tons of gold in Cambodia has caught the interest of many Vietnamese companies who now want to enter the gold mining sector in the neighboring country.

Nguyen Thanh Truc, director of Agribank’s subsidiary in charge of trading gold, said the Cambodian mine has the largest gold reserves in Southeast Asia and its discovery has encouraged Vietnamese companies to hatch plans to mine there.

When the time is right, his company will make such a move, Truc said in a report published by local news website VnExpress Friday. However, he noted that as the ore contains only 2.3 grams per ton, lower than the usual grade of 3 gram per ton, the project may not be highly lucrative.

Cambodia said Monday that Australian firm OZ Minerals had discovered around 8.1 million tons of gold on its territory. The gold mine is located in an area in the northeastern province of Mondulkiri, which is close to the Vietnam-Cambodia border, and only 100 kilometers from the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.

Some 60 local and foreign firms including companies from Australia, China, South Korea and Vietnam have been conducting mineral research and exploration across Cambodia, AFP reported, citing an official.

“It will be a great opportunity if Vietnamese companies can invest in the mine, although local technologies are not to a high standard,” said Nguyen The Hung, general director of Vietnam Gold Investment and Trading Company.

Cambodia still depends on foreign mining companies and many Vietnamese firms have recently expanded their business to the neighboring country, Hung said.

Vietnam’s companies have invested a combined US$1 billion into Cambodia, with many projects in the mining sector. However, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has not yet licensed any gold mining projects.

Nguyen Tuan Quynh, deputy director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Company, one of Vietnam’s largest gold traders, said mining is a profitable business and it’s quite easy to apply for licenses to invest in Cambodia.

However, mining costs, conditions and transport are some issues that Vietnamese companies have to consider before making their move, Quynh said.

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