The move comes as property developers plan to invest billions of pounds to transform Cambodia’s coastline into one of Asia’s leading holiday destinations.

“We are talking about an island that is the same size as Hong Kong island, where we want to add things such as an airport, so ultimately we are certainly looking at several billions,” Mark Hanna, chief financial officer of Royal Group said.

After decades of war and genocide overseen by the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia is playing catch-up to other south-east Asian tourism hotspots in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.

In the 15 years since Cambodia’s return to multiparty democracy, the country has made an impressive economic recovery and tourism has grown almost tenfold. Over 2m people visited Cambodia last year, but of those only 122,000 visited the country’s beaches.

Vantha Seng, chief financial officer of Seng Enterprise, said: “Thailand has shown how you can develop beautiful beaches but we also want to avoid some of the mistakes there and certainly want to remain upmarket.”

Source: Home Overseas

Successful Australian property developer Brocon Group; the company behind the hugely popular French Colonial apartments in Phnom Penh, were recently given the green light for a massive $35million luxury resort development on two Cambodian islands just off the coast at Sihanoukville.

I recently predicted Sihanoukville as having the potential to become a massively popular and profitable destination for overseas property investors, but when I heard about this it blew me away.

I fell for Sihanoukville because it was a virgin coastal region of Cambodia; with white sandy beaches, tropical climate. Comparative coastal areas throughout Asia have been some of the most profitable of all overseas property investment locations. Sihanoukville also wet my whistle because it was undiscovered and so, perfectly positioned to capitalise on Cambodia’s recently and rapidly rising tourism — to be further boosted by the re-launching of the Cambodia national airline.

The islands of Koh Oeun and Koh Bong, the sites of the new resort, have all the above and much more:

Brocon’s possession of the islands, now fully granted by the government, will combine with the island’s tropical beaches surrounded by lush rainforests, to make them an exclusive island hideaway for the region’s growing middle classes, which are always on the lookout for virgin beaches to stake their claim to.

The massive power of Asian regional tourism and the massive effect it can have on an emerging property market have been seen time and time again. The most comparable are the Thai islands of Koh Samui and Phuket, which saw luxury property values grow by 50% per year in 2006 and 2007, and continue to grow strongly.

The new emergence of luxury resort property on a virgin Cambodian island, which shares many of Koh Samui and Phuket’s sought after characteristics, and offers the chance to get in early at low prices, is sure to become a massively profitable endeavour.

‘When we heard about a luxury resort development on previously unheard of Cambodian islands, when Cambodia’s tourism was just starting to sprout hot-spots on Cambodia’s coastline we were filled with excitement,’ said Eleanor Flanders of Buy Sell Abroad. ‘We will be marketing the Brocon resort development in the UK, and depending on starting prices, which could be extremely low, we foresee annual capital appreciation of at least 20%, and the potential for rises of up to 50%. Rental yields should start at 6% and climb to around 10% over three to five years,’ she continued.

In closing, the emerging Cambodian islands have all the strengths of the other Asian islands that have been so profitable for foreign property investors, with the added bonus of being a completely new kid on the block - a virgin market with proven potential if you will.

Source: Property Wire

Both sides pulled out most of their troops on Saturday, leaving only 10 soldiers from each country at the compound of a pagoda near the temple, according to Hang Soth, director-general of the Preah Vihear National Authority, a Cambodian government agency managing the historic site.

Foreign ministers of the two countries were to hold informal talks over dinner in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin, with a more formal session planned for Tuesday. Two earlier rounds of talks were inconclusive.

“It is the responsibility of the government to talk with Cambodia for a peaceful solution, not war,” Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said during a visit Monday morning with Thai troops stationed near the temple. He was accompanied by Thai army commander Gen. Anupong Paojinda.

Samak, who made the trip in his capacity as defense minister, said he wanted his country’s troops “to show restraint because the policy of my government is not to go to war with neighboring countries.”

He said Thai troops at the border could live in peaceful coexistence with Cambodia’s soldiers.

Senior military officials of the two countries met last week, after which both sides pulled back hundreds of soldiers from the area. About 800 troops from Cambodia and 400 from Thailand had been deployed to Preah Vihear and the surrounding area in a monthlong standoff in which weapons were drawn once but no shots were fired.

The supreme commander of Thailand’s armed forces, Gen. Boonsang Niempradit, urged the two sides to work toward an understanding, and told reporters that talks should help alleviate any tensions.

Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said he was “optimistic the meeting will achieve a good success” and lead to “a lasting solution to border problems between Cambodia and Thailand.”

Speaking before he left Cambodia, he reiterated his government’s desire to solve the problems with Thailand peacefully and amicably, because “our two countries share a lot of economic and trade interests.”

Hor Namhong said the two countries will work toward withdrawing all the remaining troops from the area to allow for mine clearance operations and border demarcation.

Source: The China Post

“The water (here) hasn’t risen (to those levels in Laos) and there is nothing to be worried about,” said Nhim Vanda, vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management

He had contacted his equivalent department in Laos for information about rising water levels and then became confident that the problems there wouldn’t extend downstream to Cambodia, he said.

Cambodia was well insulated from rising water levels in Laos because of the number of lakes available here for any excess water to drain into, he said.

The Mekong River in Kratie province was around 20 meters high, a normal level for this time of the year and the secondary rivers, lakes and the Tonle Sape River were all at safe levels, he said.

“Even if the water comes strongly, we have a lot of places to store,” he added.

The Mekong River Commission Friday reported that the Mekong River hit its highest level in Laos in 100 years, adding that Cambodia would likely suffer from the after-effects as the flood water moved downstream.

Source: Xinhua

“This is good news,” English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily quoted Mean Chhi Vun, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STDs (NCHADS), as commenting on NCHADS’ latest report.

“As a program manager, I am very happy because this shows we have successfully slowed down or controlled the HIV epidemic through prevention, care and treatment,” he added.

Recent sample tests in 22 provinces and municipalities throughout Cambodia tell NCHADS that some 14 percent female sex workers are thought to have HIV/AIDS, as opposed to 43 percent in 1998, and 1.1 percent this year as opposed to 2.1 percent in 1998 among pregnant women.

Meanwhile, the infection rate of the disease is now kept under one percent in the kingdom, said the tests.

The decline can be attributed to increased condom use and high treatment rates, according to NCHADS officials.

The infection rate of HIV/AIDS in Cambodian once reached 3.3 percent at its peak in 1997.

Source: Xinhua

Pol Gen Jongrak Juthanont said the Thailand and Cambodia extradition treaty came into force on April 1, 2001.

Vatana was convicted in his absence on Monday of corruption in the Klong Dan wastewater treatment project, with the offences occurring between Aug 10, 1988, and Feb 23, 1991, and between April 12, 1992, and June 15, 1995.

The Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions sentenced him to 10 years in jail.

The former Samut Prakan MP had jumped bail and was thought to be hiding in Cambodia.

The national police chief said because the treaty took effect after the offences were committed, this could be a basis for contesting the extradition application.

”Vatana has done business and invested in Cambodia for such a long time that he enjoys close ties with politicians and businessmen there,” Pol Gen Jongrak said.

”Negotiations for his extradition are expected to be difficult.”

Police would ask that the Office of the Attorney-General explore other avenues to negotiate with Cambodia for getting Vatana back.

The Supreme Court also issued a warrant for Vatana’s arrest with a validity of 15 years under the statute of limitations.

Pol Gen Jongrak said Vatana might now be away from Cambodia, at least for the time being, as he was seen in Macau two weeks ago. However, it was believed he would remain largely in Cambodia where he had businesses to attend to.

Vatana runs two resort casinos in the border town of Poi Pet, opposite Sa Kaeo’s Aranyaprathet district.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Mun Patanotai said he had been in communication with Vatana and he was philosophical about his fate.

Mr Mun is deputy leader of the Puea Pandin party and is known to be a close associate of Vatana.

He said Vatana, 71, had come to terms with the fact that he could go to jail over the Klong Dan scandal.

”He is now old. He might think it better to leave and go somewhere else, rather than stay in jail,” Mr Man said.

The 15-year provision would naturally force Vatana to retire from public life, he added.

Mr Mun said Vatana’s sons, Chonsawat and Poolpol, were not likely to follow in their father’s footsteps into national politics. Both were more enthusiastic about local politics.

Source: The Bangkok Post

At the weekend, up to 1,000 Cambodian and Thai troops pulled back from a small patch of disputed land near Cambodia’s 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, suggesting that an end to the month-long military stand-off could be near.

Twenty troops from both sides are stationed at a small pagoda in the contentious border area, while 40 Cambodian and Thai solders remain nearby.

After a day of talks between Thai Foreign Minister Tej Bunnag and his Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong, the two sides said in a statement that a border committee would meet in October to step up efforts to draw the boundary around the temple.

They also said military officials would meet on August 29 to discuss a further pullback of troops.

Cambodia had asked the UN Security Council to consider the standoff that erupted last month, but Hor Namhong said that request would likely be withdrawn.

“I think the removal of this issue from before the UN Security Council will take place as soon as possible,” he told reporters, but said he had yet to consult his government on the matter.

“The two countries will solve the problem peacefully, in friendship and under the law,” he said after the talks in the Thai beach resort town of Hua Hin.

Once both countries remove all their soldiers from the ruins, he said Cambodia would station only police at the temple and the border crossing.

Relations between the neighbours flared up last month after Preah Vihear was awarded world heritage status by the UN cultural body UNESCO, angering nationalists in Thailand who still claim ownership of the ancient Khmer temple.

On July 15, Cambodia arrested three Thai protesters for illegally crossing the border to try to reach the temple, sparking the deployment of troops from both sides on the tiny patch of disputed land near Preah Vihear.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the Preah Vihear temple belongs to Cambodia, but surrounding land remains in dispute.

The Cambodian-Thai border has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

Source: AFP

FRED DE SAM LAZARO, NewsHour Correspondent: Rice is a staple in most of Asia, and shortages and high prices have triggered riots in several countries. But here in Cambodia, things have been calm, thanks to record harvests, says Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith.

KHIEU KANHARITH, Minister of Information, Cambodia: The food situation in Cambodia is good. You know, we had the last year production be at a surplus of 2 million ton of rice. And this is a good reserve for food security. Despite that, we can even get more.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Cambodia even exported some of its surplus to the Middle East and Africa, and the government hopes to double production in the next few years, welcome news in a global rice market that’s seen tightening supplies.

Yet success is all the more noteworthy given Cambodia’s recent history.

This museum offers a glimpse of how the Khmer Rouge regime wiped out almost two million people in the 1970s, almost a quarter of the population. With them went farming know-how. Hundreds of rice strains that over the centuries have adapted to local conditions died off, as well.

MEN SAROM, Cambodia Rice Institute: Some variety respond well for drought, some not. Some respond well for, you know, flood, some not.

Methods for yielding rice

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Men Sarom heads Cambodia’s rice institute, which has tried to reverse the terrible legacy. Set up in the mid-’80s with help from the Australian government and the International Rice Research Institute, they began to bring rice back to what became known as the killing fields.MEN SAROM: We successfully developed many rice varieties.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Now, are you developing new varieties or restoring old varieties or a combination?

MEN SAROM: Both. Both.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The institute’s extension agents, like Heng Vuthy, work in the fields, training or re-training farmers.

HENG VUTHY, Extension Agent (through translator): We tell them to use the right type of seedlings, especially the ones from the institute. Farmers find it easier to use chemicals because they don’t need to work as hard, but it doesn’t help them the next year, because they have to keep buying it.

We train them on how to space their crops, how to use natural fertilizers, instead of the chemical ones, and how to prepare their rice fields.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: One of her clients is Kun Kamara, who uses homemade compost and seedlings developed by the rice institute on the nine acres she cultivates with her husband, Prum Keth.

PRUM KETH, Farmer (through translator): When we planted the traditional rice in the past, we only got about one ton per hectare. Now it’s increased more than twice that. We get more than two-and-a-half tons her hectare.

FARMER (through translator): Yes, we’re very happy. But even though we’re happy, we’re still poor.

Technology, methods remain outdated

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Cambodia’s farms are productive once again, but they’re still far behind those of neighboring countries like Thailand or even Vietnam. The technologies and methods are still outdated, and then there’s the inescapable legacy of the warriors.UROOJ MALIK, Asian Development Bank: There are a lot of unexploded ordnance in these countries. Vietnam has, I think, managed to clear most of it, but there are landmines there, as well.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Urooj Malik of the Asian Development Bank says as much as 20 percent of Cambodian farmland is still off-limits because of landmines. And, he says, there are other barriers that modern genetics and technology alone cannot surmount.

UROOJ MALIK: Water management systems are not as well developed as they are, for example, in Thailand and Vietnam. So in the wet season, it gets very wet and floods. In the drought season, it’s totally dry and there are large chunks of land that are not available, don’t have available water.

So, I mean — so I think, again, irrigation and water resources management is another important key to increasing productivity.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: At all levels, there’s outdated equipment.

FARMER (through translator): As a farmer, I don’t want anything except modern equipment, like a tractor. I don’t want to use the cows anymore.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Cambodia has too few mills, where rice kernels are separated from their husks. Those mills that do exist are antiquated and break a lot of the rice grains, diminishing both their market and aesthetic value, says the Chan Sophal, who heads an economic research organization.

CHAN SOPHAL, Cambodia Economic Association: We have very poor post-harvest infrastructure. And much of the harvest has to go out immediately because there’s no place to be kept.

Unequal distribution of rice

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Because of poor storage, a lot of grain decays or is eaten by rodents. Because of poor roads, Cambodia’s surplus is unevenly distributed. Chan says it’s particularly hard on the landless peasants and urban poor, who buy rather than grow most of their food.CHAN SOPHAL: In the past three years, we have generated 50 percent surplus. However, this doesn’t mean every household has food sufficiency. And there’s a level — a high level of inequality of land ownership. Twenty percent of rural households don’t own any land, I mean, agricultural land.

INTERVIEWER (through translator): Do you have any land for cultivation?

PRAK SAT, Cambodian Citizen (through translator): No, I don’t have land for cultivation.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Among those answering a survey by Chan on food security was 68-year-old Prak Sat. She takes care of an ailing husband and cooks for an extended family of seven.

INTERVIEWER (through translator): How many times do you eat rice in a week?

PRAK SAT (through translator): We eat rice seven days a week, every day. We also eat fish every day, half a kilo. I don’t have enough money. I’m always thinking about food.

Measuring Cambodia’s recovery

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Despite the everyday struggles, many Cambodians take a historical view, especially those, like Prak Sat, who survived the Khmer Rouge years.PRAK SAT (through translator): It’s better than before. Now we have enough rice and food to eat, and we don’t have to worry about being executed.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And Cambodia is better off than many countries that must depend on increasingly scarce and expensive imported rice, says Chan.

CHAN SOPHAL: My feeling is the positive impact of high food prices is greater than the negative impact, because we are a net producer.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In other words, the gain from selling rice at a higher price is yielding dividends that offset the cost of buying higher priced food?

CHAN SOPHAL: Exactly.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In the aggregate, but not…

CHAN SOPHAL: Right. In the aggregate, yes.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: One measure of Cambodia’s recovery is the World Food Programme’s school breakfasts, which are made possible by food donations from rich countries. The program, which operates in 74 countries, has come under severe strain due to rising grain and freight prices.

But in Cambodia, spokeswoman Coco Ushiyama says, a remarkable thing happened.

COCO USHIYAMA, World Food Programme: For the first time, we got a historic donation of 2,000 tons from the government of Cambodia for our school feeding and other vulnerable group feeding. And so with the Cambodians, the other donors also came through, but we still need more resources.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: This year, she says, the Cambodian government has increased its rice donation to 3,000 tons.

Source: NewsHour

Dr. Sevilla also noted that Cambodia needed to implement its World Trade Organization commitments and strengthen its intellectual property rights regime in order to improve the business climate.

The forum provided a platform for the participants to share U.S. and Cambodian experiences in consultative mechanisms for trade development in order to further the economic ties between the two countries. Promoting trade through improved policies and procedures is one goal of a private-public sector dialogue. Trade between the U.S. and Cambodia rose to two-billion-six-hundred-million dollars in 2008.

Increased transparency is good news for Cambodia’s private sector. For the economy to grow, the actions of government officials must be open to public scrutiny. Laws must be enforced fairly and impartially. Corruption and illegal business practices must be exposed and the rule of law applied to violators. Journalists have a responsibility to expose corruption and illegal practices in government and the private sector. They should report the news fairly, objectively, and without surrendering to bribery or political influence. Government has a responsibility to protect the press, non-governmental organizations, and private citizens who expose corruption and illegal practices.

Promoting transparency is one of a number of goals of U.S. trade policy. American policy works toward opening markets throughout the world to create new opportunities and higher living standards for families, farmers, manufacturers, workers, consumers, and businesses.

Source: VOA News

The Vietnamese government said rescue forces must be ready to move people from dangerous areas in southern Vietnam, where the Mekong river reaches the South China Sea after traveling more than 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from Tibet through Laos and Cambodia.

Four people have been killed in flooding and landslides in Laos, where the Mekong river has hit its highest level in at least 100 years after several months of unusually heavy rain (For a related story, please double click on [IDnSP192460]).

Cambodia has alerted villagers of rising waters and the authorities have prepared 4,000 boats and life-jackets for the vulnerable areas in the eastern provinces of Kampong Cham and Kratie, the national disaster management committee said.

The Mekong River Commission said the river from northern Thailand to central Cambodia was higher than it was in 2000, when the worst floods in four decades struck southern Vietnam.

“Floods in the Cuu Long River Delta happen every year, so people are used to taking preventive measures for crops and life,” Le Van Banh, director of the Mekong Delta-based Rice Institute, told Reuters by telephone from Can Tho city.

“In the past floods caused problem to transportation and it was hard for children to come to school, but in recent years Vietnam has built protective dykes and residential areas above the flood-peaking level,” he said.

RICE FIELD CLEANING

About 20 percent of Vietnam’s 86.5 million people live in the Cuu Long River Delta, the Vietnamese name for the Mekong river, which produces more than half of the country’s paddy output but supplies more than 90 percent of its commercial rice.

Rice growers say they will get extra income from fishing when flooding is high and after they end the summer rice harvest. Flood waters also clean up alum, pests and rats from fields while bringing more fertile soil.

“Since the floods are to wash away alum, we expect the yield of the next winter-spring rice crop to be good, at least on par with this year,” Banh said.

The winter-spring crop, the Delta’s top yielding, produced 10 million tonnes of paddy in April with a yield of 6.2 tonnes per hectare, prompting the government to raise Vietnam’s annual rice exports by 13 percent from earlier targets [nSP283104].

FAST-RISING WATERS

Seasonal floods appeared slowly in the Delta in July, a month earlier than usual. But this week flood waters are rising faster from heavy rains upstream two weeks ago, including the downpours that caused flash floods in northern Vietnam.

“Floods are forecast to rise above the average level in many years,” said Vo Thanh, a meteorologist in An Giang, one of the Mekong Delta’s main rice growing provinces.

Waters are expected to rise to 3.5 metres (12 feet) above sea level at Tan Chau gauging station on Friday, or 0.1 metre below the Alarm Level Two, which indicates inundation and danger of river bank and dyke erosion but towns are still protected.

In 2000, the Delta experienced the worst floods in four decades as waters rose to more than 5 metres, killing nearly 500 people, more than 300 of them children.

Since then the government has launched a campaign to protect life and property, having built 82,000 new homes, relocated 110,000 families or 80 percent of those living in dangerous areas, and opened swimming class for children and teachers.

Source: Reuters