Saturday, January 10, 2009
10/01/2009
Bangkok Post and AFP
Phnom Penh - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen may not attend a regional summit in neighbouring Thailand next month, his spokesman said Friday, after it was rescheduled following months of protests in Bangkok.
Thailand said it would go ahead without him. Asean Affairs Department director-general Vitavas Srivihok said Cambodia's absence would not affect the summit.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said it would be costly and difficult for Hun Sen to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting, recently moved from Bangkok to Hua Hin.
The summit was originally set to be held in Bangkok in December but was moved first to northern Chiang Mai, then delayed and moved again to the coast in late February as political turmoil engulfed Thailand.
Hun Sen believes meetings with key regional partners China, Japan and South Korea, which have been pushed back to take place separately in April, are the most important element of talks, the spokesman said.
"If it's only the 10 Asean countries meeting, it would be difficult for Hun Sen to go," he said.
"He says that Thailand should reconsider and wait until the end of the year (to host the summit)."
But Hun Sen has been a prickly critic of Thailand and its term as chairman as Asean, suggesting several times last year it would be better if Thailand gave up the chair because of its internal problems. The true sticking point, however, has been the disputes over Preah Vihear temple and border demarcation.
Hun Sen backed a suggestion from Singapore that the bloc consider staging the summit at the Asean secretariat in Jakarta, the spokesman said.
He said talks with China, Japan and South Korea were most critical because they are expected to give $80 billion in regional aid to reduce short-term liquidity problems, in line with the so-called Chiang Mai initiatives agreed in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Thailand currently holds the rotating chairmanship of Asean, which groups it with Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Anybody for palm juice drink (Teuk Thnot Chou)?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
A Cambodian fermented palm wine vendor sits on the roadside as she waits for customers in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. Fermented palm wine is regarded as special wine and remains popular for Cambodian men in the rural areas. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)Foreign Investment Expected to Slump
Saturday, January 10, 2009
By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 January 2009
Foreign direct investment is expected to drop by $200 million in 2009, from more than $800 million last year, according to a recently published World Bank report.
The drop in foreign investment would cause a fall from a high of 10 percent of GDP in 2007, to 5.2 percent in 2009, “as foreign investors become more cautious about investing in developing countries,” according to the report, “East Asia: Navigating the Perfect Storm.”
Cambodia saw a record $866 million in FDI in 2007, followed by $812.7 million in 2008. But the World Bank report predicts about $596 million in foreign investment to reach the country this year.
“We recognize the downturn of FDI, because of the global economic crisis, but the slowdown in 2009 is better than [the investment] in the early 2000s,” Hang Chhuon Naron, secretary general of the Ministry of Finance, said Friday. “But the government has taken measures to pay its budget for public investment.”
Opposition lawmaker Yim Sovann said he was “very concerned” about the drop in investment.
“It affects the people’s living, and the people will have no job to do,” he said. “It causes the government policy to reduce poverty fail.”
By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 January 2009
Foreign direct investment is expected to drop by $200 million in 2009, from more than $800 million last year, according to a recently published World Bank report.
The drop in foreign investment would cause a fall from a high of 10 percent of GDP in 2007, to 5.2 percent in 2009, “as foreign investors become more cautious about investing in developing countries,” according to the report, “East Asia: Navigating the Perfect Storm.”
Cambodia saw a record $866 million in FDI in 2007, followed by $812.7 million in 2008. But the World Bank report predicts about $596 million in foreign investment to reach the country this year.
“We recognize the downturn of FDI, because of the global economic crisis, but the slowdown in 2009 is better than [the investment] in the early 2000s,” Hang Chhuon Naron, secretary general of the Ministry of Finance, said Friday. “But the government has taken measures to pay its budget for public investment.”
Opposition lawmaker Yim Sovann said he was “very concerned” about the drop in investment.
“It affects the people’s living, and the people will have no job to do,” he said. “It causes the government policy to reduce poverty fail.”
Top Cambodian KRouge trial officials to be investigated for graft [-Will it be a real investigation or just a show-investigation?]
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Sean Visoth, Director of the Khmer Rouge tribunal's Office of AministrationSaturday, January 10, 2009
PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A Phnom Penh court will hear a corruption complaint against top officials at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, a judge told AFP Friday.
Chief judge of Phnom Penh Municipal Court Chev Keng said he would accept the complaint against Sean Visoth, the top government official at the court, and Keo Thyvuth, its former chief of personnel, lodged Thursday by defence lawyers.
The lawyers allege the pair have received kickbacks from court workers, but on Friday the tribunal's Cambodian judges released a statement denying any involvement.
The judges added the complaint "was causing confusion and seriously affecting the honour and dignity of all individual judges and this (Khmer Rouge tribunal) institution as a whole."
Thursday's complaint was lodged by international lawyers for Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, one of five former leaders due to stand trial.
They said the failure to address corruption allegations undermined Nuon Chea's right to a fair trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last year the UN launched an investigation into allegations that Cambodian workers had been forced to pay for their jobs, and withheld at least 300,000 dollars in July funding and court salaries.
The investigation's findings were never made public but Keo Thyvuth was later transferred from the court and Sean Visoth put on leave.
The tribunal opened in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodia.
It is expected to hear its first case within the next few months, against former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.
Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist Khmer Rouge dismantled modern Cambodian society during its 1975-1979 rule in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Opposition groups issued statements criticising 7th January Day
Friday, January 09, 2009
Mr. Sourn Serey Ratha.
By Mao Sotheany
8th January, 2009
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization
In a statement released yesterday, Mr. Seng Huot, secretary-general of the Sam Rainsy Party in Finland, stressed that 7th January is a day that the leadership of the Cambodian People's Party feel very proud with the Vietnamese army which had toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.
It is a day that Vietnam has invaded Cambodia that make Cambodia to lose its independence and democracy.
He added that every Khmer people should celebrate 23rd October (1991) because it is a day that all Khmer warring factions agreed to end the war.
In relation to 7th Jay Day, Mr. Sourn Serey Ratha, chairman of the Cambodian Actions and Committee of Justice and Equality, based in America and Mr. Dy Kareth, vice-chairman of the Cambodian Border Committe based in France, have issued statements separately which described 7th January as a day of the great victory of the Vietnamese colonialism over Cambodia and accused Vietnam of controlling Cambodia candidly and openly for 30 years behind the scene. This is a great danger that has caused the Cambodian nation and to the Khmer people to lose their soverignty, territorial integrity and their national indentity, the statements said.
Mr. Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman and Minister of Information, considers the groups that are opposed to 7th January Day as those who wanted to whitewash their shame for not being part of the liberation of the Cambodian nation.
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