Chheang Vannarith is the executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace.

Raised by a single mother under the poverty line in Kampong Thom province, he was able to attain a PhD in Asia-Pacific studies.

“Living through civil wars and hardship empowered me to overcome obstacles to my education and career,” he told “Hello VOA” on Monday. “Poverty was a driving force to success.”

He had wanted to be part of a new intellectual class, he said, one that could replace those lost to the Khmer Rouge.

Chheang Vannarith specializes in the political economy of heritage tourism, and he said Cambodia’s tourism sector, its second-largest driver of economic growth, needed to do more.

Revenues from the more than 2.5 million tourists who visit Cambodia every year, especially the temples of Angkor Wat, a World Heritage site, can help create jobs and boost the economy, but these revenues are not evenly benefiting people in touristic areas, he said.

While tourism is a critical part of the economy, Cambodia must expand its resources, he said.

“Cambodia currently depends on three factors: textiles, tourism, and agriculture,” he said. “Cambodia also needs to pay attention to encouraging the services industry, IT, and manufacturing. By doing this, Cambodia diversifies the sources of its revenues.”

And rather than just commercial tourism, Cambodia should also look toward high-quality tourism, focusing on tourists who seek to understand its culture, the kind of tourism, he said, that does not rely on temple ruins.

Read the original post:
Economist Sees Potential in Tourism and Beyond

Thailand’s exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra said Monday he saw potential in Cambodia’s economic growth, which has buoyed in 2011 following recovery with garments and tourism.

Thaksin said in a lecture at the Asian Economic Forum, held at the Council of Ministers’ building, that Cambodia had shown strong growth compared to the region.

His talk at the forum was part of a nearly weeklong trip, which included a meetings with Prime Minister Hun Sen, economists and other economic officials on Saturday.

Thaksin, who was ousted from Thailand in a bloodless coup in 2006, recommended Cambodia bolster state spending on infrastructure and education, as well as modernizing its financial system.

The Asian Development Bank said last week Cambodia’s growth rate will likely reach 6.8 percent this year.

Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association, said Cambodia has potential for even more growth, perhaps 10 percent, but that the country needs to “work hard.”

“The leaders of the Kingdom of Cambodia will be encouraged by Thaksin’s speech,” he said.

However, Son Chhay, a lawmaker for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said Monday that Cambodia, which exports about $2 billion in goods abroad, only exports only $50 million in goods to Thailand, with which it has a large deficit.

“Be careful what Thai political veterans say about Cambodia’s economic situation,” he said. “We can suppose that in such a speech [Thaksin] is flattering us to gain a benefit from us.”

Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party, said Thaksin may also be focused on developing petroleum resources on the coast. Thaksin’s speech was flattering of Cambodia, Kem Sokha said, “to provide opportunity for him.”

Read more here:
Infrastructure and Education, Thaksin Advises

The Asian Development Bank on Wednesday said Cambodia would likely reach a 6.8 percent economic growth rate for 2011.

The ADB estimate was a bump up from the 6.5 percent forecast earlier this year, but much less than Prime Minister Hun Sen’s figure of 8.7 percent, which he said in a speech this week was possible.

In its “Asian Development Outlook” update, released this week, the ADB said garment exports to the US increased nearly 25 percent for the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year, the ADB said. Garments remain a major driver of the economy.

Tourism arrivals increased 13 percent in the same period, while “rice exports are on an upward trend,” Peter Brimble, the ADB’s senior economist in Cambodia, said in a statement.

“Cambodia will maintain solid economic growth for 2011 given the faster than expected recovery of garment exports and tourism as well as the positive outlook for the expansion of agricultural products,” he said. “However, the current slowdown in global trade is likely to temper growth momentum in 2012.”

Cambodia still has some “key challenges” to overcome, he added. The outlook report noted a “narrowly based economy” and the need to speed up economic diversification, improve governance and strengthen the investment climate.

“Reducing the high cost of transport, energy and diversifying agricultural products and the tourism sector are critical,” Brimble said. These will be addressed under ADB and Cambodian strategies through 2013, he said.

Meanwhile, inflation is expected to average 5.5 percent this year and next, the ADB said.

Original post:
ADB Revises 2011 Growth Rate Up Two Points

The dual visits this week of Thailand’s new prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, and her brother, Thaksin, who was ousted from that position in 2006, could create an amicable environment for talks on a range of issues, analysts said Tuesday.

Yingluck, who was elected in July, is scheduled to arrive on Thursday, with Thaksin preparing for a weeklong trip starting Friday.

Between the two, talks over an ongoing military border stand-off, on maritime petroleum resources and on the release of two jailed Thai activists could all take place, analysts said.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday he would not be holding political talks with Thaksin, a politically divisive figure who remains in exile from Thailand to avoid corruption charges there. However, his coming signals improved engagement with the new Thai government, which is led by his sister and former supporters.

Official talks are scheduled between Hun Sen and Yingluck only.

“First, I think talks will focus on reconciliation,” said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a policy and strategy analyst at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Such talks would likely focus on reconciliation of the border dispute near Preah Vihear temple, which flared in July 2008 and has cost a number of lives on both sides in skirmishes over the years.

“Second, the two sides could talk about shared development in the disputed maritime territories,” he said. “However, Yingluck will have to make sure that this process is transparent and will not be for the benefit of anyone in particular.”

“Third, it could mean the release of two Thais jailed last year in Cambodia,” he said, referring to the cases of Veera Somkwamkid and Ratree Pipattanapaiboon, activists of the Thailand Patriot Network, who were allegedly caught on the Cambodian side of the border and charged with spying.

“I think this is a positive visit, and I believe that a positive outcome will come from these trips,” he said. “I think this is a new beginning of Thailand and Cambodia’s relationship.”

As for Thaksin’s visit, he said, “We will never know what kind of discussions there may be.” But he said Thaksin is fond of Cambodia, as it is close to his home, and that he may want to prove himself a “legitimate” leader for the Thais.

“I think Thaksin chose the same week as his sister’s visit to put himself in the limelight once again,” he said. “On the positive side, it seems that bilateral ties between the two countries are on the mend.”

Chheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said the two visits will create a “multiplying effect.”

He too said top agenda items will be the border, maritime boundaries and the two jailed activists.

A more peaceful border will mean the return of “trade, tourism and investment,” he said. “This is a new page in Cambodian and Thai history.”

However, he warned caution in talks over oil in gas. “For Cambodia, we want an agreement, particularly in maritime issues, so that we can extract oil resources at the end of next year,” he said.

Originally posted here:
Analysts See New Page in Upcoming Thai Visits

Senior United Nations officials say countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region including Thailand, Cambodia and Laos are failing to apply existing laws aimed at combating human trafficking.  The conclusions come as a U.N. envoy on human trafficking concluded a 10-day assessment of Thailand’s efforts to curb labor migration abuses.

The U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking, Joy Ezeilo, says countries need to adopt a comprehensive approach to combat trafficking and implement laws that are already on the books.

Some progress made

Ezeilo said in Thailand, authorities have made ‘significant progress’ but officials are still not doing enough to protect irregular migrants and overcome corruption.    

“We need a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking. I think implementation is actually where the challenge is, because you may have very good laws, very good national plans – and actually done a lot in the sense of rehabilitative measures to assist trafficked persons, but then with the gap to the application of the law – it should [be] comprehensive in prosecution, punishment of traffickers,” she said.

After assessing Thailand’s efforts to curb abuses, Ezeilo said the country remains a source, transit and destination country for trafficking.           

The report said Thais are trafficked to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany, Israel, Japan, South Africa and the United States. Thailand also is a receiver nation from Cambodia, Burma, Laos and Vietnam.

Children targeted

Ezeilo said within Thailand, internal trafficking of children is also rampant, including children of hill tribe communities.

The trafficking fuels child prostitution, pornography and sex tourism. Other traffickers target workers for domestic help, begging, forced marriage and surrogacy.  The report said the practice is growing in the agricultural, construction and fisheries industries.

Human trafficking is estimated to be worth millions of dollars to criminal gangs across the region.

The U.N.’s International Labor Organization (ILO) has backed efforts to implement programs to protect migrant workers from Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

But Nilim Baruah, a chief technical advisor with the ILO office in Bangkok, says despite the effort countries in the region, including Cambodia and Laos, have failed to apply their own laws to better regulate labor migration.

“Management and governance of migration continues to be a major area of concern for government in the Mekong Sub Region,” said Baruah. “If one looks at Laos and Cambodia, the question is also about the capacity of the government to develop and implement their legislation. In terms of Laos and Cambodia there is a need for capacity building and training from the part of the government themselves.”

Comprehensive approach

Martin Reeve, a regional advisor to the U.N.’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) agrees a comprehensive approach is needed to curb human trafficking beyond law enforcement and include other sectors of the community, including business.

“Certainly law enforcement can’t do it on its own, neither can government policy, neither can civil society,” said Reeve.  “So really you do need a multilateral approach to this – the business community. The business community can look at its own practices and to make sure that it’s not involving exploitative labor at any point during the supply process – and that’s a key thing.”

Thailand implemented a process of documentation and registration of over one million migrant workers over the past years, mostly from Burma as well as Cambodia and Laos. The latest campaign to register the workers, largely from the fishing industry, ended this month. A full report by the U.N. Special Rapporteur, Ezeilo, is expected to be presented to the U.N. in mid-2012.

See the original post here:
UN Urges Asia to Enforce Human Trafficking Laws

Officials said Friday they remain committed to an improved relationship between the Cambodian police and the FBI, following a weeklong training course in interviewing techniques.

“We will continue to work constructively with Cambodian national police to fight crime in many forms in the Kingdom of Cambodia,” Patrick Gibbons, the FBI’s Cambodia representative, told reporters.

The FBI and Cambodian police have worked cases that include child sex tourism and drug smuggling, he said, and the two sides are working on exchanging more information to prevent crime.

The police and FBI have seen a steady improvement in their relations, following the opening of a legal attaché at the US Embassy in 2008.

About 40 Cambodian police and military police received FBI training in interview techniques this week.

Gibbons said the training would “upgrade” Cambodian law enforcement and that more training would take place in the future.

Sok Phal, deputy national police chief, said the training would help in the prevention of transnational crimes.

So far, cooperation between the two has led to six sex trafficking cases and one drug trafficking case, he said.

“Today and in coming days, the Cambodian national police have a goal to make cooperation with the FBI to suppress all offenses and criminality,” he said. He conceded that the current level of police training “can be regarded as our problem.”

Read this article:
Police Undergo FBI Interview Training

Air France resumed direct flights to Cambodia on Thursday, after it last pulled up its wheels in 1974 ahead of a Khmer Rouge takeover.

Officials said the resumption of flights was due to an increase in tourism and investment in Cambodia. Air France’s Flight 274 will fly three times per week with a stop in Bangkok.

“By putting Phnom Penh a few hours from Paris, Air France aims to support the tourism and economy of Cambodia, by facilitating the movement of businessmen and allowing French and European companies to expand their presence,” Jean-Cyril Spiretta, president of the airline’s administration, told reporters at the airport Thursday.

Cambodia received some 2.5 million tourists in 2010, with nearly half a million from Europe, and 113,000 from France alone, according to official figures. An estimated 4,000 French citizens live in Cambodia, and another 80,000 Cambodians live in France.

Pierre-Hanri Gourgeon, executive director of Air France, said the airline expected around 70 percent of its passengers to come from France and another 20 percent to come from Cambodia, with the remainder coming from cities in Europe.

Council Minsiter Sok An, who greeted the first flight as it touched down Thursday afternoon, said the new route “brought France and Europe closer to Cambodia.”

View original post here:
After 37 Year Hiatus, Air France Resumes Flights

Cambodia is building up its rural infrastructure in an effort to link itself to its neighbors, under an “economic corridor” project aided by the Asian Development Bank.

Proponents of the southern economic corridor, part of the Greater Mekong Subregion project, say it will bring benefits to villagers like those in Kampong Thom district’s Sambo Prey Kuk temple, in Prasat Sambo district.

Here, a bumpy dirty road connecting the temple to the main provincial town was recently improved.

“When the road was rough, not many people came,” said Kong Sophy, who owns a restaurant near the ancient temple, where buses of tourists now visit. “But now that the road is good, more visitors are coming. So I do well in sales.”

Tem Bunteng, a local tour guide, agrees that better infrastructure has improved tourism numbers to the temple, which is one of the most-visited temples in the country outside those of Angkor Wat.

“The people here want a good road because it can bring in more tourists,” Tem Bunteng said.

“It’s very important because this is one of the most attractive spots in the country,” Ingrid Overstegen, a Dutch tourist said one afternoon at the temple. “Tourists want to come here, and they bring money to your country, so it’s good for your economy.”

Economists say the connection between rural and urban areas across borders in the Mekong countries can help boost economies across the region.

“There’s a huge potential in tourism and agriculture,” Arjun Goswami, the ADB’s director for regional cooperation, said in an interview during a regional forum on the economic corridor last month. “Now, both of these sectors, in terms of cross-border movement of people or cross-border movement of agricultural goods and produce, depend on the husbanding of natural resources.”

However, that potential can also bring some strife to communities who say they are not benefiting.

That has been the case for 500 villagers from the Prey Lang forest, which spans four eastern provinces and is the site of at least two large rubber plantation concessions to Vietnamese companies. Villagers say the cross-border concessions are threatening their livelihoods from the large expanse of natural forest.

While tourists were admiring Sambo Prey Kuk temple earlier this month, these villagers were holding a forum in Kampong Thom to express their grievances.

“The other 20 provinces know clearly that in history, there are no other forests left in Cambodia,” Ros Soeunn, a 77-year-old villager told the forum, which had gathered under a tent in Kampong Thom town.

“Only this Prey Lang still exists,” he shouted into a microphone at a gathering of lawmakers and local authorities. “Do you want to destroy it all? And where can the people live?”

“You give companies millions of hectares, but your own people, nothing,” he said. “You just allow others from outside to develop, but what is development for, if the people weep bitterly?”

Goswami said the risks that may come from increased development will have to be addressed.

“Of course countries that have natural resources will want to use that natural resource base for growth, and other countries will want to get access to it,” he said, referring to agricultural development in general. “The issue is not trying to stop it; the issue is trying to make sure that the risks are best mitigated.”

Original post:
Risks, Rewards as Economic Corridor Develops

“Because passenger demand has been increasing every year, we have changed to a big new plane, that will start flights on the 27th of this month,” said Pen Vanndarong, sales and marketing executive at Korean Air.

Ministry of Tourism statistics show South Korea was the largest source of travellers to the Kingdom in January, with 42,939 arriving in the month – a 36.9 percent increase on the same month a year previous.

But Pen Vanndarong said he also noticed a rise of tourists from Japan and other regional countries wishing to use Korean Air’s flights.

“Last year, we had difficulties finding seats for our passengers. That why we changed to a larger plane – tourist demand is increasing,” he said.

The new aircraft is a 280-seat Airbus 330-300, nearly double the capacity of its 149-seat Boeing 737-800.

Read the original article here:
Bigger planes heading to Kingdom

A man-made mountain at a resort managed by Dai Nam Resorts Area, in Binh Duong province, Vietnam. The company is looking to attract more Cambodian visitors to its attractions. A company official said 5 million people visited the site last year. Photo by: Soeun Say

VIETNAMESE tourism companies are linking up with Kingdom firms in order to attract Cambodian tourists to the country’s resorts and health care facilities, whilst boosting cross-border visitors.

During 2010, while the numbers of Vietnamese tourists arriving in Cambodia surged by 48 percent to 466,695 compared to 2009, some businesses within Vietnam also spotted an opportunity for growth by forging new alliances.

One such company was state-run Vietravel Co, valued at US$76 million last year, which now holds 49 percent in a joint venture called Indochina Heritage Travel (Cambodia) with Cambodian and Vietnamese partners.

While its capital investment in the new company has not been detailed, after opening two months ago it plans to lead 100,000 Vietnamese tourists to the Kingdom during 2011 and to promote cross-border tourism.

Nguyen Quoc Ky, general director of Vietravel Co, said: “I feel confident about tourism sector growth in Cambodia, that’s why I decided to put capital forward.”

While Tran Duc Hai, director of Indochina Heritage Travel (Cambodia), added: We try to promote tourism for both countries and will bring tourists to both sides.”

Monthly package tours are on the venture’s agenda, with trips tailored to the health tourism market also planned.

Cambodia’s Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, acknowledged yesterday that Cambodian citizens visit Vietnam for health consultations and treatment and that at the moment “Vietnam is trying a lot to promote tourism in Cambodia”.

While the ministry did not have specific visitor data for Vietnam, he stated: “We have a strong relationship and cooperate together on tourism for both sides benefit.”

In Vietnam, health care providers are hoping to tap into a potential market of Cambodian nationals. Chief operation officer of Victoria Healthcare VietNam, Binh Pham Cobb, said that her private clinic in Ho Chi Minh City received 200 patients a day, some of whom came from Cambodia.

“We saw that Cambodian patients came to check their health a lot at the state hospital in Vietnam.”

Through cooperation with