NATIONAL page-3 Hunt intensifies for large-scale safrole traffickers R 1449 E MB U N SSUE I MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2012 Successful People Read The Post 4000 RIELS SPORT Clijsters hailed as a role model as she prepares for final grand slam PAGE 27 Supplier of Gap in spotlight Mom Kunthear and Claire Knox WORKERS striking at Ocean Garment factory say they still fear for their safety after being ordered back to work on Friday, where a manager accused of sexual harassment continues to work. More than 2,500 workers at the Phnom Penh factory – which supplies retail giant Gap – rallied behind six female employees, who accused their Bangla- deshi manager, Faruk Ahmad, of sexual abuse, in an August 11 protest that has stretched on for nearly two weeks. The women lodged formal criminal complaints to the police and municipal court last week; however, investigations are still pending, president of the Col- lective Union of Movement of Workers, Pav Sina said. He said the workers had continued their strike inside the factory’s walls yes- terday, and would gather again today in support of five worker representatives, suspended by Ocean despite all workers being ordered back to the factory in a Phnom Penh Municipal Court injunc- tion on Thursday. According to Sina, Ocean Garment suspended the five worker representa- tives when the employees returned to work on Friday. “The court released the protection warrant and asked all workers to return to work in 48 hours on Friday, and we Shifting sands agreed with the court order. But the A sand dredging operation on the Mekong River has allegedly resulted in the collapse of riverbanks in Kandal province's Kien Svay district. PHOTO SUPPLIED Story - page 3 Continues on page 6 Fretting ‘ASEAN-alisation’ Justine Drennan analyst group Cambodia Institute of Students fear losing jobs to skilful neighbours Development Study, said. HE vision regional leaders “The issue is how many skilled labour- have for an ASEAN Economic 22, said yesterday, ahead of Prime Min- be in the future [Cambodians] will be relax foreign worker quotas – being dis- ers we can produce when 80 per cent of Community by 2015 may ister Hun Sen officially opening the jobless after ‘ASEAN-alisation’,” she said, cussed at the economic minister’s meet- labour in the economy is in rural areas,” become clearer after this meeting today. using a term coined by one of her pro- ing only includes certain skilled sectors: he said. week’sT Economic Ministers meeting in Students who have not mastered the fessors, who urges students to study architecture, engineering, accounting, “Because of seasonal unemployment Siem Reap, but not everyone has a rose- English language also fear employment hard and choose their subjects care- surveying, medicine and tourism. and the dependence on a subsistence coloured view of what such integration opportunities will fade into the ether in fully so they can compete in a regional University students may have reason economy of Cambodian rural house- might mean for Cambodia. the face of stiffer competition for Eng- labour market when the AEC’s free to fear, experts say. But, ultimately, few holds, it is very difficult to promote the “My peers are really concerned that lish skills, Kakada, who hopes to one day movement of skilled labour agreement Cambodians have technical skills that benefits of acquiring more skills,” other countries have many more skills open her own travel agency, said. comes into effect. will be impacted under the AEC labour Chandararot said, emphasising that for and higher study levels,” National Insti- “If Cambodian students can’t com- The AEC’s proposed labour agree- agreement, Kang Chandararot, head of tute of Business student Chan Kakada, pete with other ASEAN countries, may- ment – to facilitate work permits and the economics unit at independent Continues on page 5 BUSINESS ASEAN's financial WORLD Hollande sends page-7 gap highlighted page-13 message to Greece 2 THE PHNOM PENH POST AUGUST 27, 2012 National Is it the start of the end for Vietnam’s ruling party? sued, wildcat strikes spread recently fled into hiding after and the property market slid racking up debts of $2 billion. into its current comatose state. Both Binh and Dung were Regional Insider As the New York Times arti- political acolytes of senior cle reported: “Vietnam’s ma- party men, none of whom Roger Mitton jor cities are now scattered have been punished, of with hundreds of abandoned course, just as none of the A farmer works in a parched rice paddy in Kampong Speu province’s construction sites.” mentors of Kien or Hai have Kong Pisei district earlier this month. HENG CHIVoan HE media was awash day when news outlets like the As well, after multiple cur- been targetted – as yet. last week with stories Agence France Presse head- rency devaluations and rising But political storm clouds about Vietnam’s dire lined: “Second tycoon arrested prices, people pruned their are growing, as discontent Improve yields while economic situation, amid bank run in Vietnam.” spending; the sale of produce over the nation’s economic Twhich, as the Wall Street Jour- Ly Xuan Hai, the ACB’s chief and general goods in stores, for mismanagement mounts, nal noted, “is going from bad executive, joined Kien in the example, has recently plum- even within the ruling Viet- the sun shines: NGO to worse”. slammer for alleged financial meted by 20 to 30 per cent. nam Communist Party itself. On Tuesday, the local Tuoi irregularities and that led to Making matters worse, for- PM Dung, whose daughter Khouth Sophak Chakrya hopeless, but should start to Tre newspaper revealed that yet more bank runs and a dis- eign investment for the first Nguyen Thanh Phuong part- grow rice and other crops,” the powerful banking mogul, astrous $4-billion slide in the half of this year was only one- nered Kien in banking endeav- THIS year’s dry spell could be Koma said. Nguyen Duc Kien, had been ar- stock market. quarter the amount during the ours, is now openly being chal- an opportunity rather than a “The rainy season will con- rested for financial violations. The picture was darkening same period three years ago. lenged by his long-term rival, disaster for farmers, Cambo- tinue for about two more Kien is among Vietnam’s 20 ominously, as was evident As a result, with GDP growth President Truong Tan Sang. dian Center for Study and De- months,” he said, adding richest and best-connected from a front-page New York now down to barely 4 per cent Sang is supported by party velopment in Agriculture (CE- that during this time, farmers businessmen – he is close to Times article headlined: “In and falling, Vietnam has the boss Nguyen Phu Trong and DAC) officials said yesterday. should supplement their rice Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Vietnam, Growing Fears of an region’s worst-performing Deputy PM Nguyen Sinh Although drought has de- yields with other crops like Dung and co-founded the Economic Meltdown.” economy and faces the har- Hung, which means the PM’s stroyed several thousand hect- sweet potatoes. Asia Commercial Bank, one Those fears were reinforced rowing prospect of an infla- days could be numbered. ares of crops in the past two The advice extends beyond of the nation’s largest. when the official Vietnam tionary depression. In a devastating article last months, Cambodia’s largest this year, Khortieth said, point- News of his jailing caused News Agency reported mid- As the Associated Press re- week, Sang slammed both the agricultural NGO is encourag- ing out that most rainy seasons Vietnam’s already moribund week that prices had begun ported, there are now “doubts inefficient state-owned enter- ing farmers to use the dry times have a dry spell in the middle. stock market to suffer its big- to creep up again. about the financial stability of a prises and the corruption, irre- to improve their yields. Ou Ith, a farmer in Banteay gest drop in four years and Not long ago, in order to curb country once seen as an emerg- sponsibility and moral degrada- “We want all farmers to see Meancheay’s Thma Puok dis- resulted in panicky deposi- rampaging inflation which ing Asian tiger economy”. tion of Dung’s government. He [the drought] not as a crisis but trict, who had planned to find tors mobbing ACB branches had hit 30 per cent, the gov- Last week’s jailings fol- could well have aimed his criti- a chance to double their yields work in Thailand after his rice to pull out their savings. ernment radically curtailed low the conviction of Pham cism at the party as a whole. and income,” Him Khortieth, crop was hit by drought, said Some $400 million was credit and restrained growth. Thanh Binh, formerly head of To paraphrase Winston communication officer for CE- he will now grow another crop. withdrawn over the next two It worked and the rate of infla- state-owned shipbuilder Vi- Churchill, the economic de- DAC, said yesterday. “My family relies on the rice days and the central bank had tion came down to single digits nashin, whose financial mis- bacle may not herald the end CEDAC’s president, Yang Sa- crops so we will grow another to dispatch truckloads of cash this year; but the cost was severe. deeds saddled the company of the VCP, but it is perhaps ing Koma, said farmers should in the last of this rainy season,” to prevent commercial banks Youth unemployment with debts of $4.5 billion. the end of the start of the par- plough and collect natural fer- he said.