The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) has approved 53 investment projects in the first half of 2009, worth a total of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, local media reported on Wednesday.
The figures represent a sharp drop from the first half of 2008, when the CDC approved 4.43 billion in investments, including a 3.8 billion U.S. dollars tourist development in Koh Kong by Chinese Union Development Group.
A CDC official, who declined to be named, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying that investment had taken a hit from the global financial downturn, but that in relative terms the Kingdom remained an attractive destination to investors.
"Today's economic crisis has caused direct influxes of capital around the world to decline by 50 percent in the first half of 2009, and cross-border investment to decrease 77 percent," the official said.
Of the investments approved, 354 million U.S. dollars went to the tourism sector, 323 million U.S. dollars to agriculture, 303 million U.S. dollars to industry and 241 million U.S. dollars to the private-sector developments.
The CDC official added that Cambodia's pre-existing investment projects had boosted the current economic activity in the country and would continue to propel private-sector development.
According to the CDC, ASEAN countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia, were the leading sources of investment in the first half, with 389 million U.S. dollars in investments. Second to ASEAN were other Asian investors - including from China, South Korea, China's Taiwan, Japan and China 's Hong Kong, which have invested a total of 367 million U.S. dollars.
Cambodian FDI down 73 Pct in First Half of 2009 [-Dont worry, Hun Sen said that Cambodia is not affected by the world economic crisis -sic!-]
Wednesday, July 15, 2009Hang Chakra put in a cell with 50 other prisoners
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According to a source, Hang Chakra, the Editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper who is currently jailed in Prey Sar prison, is in normal health, but he is put into a cramped small jail cell with 50 other prisoners.
As the same time, a NGO indicated that Hang Chakra is facing urinary tract health problem, and he also feels tense.
Choung Chou-ngy, Hang Chakra’s defense lawyer, went to visit his client at the Prey Sar jail on 13 July 2009 at 2PM. He told RFA: “He has no health problem. The main issue is my work for his case, the court will send his case to appeal. Just now, I confirmed with him whether he still needs me as his appeal defense lawyer or not? He said that he still needs me as his defense lawyer for the appeal.”
Choung Chou-ngy added that he and his client appealed the case on 26 June. He is currently waiting for the Appeal court to hold the upcoming hearing, however, there is no date set yet.
He said that prior to his meeting with his client, Hang Netra, Hang Chakra’s daughter, and her husband also went to visit their parent on Monday morning.
Am Sam At, director on investigation for the Licadho human rights organization, declared that Licadho’s doctor recently received the authorization from the jail warden to meet and check up Hang Chakra’s on Monday.
Am Sam At said: “The checkup of his health shows that he has health problem because of his urinary tract. The doctor looked after him and gave him medicine. Besides this, he is stuffed and he has anxiety, when he is like this, he could have mental problem.”
Hang Chakra is the editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, he was sentenced in absentia by the Phnom Penh municipal court to 12-month jail sentence and 9 million riels ($2,250) fine for disinformation and defamation because his newspaper published an article in April and May accusing Hun Sen of breaking up the corruption nest led by Sok An.
Son An, the vice-PM and minister of the Council of ministers, rejected this allegation during a National Assembly session in June.
Civil society organizations indicated that this government lawsuit was aimed at shutting down the freedom of expression and criticisms against the government.
From:
Cambodia must stop harassing critics: rights group
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PHNOM PENH (AFP) — An international rights group has demanded Cambodia's rulers end a spate of legal action against critics, which it called the government's "harshest crackdown in years" on free speech.
New York-based Human Rights Watch alleged premier Hun Sen's government aimed to silence political opposition and critics with a recent "campaign of harassment, threats, and unwarranted legal action."
"The Cambodian government is imposing its most serious crackdown on freedom of expression in recent years," said the group's Asia director, Brad Adams, in a statement.
Cambodian authorities have lodged at least nine criminal defamation and disinformation complaints against journalists, members of parliament, lawyers and critics of the government since April.
Criminal defamation cases against two opposition lawmakers are expected to proceed over the next weeks, and opposition newspaper Moneaksekar Khmer closed operations Friday to avoid prosecution for criticising government officials.
"The space of opposition media and peaceful dissent is rapidly shrinking in Cambodia, especially now with the closure of one of Cambodia's last remaining opposition newspapers," Adams said.
Cambodian government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The UN's human rights office in Cambodia also issued a report last month warning the spate of lawsuits against critics could nurture "fear, frustration and anger, with the risk of leading to further conflict and violence".
From:
Parlez-vous HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE, FREEDOM OF PRESS ...?
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Hun Sen and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, discussed with each other on 14 July at 3PM, after the French military parade.
The topic of the discussions dealt with “bilateral relationships between France and Cambodia, as well as the situation in Asia,” Nicolas Sarkozy’s website indicated.
Sarkozy stressed “France’s will to deepen further the links woven by history between the two countries, and to maintain its constant engagement with Cambodia.”
At the same time, in Phnom Penh, the French embassy opened its door to French residents and tourists, as well as local guests for a garden party which gathered a crowd of more than 1,400 people.
From:
Cambodia: End Assault on Opposition, Critics
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
(New York) - The Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen should end its campaign of harassment, threats, and unwarranted legal action aimed at consolidating its rule by silencing the political opposition and peaceful critics, Human Rights Watch said today.
In recent months, senior Cambodian government leaders and military officials have filed at least nine politically motivated criminal defamation and disinformation cases against journalists, opposition members of parliament, lawyers, and government critics.
"The Cambodian government is imposing its most serious crackdown on freedom of expression in recent years," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Once again, Hun Sen is showing his true stripes by harassing and threatening to imprison peaceful critics of his increasingly authoritarian government."
Government attempts to muzzle free expression have intensified in recent weeks:
* On June 22, 2009, the National Assembly voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of two of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party's (SRP) most active members, Mu Sochua and Ho Vann, paving the way to try them on criminal charges of defamation against Hun Sen and 22 military officials, respectively.
* On June 26, a Phnom Penh court sentenced Hang Chakra, owner of the opposition newspaper Khmer Machas Srok (Khmer Landowner), to one year in prison on charges of disinformation after the newspaper published articles on government corruption.
* On July 7, Kong Sam Onn, one of the few private lawyers who had been brave enough to represent opposition SRP members in court, "defected" to the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and dropped his representation of Mu Sochua and Ho Vann after he was sued for defamation by Hun Sen and threatened with disbarment by the Cambodian Bar Association for representing Mu Sochua against criminal defamation charges.
* On July 10, Dam Sith, the owner of Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), one of Cambodia's oldest and most influential opposition papers, closed the newspaper to avoid criminal prosecution for criticism of government officials.
* On July 14, Moeung Sonn, president of the Khmer Civilization Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison on charges of disinformation after he raised concerns about the effect of installation of lights on the Angkor monuments.
With the resignation of their lawyer, opposition lawmakers Ho Vann and Mu Sochua have not been able to find other lawyers willing to represent them in their upcoming trials, scheduled for July 17 and July 24, respectively.
"If Ho Vann and Mu Sochua are convicted, there's a real chance that two of the most active opposition voices will permanently lose their seats in the National Assembly," said Adams. "Key issues are at stake here - multi-party democracy, rule of law, independence of lawyers, and freedom of expression."
Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the coerced closure of Moneaksekar Khmer on July 10, prompted by a battery of defamation, disinformation, and incitement suits filed by the government against the newspaper's editor, Dam Sith, a member of the board of directors of the Sam Rainsy Party. After Sith pledged to close the paper in a letter of apology to Hun Sen on July 8, the charges were reportedly dropped.
Since it began publication in Phnom Penh in 1993, Moneaksekar Khmer has experienced regular threats, intimidation, and even the killing of one of its staff. Khim Sambo, a reporter for the paper, was killed just weeks before national elections in July 2008 and shortly after the one-week detention, in June, of Dam Sith on disinformation charges filed by the foreign minister.
The two other main newspapers formerly affiliated with the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) have also been targeted. In late June 2009, Hang Chakra, owner of Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, was sentenced to a year in prison on disinformation charges, for articles concerning corruption in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
In 2008, the popular pro-SRP newspaper Sralang Khmer (Love Khmer) suddenly re-aligned toward the ruling party after its editor, Thach Ket, a board member of the SRP, was pressured to defect, during a period when the ruling party was being accused of using threats and inducements to obtain coerced defections of opposition leaders.
Perhaps the most outrageous misuse of criminal defamation charges has been in the conviction in early June of SRP youth activist Soung Sophorn, after he wrote slogans criticizing the government on the outside walls of his own house, which was slated for forced eviction for a new development on land owned by a ruling-party senator.
The recent lawsuits have all been filed under the broadly worded articles 62 (Disinformation; distribution of false information "likely to disturb the public peace") and 63 (Defamation and Libel) of the temporary penal code promulgated in 1992 by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. While imprisonment was removed as a penalty for defamation in 2006, it remains a criminal offense, and prison sentences of up to three years still apply for disinformation. Human Rights Watch said that criminal defamation laws violate the internationally protected right to freedom of expression and have a chilling effect on government critics and the media.
The string of lawsuits has effectively muzzled opposition voices, with an SRP member of parliament, Son Chhay, commenting in a Radio Australia interview on July 9: "We have no alternative. I think we will quiet down for a while. We are not going to raise the issue of corruption. We are not going to speak about land-grabbing. We are not going to talk about the corrupt court system."
Human Rights Watch urged Cambodia's international donors, especially those funding programs promoting the rule of law, judicial reform, human rights, and good governance, to insist that the Cambodian government cease its harassment and abusive legal actions against opposition members.
"The space for opposition media and peaceful dissent is rapidly shrinking in Cambodia, especially now with the closure of one of Cambodia's last remaining opposition newspapers," said Adams. "Cambodia's laws criminalizing peaceful speech should be repealed so that Hun Sen and other officials can no longer threaten journalists with jail for practicing their profession."
"Through violence, threats and money politics, Hun Sen already controls almost every aspect of Cambodia's politics," said Adams. "Yet his efforts to silence dissent seem endless. Why does he seem to wake up every day looking for enemies to persecute? Will this ever end?"
From:
Khmer Rouge interrogator says "no regrets" about deaths
PHNOM PENH - A former interrogator at the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison on Tuesday expressed no remorse for the deaths of thousands of Cambodians who he said had all committed crimes.
Appearing as a prosecution witness in the trial of Duch, Pol Pot's head jailor, Mam Nay, also known as Chan, denied any part in torture or killings of prisoners and blamed the United States and Vietnam for undermining his country.
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An estimated 1.7 million people died during the Khmer Rouge's four-year "killing fields" reign of terror, which ended when Vietnamese forces invaded in 1979.
Asked by the judge if he regretted what happened at the Tuol Sleng prison, where more than 14,000 men, women and children were killed, Chan showed no remorse.
"My only regret was our country was invaded," he told the joint Cambodian-U.N. tribunal. "Frankly speaking, the Americans invaded us then Vietnam invaded us. That is my regret."
During his five hours of questioning, Nay, a former teacher, said he remembered very little about the S-21 interrogation center, a former school and now a museum to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime.
He was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony but was reluctant to speak against Duch, the first of the five indicted former Khmer Rouge cadres to face trial.
"I was assigned by Duch to interrogate detainees," said Chan, who wore sunglasses and a traditional Cambodian scarf. "I did not use torture in my interrogation. I believed I would not get a true confession."
Asked about the deaths of innocent people, Nay, 76, said: "None of them was innocent -- those people committed offences, either minor or serious.
"This was the reason for their arrest. How serious or how minor, I don't know."
With no death penalty in Cambodia, Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder.
Also indicted are Khmer Rouge second-in-command Nuon Chea, former President Khieu Samphan and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, all of whom have denied knowledge of the atrocities.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who was known by the regime as "Brother Number One," died in 1998 near the Thai-Cambodia border.
From:
Chinese mobiles finding favor in Cambodian market
Distributors in Phnom Penh have said that the number of Chinese-sourced mobile phones being sold in Cambodia each month is climbing rapidly, local newspaper the PhnomPenh Post reported on Tuesday.
Not only are they cheaper than leading brands, but some have features including the ability to use two SIM cards, built-in radio and TV receivers and MP3 and MP4 players, it said.
The Ky Hout company said that it imports between 6,000 and 8,000 phones monthly for distribution in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang. The sales manager, who asked not to be named, said customers liked the fact that the phones were substantially cheaper than the competition.
She said sales were up ten-fold since the start of the year. "Previously we imported only 300 t0 600 of these phones each month that sell for between 35 U.S. dollars and 100 U.S. dollars each," she said, adding, "Our sales of Nokia phones have dropped by 80 percent."
Srey Touch, the owner of another importer, the 03 Company, agreed that sales of Chinese-made phones were up sharply. "We import new model phones two or three times a month, with up to 500phones each time," he said, adding, "The phones sell especially well during the big national holidays such as Khmer New Year, Pchum Ben and the Water Festival."
But representatives of Nokia and Sony Ericsson said their market share was not being hit by the cheaper competition. "Sales are stable," said Yoeun Makara, a retail sales manager who imports Nokia phones. "Moreover, 80 percent of our customers choose to buy Nokia because it is strong and robust, and they like the new touch screen models."
Chea Mony, the head of marketing at Sony Ericsson in Cambodia, is also bullish. He said sales were up at least 10 percent this year. "The influx of Chinese cell-phones creates opportunities for many users, but it is not an obstacle for Sony Ericsson because competition goes beyond price, and Sony Ericsson offers many different prices including low, medium and high," he said.
So Khun, minister of posts and telecommunications, said in May that 4.23 million of the country's 13.4 million citizens have mobile phones, and that the nation has just 42,000 landlines.
Nine mobile phones companies operate in Cambodia: Beeline, Excell, Hello, MFone, Metfone, Mobitel, qb, Smart and Star-Cell.
From:
Leopard Capital Weighs Investment Climate
[Editor’s note: Leopard Capital is the only company in Cambodia raising funds from foreign investors for multiple sectors. Since its inception in 2007, Leopard’s manager partner, Douglas Clayton, has met with more than 500 wealthy investors from around the globe, though most have proved hesitant to invest in Cambodia. Clayton recently sat with VOA Khmer for an interview in Phnom Penh.]
Q. When you first began here two years ago, you expected to raise $100 million. How far have you come in that plan?
A. Well, two years ago when we started this fund, the world economy was much stronger. So we were more optimistic, but things changed, [and] we’ve raised $27 million. We are going to invest in around 10 businesses here. We have some 80 or 90 investors in our fund. So we have managed to persuade some of them to send their money to Cambodia.
Q. What is the difference in Cambodia’s investment climate from when you first opened your office?
A. Certainly, the economy slowed down a lot. It has become more difficult to raise money for any risky investment than it was two or three years ago. Globally, investors have lost a lot of money because of the stock markets coming down and the property markets coming down. So there’s less money for people to invest, and there is more caution for the money than before. They try to hang on to what they have, and they try not to take long-term risks. They want to be very liquid with their investments.
Q. You mention risky business. What are the risks to business in Cambodia that make it hard to attract investors?
A. Most foreign investors don’t know very much about Cambodia. Most of them have never been here, and they remember the old history of Cambodia thirty years ago, but they don’t know too much about the recent history. So we have to explain what has been going on here and how the country has changed, how it is developing. The hardest part is that most people consider Cambodia as a small country far away that they have never been in, and they generally have heard negative things in the last two decades. They haven’t heard the positive things going on here.
Q. In this economic crisis, what are the most risky Cambodian businesses to invest in?
A. I don’t know if I could answer which sector is the most risky. But certainly it’s all about finding businesses that can still prosper during the time of global recession. We could invest in agriculture; there’s always demand for food. Whether the economy is strong or weak, there is still some demand for rice.
Q. In the middle of 2008, when the economic crisis was hitting, how many investors were you talking with?
A. I’ve been around the world four or five times marketing this fund, and I have probably met over 500 investors individually. These are large institutional investors that manage billions of dollars. I spoke at 10 or 12 conferences that I was invited to, to explain Cambodia with other speakers who explained other countries.
Q. Who were these investors? Where were they from? What were their views on Cambodia’s investment climate?
A. We have investors from all over the world, but the largest group and largest percentage is from Europe, European investors who are familiar with Southeast Asia, as many of them have come for holiday in this part of the world. But most of them would say something like, “I’ll have to come out to visit Cambodia on my next trip to Asia before I invest.” And then, after they don’t have to come to Cambodia, most of them don’t actually start investing. But at least they learn a little bit about Cambodia, and they know there is an opportunity to invest here.
Q. It seems that these investors are reluctant to invest in Cambodia. Can you identify reasons that have made them so hesitant to enter the Cambodian market?
A. Firstly, they’ll consider the very small economy of Cambodia. The total GDP here is around $8 billion or $9 billion. That’s about the size of one company in the West. So they think they should spend a lot of time to understand a tiny economy such as Cambodia. Secondly, they are worried about the rule of law. They read in the paper a lot of reports that the rule of law is weak in Cambodia, and they worry to invest here they might not be able to get their money back.
Q. What kind of law?
A. They are worried if there is a dispute with a fund or other local partners who they invest with, they are not sure that the court will be able to give a fair ruling. That not only happens in Cambodia, but in all emerging countries, where investors worry about contracts, resolution and disputed elements.
Q. What about corruption? A recent report by the World Bank and International Financial Corporation says corruption is still the most challenging aspect of investment in Cambodia.
A. Yes, it is a challenge in all markets, especially when we have underpaid government officials who have to find a way to support their family. So this is something that we have to manage and have to be careful of.
Q. What currently are the most favorable investment destinations?
A. Well, I think most people still focus on China and India. They like the large populations of these countries, the huge economies. These countries should be major players in the world economy.
Q. Can you sum up the positive and negative aspects of Cambodia’s investment market?
A. The bad things are what we have talked about: the rule of law, under-development, corruption and the small economy; the fact that most of the people are not very well off and can’t afford products and services; people widely dispersed around the country. The infrastructure is still not perfect. The cost of power, telephone, Internet, and transportation are all higher than other countries. Human-resources skill is another problem. Any business we do, we have to train a lot more than we would do in another place. We may have to import managers initially.
The positive side is that it is a country that has many business opportunities. In most countries, there will be rental car agencies, there is a bus pickup to town, but there are not in Cambodia. Many other Asian cities have this, but Phnom Penh doesn’t.
Secondly, we have a very young population here. The average age in Cambodia is 21, unlike many western countries, where the average age is 40, the time that you get ready for retirement. Cambodians are just ready to go to work.
From:
H1N1 Flu Found in US Embassy Staffer
Cambodia on Friday added the ninth H1N1 flu case to its growing roster of patients, claiming a US Embassy staff member had been infected with the virus.
The 35-year-old American was tested positive for the illness, sometimes called swine flu, on Thursday, following a trip to Thailand, health officials said.
Six of the nine positive cases in Cambodia have been American, though no one has died here from the disease, which has killed a reported 429 people so far worldwide.
“The patient is in a normal situation, and we will supervise him for at least seven days,” said Sok Touch, head of contagious disease control at the Ministry of Health.
The World Health Organization has recommended that all countries focus on serious cases of the disease, he said.
Cambodia is not on alert, he said, “but we must not be negligent,” adding that the disease can be fatal if a patient comes down with a coinciding illness.
Treating 4,000 diabetic patients in Cambodia, a high-prevalence but resource- limited setting: a 5-year study
Despite the worldwide increasing burden of diabetes, there has been no corresponding scale-up of treatment in developing countries and limited evidence of program effectiveness. In 2002, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Cambodia, Medecins Sans Frontieres initiated an outpatient program of subsidized diabetic care in two hospital-based chronic disease clinics in rural settings.
We aimed to describe the outcomes of newly and previously diagnosed diabetic patients enrolled from 2002 to 2008.
Methods: We calculated the mean and proportion of patients who met the recommended treatment targets, and the drop from baseline values for random blood glucose (RBG), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood pressure (BP), and body mass index (BMI) at regular intervals. Analysis was restricted to patients notlost to follow-up.
We used the t test to compare baseline and subsequent paired values.
Results: Of 4404 patients enrolled, 2,872 (65%) were still in care at the time of the study, 24 (0.5%) had died, and 1,508 (34%) were lost to follow-up. Median age was 53 years, 2,905 (66%) were female and 4,350 (99%) had type 2 diabetes.
Median (interquartile range (IQR)) follow-up was 20 months (5 to 39.5 months). A total of 24% (51/210) of patients had a HbA1c concentration of <7% and 35% (709/1,995) had a RBG <145 mg/dl within 1 year.
There was a significant drop of 109 mg/dl (95% confidence interval (CI) 103.1 to 114.3) in mean RBG (P<0.001) and a drop of 2.7% (95% CI 2.3 to 3.0) in mean HbA1c (P<0.001) between baseline and month 6. In all, 45% (327/723) and 62% (373/605) of patients with systolic or diastolic hypertension at baseline, respectively, reached [less than or equal to]130/80 mm Hg within 1 year.
There was a drop of 13.5 mm Hg (95% CI 12.1 to 14.9) in mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) (P<0.001), and a drop of 11.7 mm Hg (95% CI 10.8 to 12.6) in mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (P<0.001) between baseline and month 6. Only 22% (90/401) patients with obesity at baseline lowered their BMI <27.5 kg/m^2 after 1 year.
Factors associated with loss to follow-up were male sex, age >60 years, living outside the province, normal BMI on admission, high RBG on last visit, and coming late for the last consultation.
Conclusions: Significant and clinically important improvements in glycemia and BP were observed, but a relatively low proportion of diabetic patients reached treatment targets. These results and the high loss to follow-up rate highlight the challenges of delivering diabetic care in rural, resource-limited settings.
Author: Marie-Eve RaguenaudPetros IsaakidisTony ReidSay ChyLim KeukyGemma ArellanoWim Van Damme
Credits/Source: BMC Medicine 2009, 7:33