ASEAN Members Fail to Draft South China Sea Statement

PHNOM PENH — Southeast Asian ministers have failed to reach a common position on the maritime dispute involving the South China Sea. Senior officials emerged from a forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, unable to reach their goal of hammering out a joint statement representing the members’ views on the issue.


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, center, and Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba shake hands before their trilateral meeting during the ASEAN Regional forum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 12, 2012.


ASEAN foreign ministers have been attempting all week to craft a statement summarizing its members' position on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. But when senior ministers emerged from the Asean Regional Forum Thursday - the pinnacle of this week’s meetings - disappointment was evident.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said it was “irresponsible” that ASEAN nations have not come up with a common statement.

“Whenever there are incidents, that’s actually the moment that we should reinforce our efforts, not be grinding to a halt," said Natalegawa. "This time last year we had a similar problem between Cambodia and Thailand - it was a more direct intra-ASEAN conflict, but it was not impossible to find a solution within ASEAN. And in this instance it’s, I find it perplexing, and to be candid and honest, really, really disappointing.”
Four ASEAN members - Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam - claim overlapping parts of the South China Sea. China claims almost all of the sea and there have been frequent confrontations over the region. A decade ago, ASEAN and China agreed to work together to develop a code of conduct of operations in the sea. But China wants to settle territorial disputes with individual nations, not the bloc as a whole.

Earlier this week, ASEAN members said they had agreed in principle on “key elements” of a code, and would approach China about opening negotiations.

Late Thursday, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan indicated there is a chance of some sort of agreement on a statement by the end of the week. He downplayed the setback.

“But I think all the dialogue partners, all the major powers are still supporting and expecting ASEAN to take the leading role," said Pitsuwan. "In that sense I think they will have to give the space for ASEAN to move in the direction of constructive and positive and contributing to the process. This time it’s a hiccup within the ASEAN group. We could not find one common position on just one issue. The rest is O.K.”

Coming into this week’s meetings, analysts predicted tensions about the South China Sea would form a major part of discussions here.

This week also saw a dispute emerge beyond ASEAN’s boundaries. Japan lodged a formal protest with China, after Chinese vessels approached a group of small islands that Japan controls, but China claims.

This week’s meetings conclude on Friday. A leaders’ summit is scheduled for November. Read more!

ASEAN Talks Focus on S. China Sea Disputes

PHNOM PENH — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined senior South East Asian officials for high-level discussions in Cambodia Thursday. Ministers attending the Association of South East Asian Nations’ meetings have sought to downplay friction between member states and China all week. Yet, behind the scenes, simmering tensions from maritime disputes continue to contrast with the ministers’ public assurances of mutual cooperation.

 
 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, listens to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, right, during their meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 12, 2012.


Coming into this week’s meetings, analysts predicted tensions about the South China Sea would form a major part of discussions here. That dispute puts four ASEAN nations with competing territorial claims up against China, which claims most of the body of water.

But this week saw more controversies emerge, beyond ASEAN’s boundaries. Japan announced it had launched a formal protest with China, after Chinese vessels approached the Senkaku Islands, a set of remote islands claimed by both countries.

 Both Japan and China are dialogue partners-not full members of ASEAN. But the issue still came up during bilateral discussions this week.

"In light of the historical facts and on the basis of historical law, there is no doubt that the Senkaku islands are an ancient territory of Japan. Furthermore, Japan has maintained valid control over the islands,” said Naoko Saiki, spokeswoman for Japan’s foreign minister.

In a statement this week, the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh confirmed that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba on the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings. The statement says Yang stressed that the Diaoyu Islands, as they are known in China, “have always been China’s territory since ancient times, over which China has indisputable sovereignty.”

Publicly, of course, both countries have said they will not let the dispute cloud their relations.

But for the Philippines, an ASEAN member that has tried to advance South China Sea discussions all week, it is another worrisome maritime controversy involving China. On Wednesday, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario drew a parallel between the Senkaku controversy and China’s role in the South China Sea dispute.

“It looks like they’re becoming more aggressive every day,” Del Rosario said.

This week’s ASEAN meetings are to conclude Friday.

Related Links

• No Agreement on South China Sea as Asean Meeting Ends
• Clinton to Meet Burmese President After Sanctions Lifted
• China Ready to Join Talks on South China Sea

Read more!

Mystery Cambodia Disease Solved, Reportedly Exacerbated by Inappropriate Steroid Use

The mysterious illness that killed more than 60 Cambodian children has been determined, according to medical doctors familiar with the investigation.

The World Health Organization and the Cambodian Ministry of Health concluded that a combination of disease-causing micro-organisms is to blame for the illness, according to CNN reports.

Officials from the WHO investigating the outbreak have concluded that the pathogens associated with the illness, which quickly destroys the lungs of its victims, is a combination of enterovirus 71 or "hand, foot and mouth disease", streptococcus suis, which can lead to bacterial meningitis in people who have close contact with pigs or with pork products, and dengue fever which is transmitted by mosquitos.

WHO also found that steroids, which are used to help patients by suppressing their immune system, actually worsened the illness in most of the patients, sources told CNN.

While not all the pathogenic microorganisms were found in all patients, doctors concluded that the illness was caused by their combination and exacerbated by inappropriate steroid use.

CNN reported that sources did not want to be identified because the results of the WHO investigation have not yet been released to the public. However the health organization is expected to announce shortly that area healthcare workers refrain from treating patients who exhibit symptoms of the illness with steroids. Symptoms of the illness include severe fever, brain swelling, and difficulty breathing.

Health experts are worried that disease rates will spike because Cambodia is currently in its rainy season which is usually accompanied by an increase in the mosquito population and inadequate sanitation.

In the past four months, Cambodian doctors have been stumped with the mysterious disease that kills children so fast that nearly all those infected die within a day or two of being admitted to hospital.

Dr. Beat Richner, head of the children's hospitals in Phnom Penh, which cared for 66 patients affected by the illness, 64 of whom died, said that no new cases of the illness had been confirmed since Saturday, according to CNN. 

Most children who have contracted the mystery disease have come from southern Cambodia, but health officials are still investigating the location of the cluster, a specific area in the country where a lot of cases are coming from. Read more!

Clinton Meets With Asean States Ahead of Regional Forum

“I understand that Asean faces a variety of challenges and even growing pains as it adapts and takes on new responsibilities.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened a US-Asean ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, as international foreign ministers gather for a major regional security forum to open Thursday.


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shakes hands with US Ambassador to

 Cambodia William E. Todd upon arriving in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.

 Clinton touched down Wednesday between monsoon rainstorms. She delivered an address ahead of her meeting, saying she “strongly” supports Asean. The US has recently undertaken more engagement in Southeast Asia, where China’s influence continues to grow.

“I understand that Asean faces a variety of challenges and even growing pains as it adapts and takes on new responsibilities,” she said. “But I believe Asean plays an indispensable role in holding this region’s institutional architecture together and in advancing the common interest of all stakeholders in the Asia Pacific.

Many of those stakeholders have been meeting all week to try to reach an agreement on a code of conduct for the South China Sea, where overlapping claims by China, Vietnam and the Philippines are a major security issue for Asean. Read more!

Japan, China in fresh territorial row

Japan protested to China on Wednesday as a new diplomatic row flared over a remote chain of islands,

with Beijing asserting its "indisputable sovereignty" over the uninhabited territories.



1. A Japan coast guard vessel (bottom) monitors a Chinese fisheries boat (top) near the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands in August 2011.Japan protested to China on Wednesday as a new diplomatic row flared over a remote chain of islands, with Beijing asserting its "indisputable sovereignty" over the uninhabited territories

 Three Chinese patrol boats approached the islands claimed by Japan in the East China Sea on Wednesday morning, leading Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba to formally complain to his Chinese counterpart during talks in Cambodia.

Gemba "strongly lodged a protest with the Chinese government with respect to the incident which took place this morning," a foreign ministry spokeswoman told AFP in Phnom Penh.

The crews of the vessels, which have since left the islands' immediate vicinity, initially rebuffed Japanese orders to leave.


 map showing islands claimed by both Japan and China. Japan protested to China on Wednesday as a new diplomatic row flared over a remote chain of islands, with Beijing asserting its "indisputable sovereignty" over the uninhabited territories


"We are conducting official duty in Chinese waters. Do not interfere. Leave China's territorial waters," the crews said, according to the Japanese coastguard.

The Chinese ambassador in Tokyo was summoned over the alleged violation, but the Chinese foreign ministry said it did "not accept Japanese representations over this". Read more!

Cambodia: A village on stilts

Explore Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake, home to a charming floating village with rustic and colourful double-storied houses

It was a warm, sultry day. The boatman signaled for us to move our chairs to the center of the motorboat. On cue, prickly twigs whipped the skiff savagely as we drifted through mangroves lining either side of the narrow Kampong Canal. Sometimes a quaint canoe or another tourist boat roared past us. This journey to Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake, a bewitching pool that ebbed and waned with the seasons, was magical.

The mysterious lake

After three astounding days of exploring temples in Siem Reap, I drove a couple of miles outside the city and caught a boat from a tiny pier to Tonle Sap, a Khmer word, meaning large, fresh water river, or even, Great Lake. But this quirky water body doesn't retain its size throughout the year. Fed by the Mekong River starting in the Tibetan Plateau, in the dry season, the lake drains out back in the river and shrinks. But in the wet season, fed by the river and the rains it swells, nearly five times in size, to a whopping approximate 12,000 square kilometers informed Bros, our Khmer Guide. In the swell, the silt gets deposited on the floodlands. When the water levels recede, paddy fields and acres of green beans, corn and watermelon, scent the landscape, sprouting up like magic.

I peered in the water to spot some of the 200 freshwater fishes and handful of snakes present in the lake that Bros had mentioned. But the humidity seemed to have had a soporific effect on all, including my companions, whose gentle snores wove with the water's melody. As the canal gradually widened, a pagoda on stilts shrouded by wild grass came into view. Soon enough, rows of houses on stilts, and then, an entire water civilization emerged in the middle of nowhere: Kampong Phluk - a floating village, hidden to the outside world.

The floating village

Kampong Phluk was a melange of pastoral, water scenes: women wrapped in colorful scarves paddled lone boats; cheeky naked children swam like fish; a few villagers snoozed on hammocks tethered on stilts; boats with fishing nets rushed about; and even pigs rested peacefully in floating pens! Interestingly, the village didn't float literally; much of it stood on stilts, and the rest was tied-up and bobbed around.

Home to nearly 500 families, Kampong Phluk's rustic double storied homes soared to nearly six meters above the ground. Hewed from special wood, the colorfully painted hamlet, decorated with kitschy fake flowers sat in sharp contrast with the mud-coloured, silt heavy water flowing by.

The sloping roofs made from sheets of corrugated tins were a recent addition, replacing palm leaf roofs that were once de rigueur. And almost each home had a lovely view of the Great Lake. Itsy-bitsy balconies were trussed out in hammocks, deck chairs, and rocking chairs, all to watch life float by.

Our boat slowly ground to a halt at the makeshift pier. We stepped on to a sliver of magically dry land, dotted with homes on stilts that appeared to float when the area flooded. Stopping by a shop to gorge on steaming tapioca cakes, I climbed a rickety staircase and peeped in a garishly decorated guesthouse, popular with adventurous tourists, available for just a couple of dollars per night.

But the strangest home in the village was a Lilliputian machan. It had a bird house attached to it with a mug of local brew, incense sticks and a couple of bananas placed on it for good measure. The water spirit house, the locals prayed here before they left for fishing, explained Bros. By then it was already dusk, and, Tonle Sap and its wondrous floating village had already cast its spell.

Tips

Getting there: SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, flies from 7 cities in India to Singapore, with 10 convenient connections a week to Siem Reap, one of the 34 exotic destinations it flies to across Asia. (www.silkair.com)

Visit to Kampong Phluk: A day trip to the village and Tonle Sap Lake costs approximately 40 USD. Contact Exotissimo Travels which organizes exotic holidays in Cambodia at www.exotissimo.com.

Best time to visit: The best time to visit Kampong Phluk and Tonle Sap Lake is between July and January, when water levels in the canal are high.

Neeti Mehra @timesgroup.com Read more!

Detained Frenchman Willing To Go to China, Cambodia Says

Cambodian officials say a Frenchman arrested last month in connection to a murder case in China is willing to be sent back there.

Patrick Devillers, who has been detained since his arrest in Phnom Penh on June 13, can return at his own request, said Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.

A general view of the home of French architect Patrick Henri Devillers is pictured in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 21, 2012.

 

“He tends to express his wish to go to China, and wherever he goes is surely his own decision, and if he decides to go to China, we are OK, we would follow his personal decision,” Khieu Sopheak said.

Devillers should make a request in writing, however, Khieu Sopheak said. “We all have to be transparent.”
Devillers, 52, has personal and professional links to Gu Kailai, who is suspected of the murder of a British national in China and is the wife of ousted politician Bo Xilai. The high-profile case has fueled a political crisis in China.

A French Embassy spokesman declined to comment on the case Tuesday, but French officials have said in the past Devillers should not be extradited without clear legal basis. Read more!

Groups Want Stronger Asean Declaration of Human Rights

“Asean member states, as members of the United Nations, have to comply with those minimum standards.”


ASEAN countries' foreign ministers join their hands during a photo session at the 45th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Plus three Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, July 10, 2012.


As Cambodia prepares to host a major regional security meeting in Phnom Penh this week, local and international rights group say the country should use its presidency of Asean this year to push for a declaration of human rights that is up to international standards.

Asean members have already drafted a human rights declaration that it expects to approve later this year, but built into it are limitations that rights advocates say need changed.

Asean officials have not allowed members of civil society to officially review their draft declaration, but according to a draft obtained by VOA Khmer, basic rights and freedoms are subject to a number of exceptions.

These include “the just requirements of national security, public order, public health, public safety, public morality, as well as the general welfare of the peoples in a democratic society,” according to the draft.
These limitations create the potential for justifying human rights abuses, rights advocates say.

“Having points like that, I don’t want to see them, because human rights have already been recognized internationally,” said Pung Chhiv Kek, president of the rights group Licadho.

Rights workers from Southeast Asian countries should be allowed their input, she said, “in order to have a good document for the Asean declaration, for the advantage of the people.”

The draft declaration does call for rights to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion”; “opinion and expression”; and peaceful assembly and association.”

However, Shiwei Ye, a Bangkok-based representative of the International Federation of Human Rights, said the draft remains substandard because of its limitations.

“If Asean adopts a declaration that is lower than international human rights standards, that will be unacceptable,” he said. “Asean member states, as members of the United Nations, have to comply with those minimum standards.”

Observers say Asean member nations with poor human rights records, such as Burma, Cambodia or Vietnam, make it hard to open a dialogue with rights groups. Asean’s charter also prevents one nation from interfering with the internal affairs of another.

Asean leaders are expected to approve the declaration in a major summit in November. The draft will be finalized in October.

“I think one important provision to include in the declaration is that no parts of that declaration should be interpreted or implemented in a manner that undermine international human rights standards,” Shiwei Ye said. “Then we could always refer to this safeguard provision to make sure that, when members of Asean actually refer to the declaration in the future, they can’t use it as the excuse to justify human rights violations.” Read more!

Clinton’s Visit an Upswing in a Sometimes Turbulent Relationship

“Every country in Southeast Asia without exception wants to avoid being caught in the crosshairs of a Sino-American war.”

“We have many issues to discuss that are of importance to our two nations and regional and global interest as well,” Clinton told journalists in Washington recently.

 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to the Asean Regional Forum in Phnom Penh next week will mark her second visit to Cambodia in eighteen months, marking a positive development in a diplomatic relationship with a history of ups and downs.

The United States and Cambodia first established bilateral relations in 1950, in a defensive effort by the United States, then in the throes of the Cold War. But more than six decades of conflicting diplomatic ideals, domestic conflicts and a fluctuating global political climate have meant an unsteady, on-again off-again association between the two nations.

The past 20 years have proven particularly turbulent, with the establishment of the first US mission in Phnom Penh in 1991 and the suspension of bilateral support six years later in response to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s coup against royalists led by Prince Norodom Rannaridh.
Recent history has proven more positive, however. The United States lifted its 10-year moratorium on aid to the Cambodian government in 2007; in the years since, political and economic relations between the two states have regained traction, coinciding with Cambodia’s nascent role as a key player in the Southeast Asian arena. This year, Cambodia serves as the chair of Asean, a body with which Clinton has rekindled strong ties after relations after they were neglected under the Bush administration.

“It seems to me that the relationship has leveled out,” Kenton Clymer, a professor of history at Northern Illinois University, told VOA Khmer. “While there continue to be problems from time to time, generally speaking, I think relations between the United States and Cambodia have become really quite normal.”

John Ciorciari, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, told VOA Khmer that the United States’ recent interest in Cambodia is more a means than an end and mirrors current American foreign policy in Southeast Asia on whole, structured with the influence of China in mind. In the subtly contentious relationship between the United States and China, the states and resources of Southeast Asia are inevitable points of consideration.

Cambodia, he said, “is located in a region where the United States has already largely increased its economic, strategic, military, and diplomatic interests, and in the context of a rising China that has close ties with Cambodia, I think the US government sees an incentive to engage a little more robustly. The Sino-US relationship has some elements of competition, and part of that competition is for economic, political, and military influence in Southeast Asia.”

To that end, US military officials have begun discussions of strengthening a military presence in the region, which American forces all but abandoned in the years following the Vietnam War.

Ciorciari argued, however, that in spite of increased attention from both China and the United States, Cambodia has no plans to pick sides.

“Every country in Southeast Asia without exception wants to avoid being caught in the crosshairs of a Sino-American war,” he said. “Part of what Asean countries are trying to do now, including Cambodia, is to set up economically and politically friendly relations with the US and China, without aligning themselves too decisively in one camp or the other, precisely because doing that would obligate them to take sides in the event of the conflict.”

These “friendly relations” have revealed themselves in recent months. Clinton pledged to “broaden and deepen the partnership” between the United States and Cambodia on her trip to Phnom Penh in November 2010, and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong urged American investment in Cambodian resources while meeting with Clinton in Washington last month.

Clinton will return to Phnom Penh next week for the Asean Regional Forum and bilateral negotiations with Cambodian officials. She has stressed the emerging role of Asean as a global player, politically and economically. As chair, Cambodia will bear the responsibility for spearheading conversations on topics of international interest, particularly the South China Sea dispute, which pits China against several Asean states.

“There’s no reason why Cambodia cannot be reasonably effective,” Ciorciari said. “Cambodia’s senior diplomats are capable of exercising effective leadership if they have the will to be a constructive player in Asean.”

It is unclear how the relationship between the United States and Cambodia will progress after Cambodia’s chairmanship expires. Though revamped foreign policy has thrust Cambodia into the current diplomatic arena, the country’s relationship with the United States beyond the State Department remains limited.

“I don’t want to overplay Cambodia’s strategic importance on a global level, but it is located in a neighborhood where most of the world’s commerce flows, and that makes it a place where the United States has some natural strategic interest,” Ciorciari said. Read more!

Appeals Court Decision on Boeung Kak 13 a ‘Bad Sign,’ Analyst Says

That will cause worry among the populace, he said, that they can be immediately imprisoned after their arrest. “This is a bad sign for people in general.”
Last month’s release of 13 women jailed for protesting a housing development in Phnom Penh was good news for the women incarcerated, but by upholding the lower court’s judgement, the Appeal Court set a bad precedent, observers say.

The Appeals Court did not overturn a guilty verdict hastily handed the women by Phnom Penh Municipal Court, but released them with time served, after they were arrested for constructing a house on the Boeung Kak site of a forced eviction in May.

Analyst Lao Monghay told “Hello VOA” Thursday the Phnom Penh court’s decision had little basis in law. The Appeals Court decision to uphold the judgement—though reduce the sentence—was “a bad example of the Cambodian court, which did not try them based on legal procedures,” he said.

The court “did not find clear evidence, had no witnesses, and so on,” he said. “And the Appeals Court upheld the Phnom Penh court as making the right judgement. Then others will do the same, meaning that in the future they will not need to investigate a great deal but immediately try them when police arrest them and imprison them.”



Even though the women are now free, he said, they are still convicted of a crime. “Releasing them I don’t think was justice for them all, but it was compassion,” he said.

The women were arrested as they tried to reconstruct a house at the Boeung Kak development site following a forced eviction and destruction of their homes. They were charged with illegally occupying land and defying local authorities.

Am Sam Ath, head investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said the charges against them did not fit the act. “What we regret is that although the Appeals Court decided to let the 13 people out of prison, it still upheld the verdict of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court,” he said. “It’s not justice for 13 people who did not commit anything like the charges.”

Instead, he said, the Appeals Court decision underscored the need for reform in the Cambodian judiciary.
“If the court system is not independent, impunity and the influence of politicians on the court will continue,” he said. “So NGOs have urged the government to speed up reform, especially judicial reform, and make the court independent.”

Read more!

Prospero Foundation Supports Cambodia's Poor

The Prospero Foundation is pleased to announce that it has formed a relationship with Cambodia’s leading Microfinance Institution in order to support some of the country’s poorest citizens.

Bach, Switzerland (PRWEB) July 06, 2012

The Prospero Foundation is pleased to announce that it has formed a relationship with Cambodia’s leading Microfinance Institution in order to support some of the country’s poorest citizens.

The Institution, Angkor Mikroheranhyatho Kampuchea Co. Ltd. (AMK) aims to improve lives by providing Cambodia’s poorest citizens with a range of tailored microfinance services. By leveraging AMK’s local presence and expertise, the Prospero Foundation is helping local Cambodians by providing capital for microfinance loans.

The Prospero Foundation aligns itself with local institutions such as AMK as a part of its strategy to provide effective financial support with little or no overhead.

As of December 2011, AMK reached 280,195 clients in 9,152 villages across Cambodia with a loan portfolio value of almost US$48 million. AMK takes strong measures to include the country’s poorest and most marginalized citizens.

AMK’s services are in alignment with the Prospero Foundation’s mission to help people overcome the barriers imposed by poverty, and its values of empowerment and self-sufficiency.

About The Prospero Foundation

The Prospero Foundation is a private, international charitable foundation founded by Ulrik DeBo. Mr. DeBo, a lifelong entrepreneur, whose upbringing and eventual success in the finance industry, through his company DeBondo Capital Ltd, gave him the relevant experience and insight required.

 The foundation is run by a global network of entrepreneurs, who raise funds privately amongst their business contacts, and choose to invest them using a 'pay-it-forward' philosophy to focus on charitable projects that promise to perpetuate a chain reaction of positive growth opportunities for individuals and local communities for generations to come.

 It is a foundation that empowers citizens to help themselves and those around them.

 For additional information, please visit http://www.prosperofoundation.org/


Contact Address:

Seestrasse 69

8806 Bäch

Switzerland

info(at)prosperofoundation(dot)org

The Prospero Foundation
The Prospero Foundation
+41 435 002 138
Email Information

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Clinton to visit Laos, Egypt and Israel

By Jo Biddle (AFP) – 6 hours ago 

 WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to become the first top US diplomat to visit communist-run Laos in 57 years, as part of an eight-nation tour that also takes her to Egypt and Israel, the State Department announced Thursday.

"Clinton will travel to France, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Egypt and Israel departing Washington, DC on July 5," said a statement from State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland released upon their departure.

Clinton was officially invited to Laos by counterpart Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith in 2010 when he made the first visit by a top Laotian official to Washington since Soviet-backed communist rebels swept to power and replaced the monarchy there in 1975.

US relations with Laos, while never severed, were long tense, in part over its campaign against the Hmong hill people who assisted US forces during the Vietnam War, along with uncertainties over American troops missing in action.

But the United States established normal trade ties with Laos in 2004 and has recently looked at ways to help clean up abandoned ordnance that continues to take a heavy civilian toll. US forces dropped millions of bombs on the country to cut off North Vietnam supply lines, which according to a 2010 survey have killed or injured some 50,000 people in Laos.

The Laos stop forms part of an Asian swing that will also take in Japan, Mongolia and Vietnam ahead of talks in Cambodia with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and regional powers including China.

On her way back from Asia, Clinton will make a two-day stop in America's key Middle Eastern ally Egypt, her first since President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood became the country's first Islamist leader.

Her last visit to Egypt came in March 2011, when she toured Cairo's Tahrir Square in the wake of the protests that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

Clinton wraps up her tour with a final two-day stop on July 16-17 in Israel, "where she will be meeting with the Israeli leadership to discuss peace efforts and a range of regional and bilateral issues of mutual concern," according to Nuland's statement.

It will be Clinton's first visit to Israel in almost two years, since September 2010.
"We can presume she will be visiting multiple sites in Israel," Patrick Ventrell, a State Department spokesman, told journalists in Washington.

Her opening stop though was France on Thursday for talks boycotted by both China and Russia on how to end the 16-month conflict in Syria.

Friday's "Friends of Syria" meeting is aimed at coordinating efforts to stop the violence in the country that the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says has claimed the lives of 16,500 people.

While in Paris, Clinton will also meet Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas to discuss efforts to build trust with the Israelis following an exchange of letters between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the State Department said.

Observers say Clinton's brief talks in Laos are likely to focus on the US administration's Lower Mekong Initiative as well as efforts to fight drug trafficking. She may also seek to give fresh impetus to American hopes to recover the remains of US troops killed there during the Vietnam War.

The talks could also focus on Laos's imminent entry to the World Trade Organization.

In May, Laos said it had postponed construction of a controversial dam on the Mekong, dismissing fears the work was going ahead despite growing regional and international opposition.

The $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam is slated to be the first of 11 big dams along the main stem of the 4,600 kilometer (2,850 mile) Mekong River, which passes through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Laos is one of the poorest nations in the world, with just 6.5 million people, and sees hydropower as vital to its potential future as the "battery of Southeast Asia," selling electricity to its more industrialized neighbors.

But activists say the dam projects could spell disaster for the roughly 60 million people who depend on the Mekong waterway -- the world's largest inland fishery.

President Barack Obama's administration launched the Lower Mekong Initiative in hopes of supporting the environment, health and education in the populous region as part of a renewed effort to build relations with Southeast Asia.

It was unclear if Clinton would also raise the issue of the Hmong minority during her trip.

Some 250,000 Hmong have resettled in the United States and often speak of persecution in Laos, enlisting support of US lawmakers to pressure the Vientiane government.

Read more!

Cambodians call for ‘blood sugar’ boycott

Campaigners on Wednesday called for a boycott of Cambodian “blood sugar” over claims that increasing production had resulted in human rights abuses.

Representatives from the Cambodia Clean Sugar Campaign said crops had been razed, homes burned and animals shot after thousands of hectares of land concessions were set aside for industrial sugar cane production.

Cambodian sugar exports to Europe benefit from the Everything But Arms trade initiative, which allows low-income countries to export certain goods to the economic bloc with zero tariffs.

“Because of this policy, sugar plantations have been growing quickly,” said Eang Vuthy of rights group Equitable Cambodia. “We see people are losing their land instead of benefiting.”

Community representatives said villagers had lost farm- and pasture land.

“If you are buying this sugar, you are buying our blood,” said Phol Vannak from a community in Kampong Speu province in south-western Cambodia where about 2 000 families have been affected by the land concessions.

Civil society groups in Cambodia have called for the European Union to investigate alleged human rights violations while campaigners have demanded adequate compensation for affected communities.

They also called for a consumer boycott of companies selling sugar grown on disputed land, including Tate & Lyle Sugars.

A spokeswoman for Tate & Lyle PLC said the company sold its sugar division to T&L Sugars Ltd, part of American Sugar Holdings, in 2010.

The representative said the operation was now running under the name Tate & Lyle Sugars and referred all further questions to them. Tate & Lyle Sugars did not reply to an emailed request for comment.

The Phnom Penh Post newspaper on Wednesday quoted Chheang Kimsun of producer Phnom Penh Sugar Co as saying a campaign against the industry would hurt development. He added that a high-profile dispute in Kampong Speu province's Omlaing area had been solved two years ago.

Politicians have previously raised concerns about the Cambodian industry. Last year, EU parliamentarian Cecilia Wikstrom said she would push for the EU to suspend trade preferences for Cambodian sugar.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in April that Europe was “worried” about economic land concessions in Cambodia and he had discussed the issue with Cambodia's commerce minister, Cham Prasidh.

A government spokesman said Tuesday that communities should file complaints about concessions in the courts.

Land disputes are a pressing issue in Cambodia. The country's land tenure system is weak since the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime abolished property rights.Author: Ellie Dyer – Sapa-dpa

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EU scheme boosts Cambodian land grabs

An EU scheme to boost trade with developing nations is fuelling land grabs in Cambodia, activists say, with thousands evicted from their property to make way for a booming sugar industry.

Campaigners are taking their fight to European supermarkets, encouraging a boycott of Cambodian sugar, which they claim is often grown on land snatched illegally from rural farmers.

Yi Chhav said she had no choice but to return to her family plantation to work for the sugarcane grower that took her land, toiling for about $US1.50 ($A1.46) a day in the sea of swaying emerald green plants that swallowed her rice paddies.

"If we say there's no way we'll go to work in the sugarcane plantation then what will we have to eat? There's no work," the 68-year-old widow told AFP at her modest home in southwestern Koh Kong province.

"How can we survive?" she said, adding that the irregular work makes her feel like a "slave" and her low income has forced her to pull her teenage daughter out of school.

Europe's "Everything But Arms" initiative is meant to help the world's least developed nations by lifting import quotas and duties.

But activists say it has sparked avoracious appetite for land in Cambodia's sugar industry, leaving more than 3,000 dispossessed families without fair compensation, while enriching well-connected investors.

Rights groups say the government has ignored residents' legitimate land claims by granting tens of thousands of hectares to local and foreign-owned sugar firms across the nation.

Land titles are a murky issue in Cambodia - the communist Khmer Rouge regime abolished property ownership during its murderous rule in the late 1970s - and disputes pitting developers and agricultural firms against villagers have sparked increasingly violent protests in the country.

Industry and government officials argue that there is compensation on offer for those affected, and that the sugar business is good for Cambodia because it creates jobs.

But activists say the compensation is inadequate. After years of seemingly futile protests, they are now urging the EU - and European consumers - to step in to combat what they term "blood" sugar.

"It is scandalous that the European Union permits this tainted sugar to be sold within its territory, but until the EU implements a ban on the import of goods produced on stolen land it is up to European consumers to say no to these products," said David Pred, a representative from the Cambodian Clean Sugar Campaign.

The coalition of rights groups and representatives from affected communities this week launched a campaign urging shoppers to put pressure on Tate and Lyle Sugars to stop buying from Cambodian suppliers.

Their website - www.boycottbloodsugar.net - includes a video showing distressed villagers watching as rural buildings go up in flames.

The British-based firm, once part of the Tate and Lyle group but now owned by the US company American Sugar Refining (ASR), failed to respond to repeated requests from AFP for comment.

The EU's ambassador to Cambodia, Jean-Francois Cautain, told AFP the European Union was looking into the concerns.

"The government has already given us some documents and we are in the process of studying them and then we'll have an important discussion," he said, welcoming Phnom Penh's recent announcement that it would review all land concessions following a spike in conflicts this year.

Government spokesman E.K Tha said authorities were "on the right track" in addressing land disputes, but referred specific questions about grievances in the sugar industry to the companies running the operations.
Koh Kong, one of three sugar-growing provinces, has the country's oldest and most active plantation, exporting around 20,000 tonnes of sugar to the EU in 2011 - double the figure from 2010 - according to local rights groups such as Equitable Cambodia and Licadho.

Ruling party senator and Cambodian business heavyweight Ly Yong Phat, who has sold his stake in the Koh Kong operation but still has ties to other sugar plantations, told AFP there was little companies could do besides offering compensation because concessions were legally granted by the government.

"If it were my land, I would share with them, then the problem is over. But it's the state's land. So what can I do?" he told AFP.

Frustrated by the battle, some affected families in Koh Kong recently accepted a hiked cash settlement, from around 10,000 riel ($A243), said community leader Teng Kao.

But most are still holding out for a deal that makes up for the loss of their livelihoods.

"We can't live without our land. Every day we ask for our land back so that we can grow rice and crops like before," he said

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Unknown disease kills 60 children in Cambodia: WHO

An unidentified disease has killed 60 young children in Cambodia in three months, the World Health Organization said Tuesday as it raced to identify the cause.

"The number of deaths reported to WHO is 60 cases and they have all been in young children," said Dr Nima Asgari, a public health specialist for the UN body in Cambodia, adding that the first casualties were reported in April.

The WHO is currently working with the Cambodian Ministry of Health "to identify the cause and the route of spread of this disease", he said.

. And here is the rest of it.With the investigation still at an early stage, Asgari said it was difficult to specify the symptoms, which "include high fever and severe chest disease symptoms, plus in some children there were signs of neurological involvement".

There have been 61 reported cases so far, Asgari said, with just one patient surviving. The victims, all aged seven and under, were admitted to hospitals in the capital Phnom Penh and the northwestern tourist hub of Siem Reap.

In separate comments sent to AFP, the WHO said there were no signs yet of contagion.

"To date, there is no report of any staff or any neighbouring patients to the cases at the hospitals becoming sick with similar symptoms," it said.

Asgari confirmed there was "no cluster of the cases yet" but said the high mortality rate in such a short space of time was worrisome.

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Portland actress seeks to rescue ancient Cambodian opera by launching Save World Art

By Holly Johnson



Helena de Crespo holds a Cambodian mask

used in the ancient theatre art of Bassac



Portland actress Helena de Crespo was travelling through Cambodia about four years ago, when an accidental encounter changed her life.

After visiting the famed temples of Angkor Wat in that battle-scarred country near Siem Reap, she headed down a road with her interpreter. There on the side of the road was an ornate traveling theater. De Crespo, born in Spain and raised in Britain, was familiar with outdoor theatre, as years ago she had traveled in South America, performing with a troupe that mounted shows in various venues, some of them outdoors.

But she hadn’t seen anything like this, especially amid the poverty of the land.

“I told my interpreter ‘Stop the car, I want to meet them,” de Crespo recalled. The Cambodians along the roadside accepted her visit calmly. She urged her interpreter to ask them who they were and what they did, and in turn, to tell them that she was an actress. When they found out she was involved in theater, they welcomed her openly. They offered her what little food they had, and invited her to take photographs.

They showed her how they powered the stage lights with an old generator run by a car engine. They showed her their costumes, and how they lived under the stage. Amid dire poverty and life in substandard conditions, they were performing live theater in Khmer (Cambodia’s official language) regularly to local audiences, who regularly number over 1,000 at a single presentation.

After more than two hours had passed, she had had animated discussions with company director Len Chouen, and she learned his amazing story. Len Chouen had come from a theater family who performed the ancient art form of Bassac, a mix of opera, theater, music and dancing dating back 4,000 years, disciplines he learned as a child. When all artists in Cambodia were slated to be killed during the Khmer Rouge, his family members were wiped out by Pol Pot’s soldiers, but because he was small he was hidden under their dead bodies, and was able to escape. De Crespo learned that Len Chouen had formed his company, about 86 members in all–including orphans wandering the countryside–in order to preserve Bassac. As she was about to leave, he begged her to help the company, which is titled the Reasmey Ankgor Bassac Theater Troupe.

“I was leaving the next day,” de Crespo said. “All I could think about was them. I was really ignorant. I didn’t know anything about Bassac. All I could see was those people suffering. I thought, ‘What can I do? Where can I turn?’ Bassac, she learned, is an ancient art form originating from India, using many of that country’s mythological characters, and was inspired by the Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit epic that is an important part of the Hindu canon. Ramayana thematically explores human values and the idea of dharma, the principal or law that orders the universe. So many people were unable to read, so through traveling theater they learned about the gods and their traditional stories through theater.

When she returned to Portland, de Crespo started contacting various social service agencies to help raise money. No one in America answered her request, but through her connection with England’s Actors Equity, she found International Performance Aid Trust (IPAT), a group operating out of Britain and Belgium. Eventually, their funding enabled the Bassac company to purchase land for their theater center. Other improvements are in the works, including a water pump, health center, school and a more permanent theater space. “They’ve got some pigs and chickens and a pond for fishing, and papaya trees have been planted,” de Crespo said. But she said there is much more that they need. During the monsoon season, she added, the theater group members are forced to move elsewhere due to lack of shelter.

De Crespo and a group of other Portland people sympathetic to her cause have recently formed a not-for-profit group titled Save World Art. The Cambodian project, originally called “Cambodian Treasures–The Bassac Project,” will be the inaugural effort of this fund-raising group. And to raise money de Crespo has launched her own money-raising project, the performance of a chilling, dryly funny one-woman play titled “Elective Affinities” by Syrian-American playwright David Adjmi. A site-specific playlet about a wealthy woman with no humility, it is designed to be performed in opulent private homes, and is by invitation only, although de Crespo says that could change. She has performances slated in the Portland area and in Ashland this summer.



Members of the Reasmey Ankgor Bassac Theatre
 Troupe perform to large audiences



“Many people in Cambodia are still struggling to say alive,” de Crespo said. “Between 1975-1979, two million Cambodians perished during the genocide. Even after 30 years their infrastructure is still very bad.” She added that Save World Art is geared toward helping with buildings, health, sanitation and self-sufficient food production. But it’s also aimed at something more that could help the entire country–reviving an ancient art form that can enhance tourism as well as the quality of life for Cambodians.

“Who would have thought,” de Crespo said, ” that my stopping a car and walking out to meet a group of people in the Cambodian countryside would have such a great effect on my life?”
You can contribute a tax-deductible donation to help the Cambodian project here or here.
Watch “Cambodian Treasures: Preserving Bassac Theatre”.

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Cambodia—Prospective, Stable and Ignored: Ken Booth

By The Gold Report, on July 2nd, 2012 in Expert Interviews

 

The Gold Report: Why should investors pay attention to Cambodia?

Ken Booth: Because of political forces, Cambodia was forgotten and ignored. The French explored during its colonial period in Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia. That information was lost. The Australians explored Southeast Asia, but focused more on Indonesia, closer to its backyard. The political strife that ended in the mid-1980s further stopped foreign investment in Cambodia and it became a forgotten place.

While things were quiet in Cambodia, the past 20 years have seen significant exploration and development in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. As a result, Laos has a world-class copper mine and a producing gold mine. Those countries share many geological similarities to Cambodia. For now, there isn’t a big database of exploration results for Cambodia. But the country should be on people’s maps for mining exploration. And it is beginning to be.

TGR: What types of deposits are explorers searching for? Gold? Copper?

KB: From a commercially viable point of view, the targets are copper, copper/gold systems and epithermal precious metal systems. That is true of the east and central areas of the country. In the western regions on the border with Thailand, small-scale miners have been extracting precious and semi-precious stones for decades.

TGR: So what’s the situation with regard to exploration in Cambodia right now? Is it a greenfield?

KB: It would be considered greenfields, but some initial work has been done. Some geological maps are available. Initial exploration is not too difficult—it’s fairly easy to get around. We’re not talking about difficult physiography. First-stage exploration can be done rapidly through stream-sediment sampling and geophysics. Modern exploration would be considered greenfield.

Interestingly, on the eastern border with Vietnam, there has been significant small-scale and artisanal mining over the past 10 years. That activity does not appear to be historical and seems to be on the decline. Many of the miners cross the border illegally; it is a fairly porous border. The miners mine the alluvial material down to hard rock.

TGR: In those areas, do companies follow the small-scale miners to the most prospective areas?

KB: Yes. There are many forces at work in this situation. The border is tightening up. A lot of those small miners don’t use the best environmental mining practices and many use mercury. The Cambodian government is in the process of removing many of these people off the properties, pushing them back into Vietnam. The good news is the miners have exposed veins at surface, or they’ve excavated pits and you can get to hard rock or regolith. Clearly, they are extracting gold out of the alluvium and out of the veins, so the miners are also benefiting while doing the prep work for the modern explorers.

TGR: Does this put the mining companies and the government in the path of conflict with the local population?

KB: The Cambodian government is encouraging economic development on all fronts. It looks around the world and sees how mining has benefited a lot of countries. The government is making positive moves toward resource development. With mineral resources, the government is proactive in making sure that illegal miners—especially the ones who have crossed over the border—are moved off the land. That places the government in a good position to work with companies. If a company has a memorandum of understanding with the government on a particular piece of ground, the government will support the company in its endeavors. In those cases, the government will resolve the issues with illegal mining. Most of the small-scale mining is alluvial, which is very different from the mining exploration that public companies are engaged in.

TGR: In the past, you have discussed Angkor Gold Corp. (ANK:TSX.V). What is new there?

KB: Angkor Gold is one of the most active companies in Cambodia. The other significant company is Renaissance Minerals Ltd. (RNS:ASX) from Australia, which recently purchased a 750,000 ounce (750 Koz) gold deposit from OZ Minerals Ltd. (OZL:ASX) Those are the companies that are the most proactive explorers in Cambodia. I’ve heard that there are Chinese-backed private entities working within the country, but I don’t have any knowledge as to who they are or what they’re looking for. Angkor Gold’s main focus is exploration for gold, copper and copper-gold systems while Renaissance Minerals’ main focus is developing its 750 Koz gold resource.

TGR: Angkor Gold is an early-stage exploration company. With so many projects, how do you value the company?

KB: Angkor Gold has a lot of projects. The beauty about going into a country like Cambodia at this stage of the game is you get to be the first mover. The best company to bet on is the first mover that gets in and acquires the most prospective land. Angkor Gold has used its in-country managers, who have had experience in Cambodia over the last decade, to claim or apply for large tracts of land in order to ensure that it is the first mover. Over time, as exploration companies explore their land packages, less prospective areas will be dropped. While Angkor Gold looks as if it has a lot of land, and it does, it’s only from the point of view of saying, “I’ve got six or seven areas here I really think are prospective, I want to make sure I have those.” And as it works those properties, hopefully it will be successful on one or more. But, that land position will change dynamically over time.

TGR: What would be the timeline to get a resource estimate in this situation?

KB: Faster than you might think. Cambodia has four drilling companies and three assay labs. I believe two of those assay labs are accredited for reporting under the Australian reporting system as well as under Canadian NI 43-101 policies. Drillers and labs are busy, but they exist. The large labor force is not a problem; people are available and ready to work. Infrastructure is good and improving.

Getting to a resource is no worse than in a first-tier mining jurisdiction like the U.S., Canada, Mexico or Peru. In fact, you could be slightly ahead just by virtue of not having to compete for labor and potentially less bureaucratic red tape than in more developed countries. If a company is looking at a small vein-style deposit, it can probably develop the resource in fairly short time. If it is trying to drill off a resource in a large copper-porphyry system, that will take a lot longer, just by virtue of it being a much larger target.

TGR: Many sources state that Cambodia has a stable legal and regulatory framework. The mining law was written about 10 years ago, so it is still young. Can you comment?

KB: The legal system was developed with external advisers to ensure that it could be used by foreigners who wanted to invest within the country to protect property and individual rights. For a country that has a fairly new legal system, it appears to be good. The same applies to the mining law.In creating legal systems, many developing countries rely on the expertise of people and legal systems from other jurisdictions. It seems to work well. It is an open system with clear rules spelled out in the memorandum of understanding. Companies can apply for small acreage or large acreage. But either way, exactly how to make the application and then what companies have to do to keep their tenure are well defined. It is an open and transparent legal system and mining law.

TGR: What are your thoughts on how an investor should participate in Cambodia?

KB: Investors should align themselves with managers that understand resource development in emerging jurisdictions. Investors need to realize that if they are in early, they have the potential for outsized rewards—if they pick the right managers. Early investment in a country like Cambodia needs to be managed by people who understand the initial foray into the country by companies like Angkor Gold, Oz Minerals and now Renaissance Minerals. Those initial prospects may generate gains when sold to developers.

In all these countries, people have their views on where they’ve come from and how bad the situation was. But the most important thing is to understand where they are today. Resource investors who get in early should do well. But they need an appetite for risk.

I consider Cambodia to be in its infancy, and it has not been explored to any great degree. There are similar stories of ignored countries in Africa including Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We’ve got an example close by in Colombia. Fifteen years ago, exploring for gold in the Colombian jungle would have been considered crazy. Now Colombia is a major destination for exploration.

TGR: At this point, do you have an idea of what fraction of Cambodia has been explored?

KB: Oh, I would put it down to less than 5%.

TGR: There’s a lot of room for exploration still.

KB: A lot of room for exploration. Here is how I think it will play out. Somewhere, there will be a success or a discovery. You will see additional modern techniques applied on a large scale countrywide. How much has been explored? Well, a relatively small percentage, because it’s all being done using tried-and-true methods—feet on the ground, mapping and sampling. When larger surveys, such as airborne geophysics, start to highlight prospective areas, things could really open up.

TGR: What thoughts would you like to leave with the readers?

KB: If investors are looking for a company that’s early stage and prospective, they should look at Angkor Gold. If investors are looking for a country that is early stage and prospective, they should look at Cambodia. It is a mining-friendly jurisdiction. Investment is coming to the country and infrastructure is improving. As an investor or a company, the “first mover” gets the pick of the litter. And I think Angkor Gold has definitely done a good job on that. Investors should pay attention to both Cambodia and Angkor Gold.

TGR: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

Ken Booth has more than 30 years of experience in exploration, mining corporate finance and public company administration. In mining corporate finance, he has worked for two of Canada’s largest investment banks executing numerous equity financings for both junior and senior companies and was involved in a variety of significant mergers and acquisitions. While working for resource companies, Booth has held several positions including CEO and vice president of corporate development. He is currently providing financial advice to the junior mining sector and is a director of four exploration companies.

Want to read more exclusive Gold Report interviews like this? Sign up for our free e-newsletter, and you’ll learn when new articles have been published. To see a list of recent interviews with industry analysts and commentators, visit our Exclusive Interviews page.

Disclosure:
1) Alec Gimurtu of The Gold Report conducted this interview. He personally and/or his family own shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: None.
2) The following companies mentioned in the interview are sponsors of The Gold Report: Angkor Gold Corp. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for services. Interviews are edited for clarity.
3) Ken Booth: I personally and/or my family own shares of the following companies mentioned in this interview: Angkor Gold Corp. I personally and/or my family am paid by the following companies mentioned in this interview: None. I was not paid by Streetwise Reports for participating in this story.

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Manulife Expands ASEAN Footprint

Leading Canada-based financial services company, Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC) has set up a head office in the Southeast Asian country of Cambodia. The new office has been set up to expand its business and presence in the Cambodian region, though it has already started its operations from June this year. The country, with a population of approximately 15 million, promises to be a good market for Manulife.

Earlier, during November 2011, Manulife received an approval from the Canadian government to establish a fully-owned life insurance operation in the region. The inauguration was scheduled to coincide with Manulife’s 125th anniversary. The company was established in 1887 and has been providing clients with reliable and progressive solutions and helped them to make significant financial decisions.

With market-leading positions in Asia, Canada and the United States, the company leverages a diverse business platform that offers a range of financial products in both developed and developing markets around the world.

The Cambodian operations will fall under its ASEAN segment and will mark the 11th Asian country in which Manulife has a presence.
The insurance industry in Cambodia seems lucrative, especially after the opening up of the sector in 2000, which allowed the entry of foreign players in the country. The country’s regulations required an insurance company to have a minimum paid up capital of $7 million. Though it was very easy to meet the financial requirements, it will it will be relatively tough for Manulife to educate its masses, which is unaware of its numerous insurance products and their benefits.

However, Manulife is enthusiastic about cashing in on the emerging life insurance needs of the people of Cambodia. The insurance market in this country remains largely underpenetrated with a mere 0.3% of the total population carrying insurance protection.

There are at present a handful of insurance companies, which include six general insurance players (led by Forte Insurance) and one life insurance company, Cambodia Life, which is a newly-formed joint venture between the government and four Asian firms. In the reinsurance space, there is just one domestic reinsurance company, the state-owned Cambodia Re.

With only a few companies in the market, competition is not much of a problem, and there are limited insurance choices for people. Also, high premium costs allow only 1-2% of the total Cambodian population to buy insurance protection at present.

Manulife is bent on serving the remaining population via its differentiated cost-effective products. Moreover, growing awareness about the importance of insurance will make it easy for Manulife to gain customers.

Manulife closely competes with China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (LFC) and Sun Life Financial Inc. (SLF). The stock currently retains a Zacks # 2 Rank, which translates into a short-term Outperform rating. Considering the fundamentals, we are also maintaining our long-term Outperform recommendation on the shares. Read more!

Cambodia gambles on development

By Muhammad Cohen

PHNOM PENH and MACAU - Since its casino resorts opened in 2010, Singapore has stood out as a shining example for global gaming companies. Everyone wants to imitate its success.

But few places can match Singapore as a destination for international tourism and investment. Rather than trying to copy the Lion City, many aspiring gaming centers would do well to consider the Naga alternative, based on the casino in Cambodia.

Singapore's example has been compelling. The country held an open tender for its two casino licenses starting in 2005, inspiring a fierce competition between most of the world's leading gaming companies.

The so-called Singapore model, spelled out in the bidding requirements, demanded iconic properties, non-gaming attractions and tourism appeal. That meant successful aspirants would have to spend billions of dollars on their new properties, which Singapore's well-paid bureaucrats dubbed integrated resorts (IRs).

As a result, Singapore wound up with two established international casino companies, Las Vegas Sands from the United States and Genting Group from Malaysia. They constructed the two most expensive casino properties yet built, with a total investment of more than US$10 billion.

Hot stuff
Marina Bay Sands has three 55-story hotel towers connected by a one-hectare rooftop deck that overhangs the east tower, creating a striking new vista in the Singapore skyline as well as a great vantage point to view the city. The resort also has a lotus-shaped museum, a million-square-foot convention center, and a glass-enclosed shopping mall.

Genting's Resorts World Sentosa features Southeast Asia's only Universal Studios theme park, and a multimedia, interactive, indoor/outdoor maritime museum soon to be linked to the world's largest aquarium. Both resorts have celebrity chef restaurants, destination spas, and tens of millions of dollars in artworks inside and out.

Combined casino revenue last year was estimated at more than US$6 billion, more than the total take of Las Vegas's casinos. They've become the most profitable properties for their companies, with combined profits on track to top US$2 billion this year.

Non-gaming revenue was $1.5 billion and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) reached US$500 million, "comparable to the top six hotel companies in the world", former Marina Bay Sands CEO Thomas Arasi noted at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2012 in Macau.

As good as the casinos have been for Las Vegas Sands and Genting, they've been even better for Singapore. From 10 million visitor arrivals and S$10 billion (US$7.9 billion) tourist expenditures in 2008, arrivals rose to 13.1 million last year, with expenditures topping S$21 billion.

The city added close to 5,000 new hotel rooms that hospitality experts say were critically needed, yet seemingly defied the laws of supply and demand as rates rose 25%.

I'll have what she's having
Beyond numbers and dollars, the IRs have changed Singapore's image from stuffy and boring to exciting. They have in many ways given Singapore the "X factor" Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sought when he proposed casino legalization in 2004.

Seeing the impact of the two IRs, "Governments around the world will say, 'I want one of those'," Arasi observed.

But not every place has Singapore's special attributes. Its government and legal system inspire the confidence foreigners need to plunk down several billion dollars. Equally attractive, more than one in seven Singapore residents is a millionaire. Even before the IRs opened, Singapore was a leading international travel destination, supported by one of the world's best airports in terms of both facilities and travel links.

A country like Cambodia, especially the war-torn, capital-poor Cambodia of two decades ago, needs a different approach. NagaWorld, the only casino in Cambodia's capital of Phnom Penh, is a fraction of the size of Singapore's IRs. It was built in stages at a fraction of the cost, and is a fraction as profitable. But NagaWorld may be as beneficial to Cambodia as the IRs are to Singapore.

In 1991, just after a United Nations administered peace agreement gave hope of ending decades of political chaos and civil war, the government asked for bids to build an airport and related infrastructure in Sihanoukville, a port and beach resort on Cambodia's southern coast about 185 kilometers southwest of the capital.

NagaCorp founder and chief executive officer Chen Lip Keong, a Malaysian property developer who at the time had no experience in casinos, won the contract, which included the "carrot" of a gaming license, NagaWorld chairman Timothy McNally said.

"Cambodia was starting at ground zero," McNally, a former US Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who joined NagaCorp after working as director of security and legal services at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said.

Rather than rounding out its tourist offerings, Cambodia was just trying to stop being the butt of the joke in Holiday in Cambodia, a 1980 punk anthem. It was a poor, war-weary nation struggling to get back on its feet, an unlikely site for casino development.

"When I used to go on road shows, they would look at us like, a casino in Cambodia? Still any M-16s on the streets? There were a lot of perception issues," McNally said.

In 1994, NagaCorp opened its first casino on a barge in the Mekong River. Two years later, the company saw its initial 20-year gaming license extended to 70 years. The license also gives NagaCorp exclusive rights to casino gambling within a 200-kilometer radius of Phnom Penh until 2036.

The casino moved on shore in 2004, and in 2006 NagaCorp raised US$95 million with a Hong Kong stock offering, the first Cambodian company to list internationally, helping to open the country to foreign investment.

By the end of this year, NagaWorld will total 1.4 million square feet, including 700 hotel rooms, a spa with Jacuzzi tub, sauna and steam bath in every treatment room, the country's top business meeting (and wedding) venue, and an epic breakfast buffet.

The company doubled net profit to US$92 million last year, and this year welcomed 490,000 visitors in the first quarter. "We brought pride to Cambodia, prestige, showed confidence in Cambodia, and raised the visibility of the country and the company. We were confident the story would become monumentally better, like the country," McNally said.

Ambitious expansion plans call for two more towers with over a 1,000 more hotel rooms and at least double the gaming capacity, plus Phnom Penh's first modern luxury mall. The US$369 million project, dubbed Naga2, includes a waterfront public park and a third tower that will be given to the government for offices.

The company's success to date and ambitious plans are reflected in its share price. The stock has doubled in the value in the past year, compared with a drop of around 9% in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

Game theories
Those successes have tracked Cambodia's wider economic gains. Since 1999, Cambodia's gross domestic product has grown by more than 6% every year except for a flat 2009, reflecting the global financial crisis. Overseas visitor arrivals have increased from 460,000 in 2000 to 2.8 million last year and are on track to top 3 million this year.

"It has not happened by accident," McNally said. The government "has made a concerted effort with tourism. We've tried to tailor our offerings in line with what the government wants and needs". For example, NagaWorld's casino voluntarily excludes Cambodian citizens, except those who hold foreign passports.

One of Cambodia's great needs is well-paid jobs. NagaWorld has 3,600 employees, more than 90% of them Cambodians. The company provides skills and language training to employees across the board, as well as advancement opportunities. Many Cambodian employees have moved through the ranks to become managers.

Singapore needs more workers, not jobs. But below the surface, there are many similarities in the casino policies of Cambodia and Singapore.

One key motivation for both was to change their international reputations. To get what they wanted, both countries decided to give foreign investors a lot of what they demanded. Both allow full foreign ownership of casinos, lengthy lease and license terms, and low gaming taxes, compared with nearly 40% in Macau.

The Philippines has long had casinos, but now is trying to move to the next level as an international travel destination. The country has opted for a version of the Singapore model, demanding major upfront investment.

The Philippines also has its own perception issues that are closer to Cambodia's than Singapore's regarding its safety as both an investment and vacation destination. Like Singapore, the Philippines allows its citizens to gamble in casinos, but they're not nearly as high-rolling as wealthier Singaporeans.

The Philippines also has PAGCOR, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, a government agency that both operates and regulates casinos. In other words, it's poised to compete with the new private casinos while also setting down the rules for the game.

The Philippines may have picked the right model, but PAGCOR's dual rule, different from anything in Singapore or Cambodia, could prove a deal breaker.

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More and More Cambodians Going Online for Advocacy, Blogger Says

“We see Internet surfers using it for sharing information and joining discussions on human rights and other social issues.”


Chak Sopheap, a Cambodian Web log user, or blogger, surfs her blog during the Cambodian Bloggers Summit in Phnom Penh.


Cambodian Internet users are increasingly going online for more than mere socializing, a popular blogger says.

Chak Sopheap, who is currently in the US on a blogging fellowship, says more and more Cambodians are using the Internet as a tool for advocacy, especially on issues of corruption and rights abuses.

Internet usage remains low, but it is increasing, said Chak Sopheap, a 2012 Internet Freedom Fellow. Recent statistics show Internet penetration in Cambodia at only about 3 percent, but growing.
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