MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2021 Intelligent . In-depth . Independent Issue Number 3576 / 4000 RIEL MORE THAN 20,000 CHINESE FIRM SET BANGKOK IMPOSES ARRESTS MADE IN TO DEVELOP M’kiri PARTIAL LOCKDOWN 2020 DRUG BUSTS AIRPORT PROPOSAL TO COMBAT VIRUS NATIONAL – pagE 3 BUSINESS – pagE 6 WORLD – pagE 10 Vietnam Sixteen inbound migrant finds first case of UK workers test virus-positive virus strain Mom Kunthear ers will manage to enter Cambodia bodia at this time due to the in- “The teams will also have to place [all VIETNAM on January 2 identified without first being tested and isolated. creased risks of transmissions. returning citizens] in quarantine for 14 its first Covid-19 case infected with IXTEEN Cambodian migrant For now, Thai authorities are not “[Cambodian citizens] can face days in provinces bordering Thailand the newly-found, highly-contagious workers who returned from allowing their citizens or any for- detention and fines imposed by the no matter which route they used to variant discovered in the UK. Thailand have tested positive eign nationals to move between Thai authorities if they illegally trav- enter Cambodia,” the ministry said. The patient was a 45-year-old Viet- for Covid-19 in recent days. provinces in an attempt to bring el during the present ban. The committee tasked with pro- namese woman repatriated from the SAs a result the provincial authorities the outbreak under control. “For now, in order to protect the viding support to Cambodian mi- UK on a flight landing at Can Tho on the Cambodian-Thai border have On December 31, Cambodia’s health of [Cambodians in Thailand], grants who are living and working in International Airport on December increased restrictions on quarantine Ministry of Labour and Vocational their families and the public, Cam- Thailand is in regular contact with 22 but who was quarantined on accommodations and intensified Training called on all Cambodians bodian quarantine teams on the the Thai authorities. In the future, it arrival. their monitoring of all border cross- who are currently in Thailand to Cambodian-Thai border will have to said Thailand’s ministries of Interior The flight had 305 passengers on ing points, both legal and illegal, in the shelter in place and not attempt to take samples from [returning] work- board, 147 of whom were quaran- hope that no returning migrant work- travel within Thailand or to Cam- ers for Covid-19 testing. CONTINUED – pagE 4 tined in Tra Vinh province, 137 in Vinh Long province, 17 in Can Tho city and four in Ho Chi Minh City. The Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute has conducted genetic sequencing on the six Covid-19- positive cases detected among the 2020 rice exports nearly 3.6M tonnes 305 arrivals and Patient No 1,435 was found to have been infected Thou Vireak with the new strain of SARS-CoV-2. The woman has a 10-year his- CAMBODIA exported more than 3.58 tory of high blood pressure. million tonnes of milled rice and paddy Prior to her return to Vietnam, worth more than $1.26 billion in 2020, her health was reportedly stable. according to Minister of Agriculture, One day after being placed under Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon. quarantine, typical Covid-19 symp- Outbound shipments of milled toms like sore throat and light fever rice accounted for 690,829 tonnes developed and her specimens were worth nearly $539 million last year, sent to lab for testing. which represents an 11.40 per cent The results came back positive on surge from 2019, he said. December 24 and she was moved The minister added that 76 Cam- to Tra Vinh province’s Hospital for bodian firms exported the milled Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases. rice to 60 international markets with As of December 31, the patient China absorbing the largest share of only suffered from light coughing, 289,439 tonnes, equivalent to 41.90 but no sore throat or breathing dif- per cent of the total. ficulties, while X-ray scans show The EU market took in 203,791 mild damages to her lungs. tonnes, (29.50 per cent) of Cambo- Her husband, who is currently in dian milled rice, six ASEAN coun- the UK, has also tested positive for tries imported 86,899 tonnes (12.58 the virus. per cent), while 29 other countries Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute bought 110,700 tonnes (16.2 per has asked the health ministry for cent), he said. further guidelines in research and Meanwhile, Sakhon said, unofficial anti-epidemiological responses. paddy exports in 2020 weighed in at The new coronavirus variant, 2,893,951 tonnes worth more than $723 first detected in the UK and million and were shipped to neighbour- thought to be responsible for the ing countries, mainly Vietnam. rise in cases in the country, is He added that total paddy and deemed to be much more trans- milled-rice supply to domestic and missible than other variants but The Kingdom exported 690,829 tonnes of milled rice worth nearly $539 million last year. HENG CHIVOAN international markets last year clocked does not seem to be resulting in in at as much as $3.82 billion, under- cultural products on the interna- is likely to be valued at more than and Thailand have not been jeop- more serious or deadlier diseases, scoring the Kingdom’s untapped tional market,” said Sakhon. $4.49 billion, with exports account- ardised by the [reported] lack of and approved Covid-19 vaccines potential to meet overseas demand. According to the minister, ing for $2.17 billion. capital [among rice millers], and may could still be effective against it. “We are proud of the achievements 10,935,618 tonnes of paddy was har- State-owned Agricultural and have been [buoyed] by psychological Other than Vietnam, 33 countries of this agricultural export. We vested last year on 3,268,968ha. Rural Development Bank of Cam- factors stemming from the [growing] have reported infections with the believe it has reached a point where He said the total non-rice agricul- bodia (ARDB) director-general Kao global milled-rice market, leading variant, mostly among recent it provides a boom for the sector that tural product supply to domestic Thach told The Post on January 3: arrivals from the UK. VIET NAM NEWS/ reflects the availability of our agri- and international markets for 2020 “Recent paddy exports to Vietnam CONTINUED – pagE 6 ASIA NEWS NETWORK THE PHNOM PENH POST Deal sweetened for Khmer National higher education resources Inside page 4 2 THE PHNOM PENH POST JANUARY 4, 2021 WWW.phnompenhpost.COM National Courts’ decisions Road accidents, fatalities now published as on ‘sharp decline’ in 2020 reference source Mom Kunthear Niem Chheng in the case or other sensitive INISTER of In- information, Malin said. terior and chair- THE Ministry of Justice has “This is the start of the pub- man of the Na- published 44 verdicts from lication of verdicts. We begin tional Road Safety civil litigation cases which with these 44 civil verdicts, and MCommittee (NRSC) Sar Kheng can be used as models for we will publish more civil and said late on December 31 that court precedents and for criminal cases in the future. the number of road traffic ac- study by the public and those This is meant as a tool for the cidents nationwide over the who work in pertinent fields. knowledge of students and le- course of the year had decreased Publication of the verdicts gal enforcement officials. But significantly compared to 2019. on December 31 came as the it takes some time because we Sar Kheng cited a report result of joint efforts with the need to carefully check them indicating that there were Japan International Coopera- before publishing in order to a total of 3,179 traffic acci- tion Agency (JICA), the minis- avoid conflicts with our profes- dents last year, a 23 per cent try announced on its website. sional standards,” he said. decrease of 942 from the total The published verdicts cover Legal expert Sok Sam Oeun 4,121 accidents which oc- mostly money lending and applauded the publication of curred in 2019. real estate agreements. the cases, saying he and oth- “The reduction in traffic ac- Ministry spokesperson Chin ers had been advocating for cidents in 2020 has lowered Malin said on January 3 that this for many years. Publish- the number of fatalities by 335, these verdicts were selected ing verdicts is vital for judges down 17 per cent from 2019 because they could serve as so that they can be used as when accidents claimed the models and revealing them to precedents when hearing lives of 1,981 people. In 2020, The number of road accidents nationwide last year had decreased significantly compared to 2019. HEAN RANGSEY the public will not affect the similar cases, he said. the death toll has dropped to reputations or confidentiality “We don’t want to see simi- 1,646.” Sar Kheng noted. and road users for their coop- dia as the death toll was still “Covid-19 is brutal and fast of parties involved in the cas- lar cases being tried differ- The number of accident-re- eration,” Sar Kheng said. high and most fatalities were spreading, but so far no one es. Students could take these ently. It is not acceptable that lated injuries also decreased He urged traffic police and motorcyclists, many of whom in Cambodia has died from it. court decisions as a basis for one group of judges decides by 1,455, or 24 per cent, from citizens across the country to did not wear helmets.