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Archive for November 6th, 2008


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‘Clean’ Businesses Seek To Beat Corruption

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
By Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 November 2008

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Facing ongoing corruption that is hurting their livelihoods, around 40 companies have joined together in a “clean business” endeavor.

The initiative, which officially began in September, seeks to join companies together to promote transparency in business dealings and avoid informal taxes or fraudulent prices, said Ka Ki, director of Morison Kak and Associates, a member of the initiative.

“We must strengthen the implementation of the law, because we do not have a culture that respects the law appropriately,” he said.

“Clean” businesses will avoid paying exploitive charges, undertaking corrupt practices, or selling fraudulent products.

In Channy, president of Acleda Bank, another member of the initiative, said he believed the initiative will lead to increased transparency and cooperation in commerce.

“Clean business will improve confidence and help encourage trust” of customers and the public, he said.

The initiative was even more important as Cambodia moves toward a 2009 stock market.

Cambodia loses an estimated $500 million a year in state income to corruption, and companies routinely cite corruption as a major impediment to creating competitive businesses.

At the announcement of the initiative in September, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh acknowledged Cambodia’s need to attract foreign investors and strengthen the rule of law.

Mong Reththy, who Mong Reththey Group has not joined the initiative, said he supports it but would wait to see if it would succeed.

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Chinese Warship Makes Friendly Port of Call

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 November 2008

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The Chinese warship Zhenghe docked in Sihanoukville Wednesday and will stay five days as part of a goodwill visit, a Chinese official said.

Members of the Zhenghe’s crew of 400 will meet Cambodian officials and play football with members of the Cambodian navy, said Man Zhong He, military attache at the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh.

The visit “is to improve the relationship between the Cambodian and Chinese navies,” he said.

Cambodian naval officials were not available for comment.

Sihanoukville has been host to a number of international naval visits in recent years. In October ships from both the French and American navies made ports of call.

Cambodia has been receiving direct military aid from the US since 2007, while China annually contributes hundreds of millions of dollars in mostly unconditional aid to the country.

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Big Election Turnout? Not for Cambodians

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
US voters like this man surged to booths in record numbers Tuesday, but the turnout was much lower than Cambodia's worst.

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 November 2008

The victory of US president-elect Barack Obama surprised the world Tuesday, but another surprise was the high number of US voters, perhaps the most in 100 years.

The high number was amazing for the US, but if Cambodia put up the same numbers in an election, election experts say, it would be worrisome.

“The worry is that when the [Cambodian] participation rate is down, it is usually linked with intimidation and threat,” said Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections. “But [US citizens] are in a democratic country; they have full freedom to express their opinions.”

US citizens have been voting for more than 200 years, 44 presidential election cycles, he said.

According to Real Clear Politics, a monitoring group, an estimated 64.1 percent of registered voters participated in Tueday’s US election. That is higher than in any presidential election since 1908, when William Howard Taft won and 65.7 percent of voters turned out.

By comparison, the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy saw a 63.8 percent turnout, while the election of George W. Bush in 2004 drew 55.3 percent.

In Cambodia’s national election this July, turnout fell to 75 percent from more than 90 percent in the 1993 Untac polls.

Members of civil society and opposition officials say the lowered turnout has a negative effect of the democratic process here.

“The turnout of more than 60 percent is a high score in the US presidential election, compared with the past US elections,” said Hang Puthea, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections. “But for Cambodia, like a country in transitional democracy, the absence of voters is due to buying votes and other problems that prevent voters from deciding to vote.”

“If the turnout in Cambodia is down, it’s because the people do not have any more confidence in the election process,” said Ke Sovannaroth, acting secretary-general of the Sam Rainsy Party, which sent a letter of congratulations to Obama and US voters Thursday. “They lack information for voting. They receive threats and intimidation.”

However, National Election Committee Secretary-General Tep Nitha said the threats and intimidation was not the real cause of the lower turnout in July.

“There were many threats during the 1993 election, and the turnout was more than 90 percent,” he said. “But in 2008, voters were safer, but the turnout was down. It is different, compared to the US election. In the US election, they voted for change.”

In 2008, more than 8 million Cambodians registered to vote. In 2013, that number is expected to reach 9.5 million.

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Human trafficking on the rise in Mekong countries

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
HANOI, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Human trafficking in the six Mekong countries is expected to increase due to growing migration within the sub-region, the Laos newspaper Vientiane Times reported on Thursday, citing the Anti-human Trafficking Committee Secretariat Head Kiengkham Inphengthavong as saying.

"Trafficking in persons nowadays is increasingly acute and dangerous. It operates in a very intricate manner, and comes in many forms, and is therefore very hard to monitor and control," said Kiengkham Inphengthavong at the sixth Senior Officials Meeting held in Vientiane on Wednesday as part of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT).

Annually, the number of people trafficked from and within the region is estimated at between 200,000 and 450,000, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

The meeting brought together government officials from the six Mekong countries - Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Myanmar and Cambodia - to share their experiences and decide on appropriate responses to the increase in human trafficking.

"The purpose of human trafficking is not only for sexual exploitation but also labor exploitation in factories, sweatshops, domestic work, begging and in the fishing industry. The problem is far more widespread than many would think," he added.

According to the Laos' Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, from 2001 to 2008, 1,229 trafficked people, mostly women and girls, have been repatriated to Laos from Thailand under the Lao-Thai memorandum of understanding on human trafficking.

Laos is developing victim protection guidelines to ensure a more holistic and rights-based approach to the provision of care and assistance to victims of human trafficking, Khiengkham said.

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Cambodian health ministry bans private ambulances

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian Ministry of Health has slapped a ban on private ambulances retrieving accident victims in a bid to promote the public ambulance service, national media reported Thursday.

Private ambulances, although speedy, deliver inferior care compared with government ambulances, Heng Taykry, secretary of state for the Ministry of Health, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

"We have now banned private ambulances from collecting patients from accident scenes, as they do not have proper equipment," he said.

"We have noticed that at present, private ambulances arrive at the scene much faster but they do not have the skills to save lives," he added.

According to the ministry, the Phnom Penh Municipality was cooperating with the Department of Health to enforce the new ban in Phnom Penh starting Wednesday.

"We have asked police to cooperate with us by arresting private ambulance services when they see them arrive at the scene of a traffic accident because it is now illegal," Heng Taykry added.

Heng Taykry said that better technology makes public ambulances as capable of treating patients.

"Before it was hard for us to get information about traffic accidents from police, but now we have the technology to access to all locations in Phnom Penh," he said.

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Dispute over 25-cm land leads to murder, suicide

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Phnom Penh, Nov 6 (DPA) A dispute over a 25-centimetre strip of land in Cambodia ended with a man murdering his brother and sister-in-law and then committing suicide, media reports said Thursday.

Police in Prey Kanlaong province said 42-year-old Chev Thuy fatally stabbed his brother and sister-in-law and then hanged himself Tuesday after a drawn-out argument over the inherited parcel of land.

The Phnom Penh Post reported the family had previously asked the local land authority to help resolve the dispute but were unhappy with its resolution.

Rights organization Adhoc said it would investigate the case to see if further action by the authority could have prevented the deaths.

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Next week’s Thai-Cambodian talks to improve border situation

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Nov 6 (TNA) - The situation at the disputed border areas between Thailand and Cambodia, especially in the vicinity of the ancient Preah Vihear temple, has remained calm some three weeks after an armed clash near the temple, a senior Thai army officer said Thursday.

Lt-Gen. Wiboonsak Neephan, commander of the Second Army Region responsible for security affairs along the northeastern border, said the military of both countries posted near the ancient temple seemed to understand each other better than before and they were trying to avoid confrontation.

His remarks were made as negotiators of the two neighbouring countries planned to hold a two-day meeting, starting Monday (November 10), at the Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) level for the first time to resolve border conflict, in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sompong Amornvivat will confer with his Cambodian counterpart on Wednesday, also in Siem Reap, while committee members from the two countries will discuss troop reductions and the removal of landmines along the border.

The border demarcation between the two countries has never been fully implemented due to landmines planted along the border during decades of war inside Cambodia.

The border conflict is caused as Cambodia uses a French colonial map to demarcate the border, which Thailand says favours Cambodia. Thailand relies on a map drawn up later with US technical assistance, which Cambodia says favours Thailand.

Meanwhile at the disputed Ta Muen Thom temple ruins, which Thailand claims sits in the border province of Surin, Lt. Gen. Wiboonsak said Thai soldiers are now posted inside the temple while Cambodian soldiers have withdrawn. Ta Muen Thom is now open to tourists, including Cambodians, he added.

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Businesses in Cambodia Should Address Unsafe Practices in Commercial Sex Industry, AIDS Authority Says

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Nov 06, 2008
Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report

As Cambodia's commercial sex industry increasingly moves away from brothels and into businesses such as karaoke bars and beer gardens, the country's National AIDS Authority is calling on private businesses to address unsafe sex practices in the industry, the Phnom Penh Post reports. According to NAA Secretary-General Teng Kunthy, a focus should be placed on ensuring that private businesses provide sex education and are more integrated into health services. "We think that the change of behaviors is a new challenge, as high-risk behaviors become associated with beer promotion and mobile work," Kunthy said, adding, "As a result, we need to make connections with the private sector."

According to a recent report from NAA, although Cambodia in 2002 adopted HIV/AIDS-related legislation, "enforcement and implementation in workplaces and the private sector is weak." It added, "This is especially important to gain access to businesses where there is a high reluctance to implement HIV prevention measures."

In particular, the construction industry in Cambodia poses an issue, according to NAA. The industry primarily is based on small companies that hire male workers who are mobile and work on short-term construction projects, making it difficult to ensure that the industry is providing workers with appropriate HIV/AIDS information -- including the risks of engaging in sex with commercial sex workers (Sokheng, Phnom Penh Post, 11/5).

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World economic turmoil will impact Mekong region: Vietnam

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
L-R: Prime Ministers Bouasone Bouphavanh, Thein Sein, Nguyen Tan Dung and Hun Sen

Thursday, November 06, 2008

HANOI (AFP) — Vietnam's premier warned Thursday that the current upheavals in the world economy would not spare Southeast Asia's Mekong river countries.

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are particularly vulnerable to the global turmoil, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at the opening of a regional summit.

He called for the grouping and the wider Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to step up their cooperation to fight the impact of the global turmoil and push forward the fight against poverty.

"With their low and limited levels of development, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are the most vulnerable countries to negative upheavals in the regional and world economy," said Dung.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Thein Sein warned the financial crisis "may lead to a decline in development assistance from our development partners" and said the region should increasingly look to India, China and Japan for help.

The premiers of the four developing countries met Thursday in Vietnam's flood-hit capital Hanoi, where they were to be joined for a dinner and a broader summit Friday by Thailand's new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

Somchai, speaking at Bangkok airport before flying to Hanoi, said he wanted to discuss the impact of high food prices with his regional neighbours, as well as thorny border issues with military-ruled Myanmar.

"During my trip to Vietnam I will take the opportunity to raise the issue of rice prices with the Vietnamese prime minister, and with the Myanmar prime minister I will bring up the issues of the border and drugs," he said.

Except for middle-income country Thailand, the other four nations remain among Asia's poorest and hope to build prosperity through closer regional transport and commercial links, both with each other and with China.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were cold war battlegrounds until 1975, and conflict raged on in Cambodia until the 1990s. Myanmar, also known as Burma, remains diplomatically isolated and poverty-stricken.

Full-scale wars ended years ago in the region, but a lingering dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over land near an ancient Khmer temple erupted last month into a border clash that left four people dead.

Thailand's Somchai said he did not intend to raise the issue with Cambodia's Hun Sen at the Hanoi meeting.

"I don't think I will again talk about the conflict with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as I consider the problem has already been solved," Somchai told reporters.

Foreign ministers and border negotiators from the two countries will meet November 10-12 in Cambodia's tourist hub Siem Reap to try to end the months-long military stand off, Cambodia's foreign ministry has said.

Thursday's premiers' meeting is known as the fourth summit of the CLMV group, named after member-states Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

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Thailand begins new anti-drug suppression

Thursday, November 6th, 2008
BANGKOK, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Thai government launched a new round of drug suppression in a ceremony presided over by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat on Thursday. In his speech, Somchai called on ...

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