1. Samdech Hun Sen Visits Cambodian-Thai Border Area 2

Issue: 83 Home | Back to Press 15 February 2010

INDEX

1. Samdech Hun Sen Visits Cambodian-Thai Border Area

2. Inscription of Preah Vihear Temple on World Heritage List Irreversible

3. Australian Company to Invest US$600 Million in Cambodia

4. Southern Gold Starts 'Aggressive Exploration'

5. Australian OZ Minerals Looks to Cambodia for Expansion

6. Cambodia to Boost Rice Exports

7. Belgian Firm to Export Cambodian Rice

8. Local Company Exports 20,000 Tons of Rice Annually to EU

9. Cambodia Donates US$50,000 to Help Victims of Earthquake in Haiti

10. UN Human Rights Envoy Says Cambodia Has Made Progress

11. Cambodia's Stock Market to be Opened Late This Year

Samdech Hun Sen Visits Cambodian-Thai Border Area

Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, joined by his wife Bun Rany Hun Sen, made an official visit to the Cambodian – Thai border area from 6 to 10 February 2010. Secretary of State at the Office of the Council of Ministers Prak Sokhon told reporters the visit was a dual-purpose trip.

'First, to say hello to all the troops, to encourage them and thank them for their efforts to protect the territory,' he said.

'And secondly, it is to send a message to the Thai side that we don't want any war. We would like to solve any dispute through peaceful means and we are not here to use any military force unless we are forced to.'

Samdech Hun Sen and his wife started their border tour by visiting Preah Vihear Temple on 6 February. At Preah Vihear Temple, Samdech Hun Sen and his wife were blessed by Buddhist monks and welcomed by blessing dance of Cambodian artists.

Before arriving at the temple, Samdech Hun Sen and his wife visited a commanding post of the garrison there. He told the soldiers and the people that "Cambodia only wants the border area back to the status before July 15, 2008, when that status returned, I will order to reopen the gateway of Preah Vihear."

Samdech Hun Sen also reiterated that "the Royal Government of Cambodia hope to strengthen and develop the cooperation relations with neighboring countries, in an effort to make the border area as a friendly and cooperation one."

Samdech Hun Sen and his wife presided over an inauguration of a military headquarters of Invention Division 3 in Choam Ksan district, Preah Vihear province on 6 February, reported AKP on 8 February.

In his speech at the ceremony, Samdech Hun Sen said the border issue has to be solved through the peaceful talks and the use of the strengths is imposed forcefully on us when they invade us, meaning that we do not enter their soil, but we do not allow them to intrude into our land, said AKP.

Cambodia has no overlapping area with Thailand covering 4.6 square kilometers near Preah Vihear Temple, he said, adding that it only exists on a map drawn by Thai military for invasion and Cambodia has never recognized the map designed unilaterally by Thailand, continued AKP.

Samdech Hun Sen told the crowd of more than 4,000 soldiers; who attended the inauguration of a US$3.5 million newly built military headquarters, which displayed more than 20 tanks, heavy weapons including missiles;said that the Royal Government will invest US$100 million for the development of military and social sector in Preah Vihear province, the move aimed at strengthening its defense system and the living standard of the locals, according to an article posted on the website of the Office of the Council of Ministers, said AKP.

In addition to his trip to the temple, Samdech Hun Sen and his wife attended the opening of a nearby school and distributed gifts and supplies to local villagers. He also visited the site near the temple of a market that was destroyed by Thai rocket fire last April. There he said it was up to Thailand to decide whether to pay compensation for the incident.

Samdech Hun Sen and his wife presided over an inauguration of military headquarters of Intervention Brigade 9 in Choam Ksan district's Toeuk Kraham commune, Preah Vihear province on 7 February.

The intervention brigade 9 is under the Intervention division 3 of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), whose tasks are stationed to safeguard a geographic area of Choam Ksan district, Preah Vihear province and performed to receive an order, according to General Kul Chay, a commander of Intervention Brigade 9.

The commander of Intervention Brigade 9, on behalf of the officers and soldiers, thanked Samdech Hun Sen and his wife for providing the construction materials and food supplies and other things including vehicles, tractors, walkie- talkies, radios, well-digging and so on.

Meanwhile, the Cambodian premier and his wife presided over the opening ceremony of a village, where most of military families live, reported AKP on 9 February.

Samdech Hun Sen stated at an inauguration ceremony of the Battalion No. 413 Military Headquarters at Trapaing Prasat district, Oddar Meanchey province on 9 Febraury that Cambodia would take Preah Vihear area issue to the International Court of Justice again and if necessary it wouldl forward the case to the United Nations' Security Council, reported AKP on 10 February.

Inscription of Preah Vihear Temple on World Heritage List Irreversible

Following is the integral text of a Clarification issued on 12 February 2010 by the spokesman of the Office of the Council of Ministers of the Royal Government of Cambodia:

Referring to a statement made by Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Suwit Khunkitti, published on the Nation online 11 February 2010, he said: "Thailand has been notified by the Unesco's World Heritage Committee that the process to list Preah Vihear Temple as World Heritage Site remains incomplete, because Cambodia has yet to file its site management plan."

The spokesman of the Office of the Council of Ministers of the Royal Government of Cambodia categorically rejects the assertion made by the Thai Minister, and would like to make the clarification to the national and international public opinions as-follows:

1. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee has no role in receiving any report from a State Party to the 1972 Convention, after the inscription of any world heritage site. There is no rule stipulating that the World Heritage Committee shall distribute any report from one State Party to another. The World Heritage Center is the only legal Secretariat of UNESCO relating to world heritage.

2. After the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihear in July 2008, Cambodia has fulfilled all her obligations and duties to submit the periodical report on the conservation and the situation of the Temple of Preah Vihear. The final management plan as required by the 32" d Session of the World Heritage Committee under the Decision 32COM 8B.102 was submitted on 28 January 2010, without delay. Therefore, Minister Suwit is completely wrong for not fully updating the legal process of both the World Heritage Center and the World Heritage Committee. In addition, Minister Suwit is more than qualified to be aware that the World Heritage Committee and UNESCO have no role at all on border issues, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Joint Boundary Commission between Cambodia and Thailand that produced the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding between Cambodia and Thailand which recognized the 1907 Map.

3. It is confirmed that the World Heritage Committee had inscribed the Temple of Preah Vihear on the World Heritage List with some recommendations that Cambodia has implemented accordingly. Therefore, there is no area of "uncertainty" about the listing and this inscription is undoubtedly irreversible.

4. With regard to the final management plan submitted to the World Heritage Center on 28 January 2010, Cambodia is conscious of her Sovereignty and of the fact that her heritage property shall maintain the maximum outstanding universal value and natural integrity concerning the landscape and its natural setting in conformity with the Operational Guidelines of the World Heritage Committee. Moreover, with the collaboration of UNESCO, international experts, local authorities and the National Authority of Preah Vihear, Cambodia has undertaken to develop the whole area of Preah Vihear by providing the most favorable accessibility to visitors from the improvement of the existing western road, preserving the eastern historical staircases pending future restoration with the construction of 1,450-meter wooden staircases, promoting sustainable development with the harmonization between Temple, nature and the people by developing the eco-village for the resettlement of 319 families from the burnt village market altogether with 473 families from another village, and a universal eco- museum etc...

5. We deeply regret that Minister Suwit had made this pretentious and misleading statement regarding the inscription of the Temple of Preah Vihear with the purposes of poisoning the international community's good will and cooperation, and tarnishing the positive image and good reputation of UNESCO and World Heritage Committee.

Australian Company to Invest US$600 Million in Cambodia

Peter Costello, the former treasurer of Australia, revealed on 20 January he was working with an investment fund that planned to inject US$600 million into Cambodia's agricultural sector, reported Phnom Penh Post on 21 January 2010.

During a meeting in Phnom Penh on 21 January with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, BBK Partners Managing Director Peter Costello said that his company was willing to invest in the agro-industrial plantation – rice, bananas, sugar canes, oil palm, teaks – on an area of 100,000 hectares and that the investment plan would create some 15,000 jobs for Cambodian people, reported the Cambodian news agency AKP on 22 January.

Speaking to the Post at the Indochina Gateway Capital Ltd office in Phnom Penh, Costello said he had met with high- ranking trade and investment officials in the government, who had shown strong interest, as preparation for setting up the project, continued the Post.

“We're looking at $600 million. It's a very large-scale investment,” he was quoted by the Post, adding that planning had been in progress for over a year.

The fund would focus on rice, bananas and sugar, he said, bringing in major multinational agro-technology firms and investors in a bid to add value to the Kingdom's farming sector, added the Post

“ Australia is one of the world's major agricultural producers. And that technology, if it were brought into a country like Cambodia, would lift productivity enormously,” Costello was quoted by ABC Radio Australia, 25 January 2010, as saying.

“ Personally I think agriculture is going to be a great industry for investment. We have seen a spike in food prices in 2008. So I think agriculture is going to come back into its own as an investment in the decades that lie ahead and of course that's a great opportunity for Cambodia. Countries that have natural advantage in agriculture should make the most of them. I think it'll be good for Cambodia, I think it'll be good for Australia by the way. I think its a natural fit,” reported ABC.

In November Costello joined the Australian company BKK Partners, which provides financial and corporate advisory services in the Asia Pacific region, said ABC, adding that his client in Cambodia is Indochina Gateway Capital Limited, which focuses on private equity investments in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Its hoping to develop an agri-business fund to focus on Cambodia's agriculture.

Southern Gold Starts 'Aggressive Exploration'

Phnom Penh Post, 01 February 2010

SOUTHERN Gold Limited (SGL) has launched an “aggressive exploration programme” at its mining assets in Kratie province, a fourth-quarter report has revealed.

The September-to-December review, issued Friday, showed that over the past three months the Australian firm started new exploration activities at many of its Cambodian gold and base metals fields.

Extensive drilling and soil-sampling has begun at tenements in South Kratie – part of a joint venture backed by US$4.5 million from the Japanese government-supported Japan Oils Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) – and also its own mineral fields in Snuol.

“These operations herald the start of an aggressive exploration program scheduled over coming months by Southern Gold for its Cambodian projects,” the report said.

The company is hopeful of finding new gold deposits at the sites. Visual inspections have identified “several zones of alteration and quartz veining, which is generally a good indicator of gold mineralisation”.

Reserves identified during the new studies would add to “significant” gold mineralisation already found at Southern Gold sites in North Kratie and Snuol, following drill studies carried out in early 2009.

The results of the new exploratory work are expected by March, the report said. The company estimates it will spend A$1.4 million (US$1.24 million) on exploration in the first quarter of 2010.

Mining activities planned for the 2009 to 2010 season include collecting 4,000 geochemical samples, completing 8,500 metres of trenching and 7,000 metres of drilling.

Australian OZ Minerals Looks to Cambodia for Expansion

In a presentation on 21 January 2010, OZ Minerals Ltd (ASX: OZL; OTC: OZMLF; Berlin & Frankfurt: OZR) highlighted two areas of exploration growth outside of brownfields exploration at Prominent Hill - striking of an heads of agreement with regional iron ore mine developer IMZ Resources Ltd (ASX: IXR) to explore for iron oxide copper-gold deposits, and continuing drilling on the Okvau gold prospect in Cambodia, said an article posted in Mineweb.

OZ Minerals said it was undertaking final drilling at Okvau in north east Cambodia before producing an initial resource estimate.

Recent drill results at Okvau included one hole from surface to almost 400 metres that gave series of seven significant intercepts, the best two being 9m from surface of 4.82 grams/tonne and a deeper hit of 10m @ 5.99 g/t gold.

Cambodia to Boost Rice Exports

80 percent of all Cambodian populations are farmers. Rice is one of Cambodia's major agricultural products for export.

Cultivated land in Cambodia has increased from 2,253,000 hectares in 1967 to 2,547,402 hectares but irrigation ability is only able to cover some 43.97 percent.

Cambodia will spend $310 million on improving irrigation systems to boost rice exports over the next two years. Irrigation network will be able to cover as many as 70% of all cultivated land in the country by 2013.

In 2009 Cambodia had more than 2 million tones of rice for export . In 2008 Cambodia also had 2 million tones of rice for export

The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) has for the first time managed to export a container of standard organic rice to the United States. The cultivation of organic rice demands less organic fertilizer, improves the yield and reduces environmental pollution.

Belgian Firm to Export Cambodian Rice

A Belgian company, Schepens and Co NV, hopes to expand its business to bring 50,000 tonnes of Cambodian rice into the international market this year, reported Phnom Penh Post on 18 January 2010.

This year, the company hopes to export 50,000 tonnes of rice from Cambodia as part of a test project. This would include 20,000 tonnes of jasmine and som malis rice, and 30,000 tonnes of basic rice, Cezary Zimniewski, an executive of the firm's Central and East European office, told the Post.

President of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Associations (FCRMA) and director of Cambodia's biggest paddy buyer, Baitang Kampuchea Plc, Phou Puy, said that he was keen to become the European company's partner, added the Post.

According to FCRMA statistics, Baitang Kampuchea Plc would be able to supply about 200,000 tonnes of rice to its partners per year.

Any deal would mark an expansion for Schepens' trade in the Kingdom. For six years, it has worked with small and medium-sized enterprises to export 2,000 tonnes of aromatic rice to Eastern Europe.

Local Company Exports 20,000 Tons of Rice Annually to EU

Cambodia can export approximately 20,000 tons of Neang Malis (Jasmine) rice annually to EU markets, Angkar Rong Roeung Co., Ltd. a Cambodian rice exporter company was reported by Cambodian news agency AKP as saying on 18 January 2010.

Angkar Rong Roeung said in its annual report that it has annually exported 20,000 tons of rice to EU markets for almost ten years, and in 2009-2010 it got US$2 million as a special loan from the Rural Development Bank to upgrade the rice miller and buy more rice to stock for export, added AKP

The export price is around US$1,080 per ton and the major markets are Spain, France, Germany and Switzerland. The rice has been bought mostly from local farmers in Kampong Speu, Kandal, Takeo, and Kampot provinces,said AKP.

Cambodia Donates US$50,000 to Help Victims of Earthquake in Haiti

The Royal Government of Cambodia has decided to contribute an amount of US$50,000 for the relief to the earthquake-affected population of Haiti, said a press release of the Ministry Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry on 16 January 2010.

UN Human Rights Envoy Says Cambodia Has Made Progress

Phnom Penh Post, 27 January 2010, Sebastian Strangio

A T the end of his second official mission to Cambodia, the UN's special rapporteur for human rights has sounded an optimistic note, describing as “open and candid” his discussions with senior officials.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Surya Subedi said that although Cambodia “still falls short” of standards outlined in international rights treaties, there has been considerable progress since his last visit.

“I am encouraged by the progress made by Cambodia in a number of areas since my last visit in June 2009, and by the willingness on the part of the government to work with me to identify the problems and address them together,” he said in the statement.

Subedi said areas of progress included the strengthening of the legal framework to manage land evictions and resettlements, the adoption of an updated Penal Code and “continued efforts” to reform the prison system.

He added: “I hope that the government will move towards more inclusive, participatory and transparent decision- making processes on issues which have a direct impact on people's human rights.”

Subedi, who held meetings with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials during his 12-day visit, said his mission had moved beyond the “familiarisation” phase to one in which he would offer recommendations for improving the rights situation here.

Recommendations in the statement included raising the budget for the court system in a bid to promote judicial independence and bolstering the National Assembly's status as a forum for open debate.

Subedi noted that although officials had been “receptive” to a recommendation for a set of national guidelines on land evictions and resettlements, they did not agree to a moratorium on evictions in the interim. “The difficulty [is] that developmental activities have to be carried on,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Subedi's statement shied away from direct criticisms of the government. In an interview with the Post on Friday, he described the journey towards full promotion of human rights as “a long one, anywhere in the world”.

“The contribution that our mission can make to the history of this nation is to mature the process and move it forward,” he said.

Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, said Subedi's “diplomatic” style differed greatly from that of his predecessor, Yash Ghai, who had a notoriously stormy relationship with the government, adding that it could yet prove effective.

“As soon as he touches down, he is able to get a visit with the prime minister, so [the visit] could be productive,” he said.

Subedi is set to report the findings of his trip to the UN Human Rights Council in March.

Cambodia's Stock Market to be Opened Late This Year

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is going to open its office in Cambodia in March next year, Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce H.E. Cham Prasidh said in Phnom Penh on 14 December 2009 in a forum on Investment Climate in Cambodia, reported AKP on 16 December 2009.

Cambodia's securities and stock market will be in place by the third quarter or late this year, Chinese News Agency Xinhua quoted Ming Bankosal, director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) as saying on 3 February, reported the Cambodian news agency AKP on 4 February 2010.

“We expect that by the third quarter of this year or by late this year we will have a stock trading in Cambodia,” Ming Bankosal said in the interview.

“When we have stock exchange we can share the economic growth to the Cambodian people and the government can collect more taxes as well as to create more jobs,” he said.

“And then transparency comes to Cambodia and international investors will see Cambodia changing to international standard.”

“Now we are ready and waiting for the companies to prepare themselves with all our regulations.”

“So when they are ready with our requirements, they can issue the shares to the public. Then we will have the trading officially,” he said.

“So the game is not only depends on the government side, it also depends on the private sector who wants to list,” said Ming Bankosal.

The country's Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) has opened 15 January 2010 for companies which wanted to operate as dealers, investment advisors, brokers or underwriters to submit their applications till 1 March 2010.

Applicants must meet capital requirement along with human resource, he explained. “This is a very technical field… we need experienced people in the field.”

Ming Bankosal said that there were a number of local and joint venture companies with foreign partners also showing their interest.

“Other foreign companies who operating their businesses here shown their interests to go public,” he added.

“We will then review and shortlist them in order to assess the company before we can issue them the licenses to operate,” said Ming Bankosal.

“We do not want to have too many companies to go public, but we want to see the quality's issuers. We need a good profile companies with good profits and they must be very experienced in good business sector along with good management to go public.”

“They must be very corporate governance and transparency,” said Ming Bankosal

“The public confidence is very important, if we allow the poor corporate to go public and if there will be problems… the public confidence will go down and we need a long time to restore the confidence,” he said, adding that “So we have to be careful about that.”

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on 3 February said there would be at least three companies to be listed on the stock namely the Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), Phnom Penh, Water Supply Authority, and Sihanouk Ville Autonomous Port.

Ming Bankosal said the government had already decided to list the three companies and they will be listed on the stock exchange.

The idea of a Cambodia stock market has been floated since the 1990s. Its launch was originally scheduled for September 2009, with the South Korean Exchange providing funds and technical support, but delayed due to the worsening global economic slowdown.