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Khmer Traditional games for new year

Cambodia Considers TPP If All ASEAN Members Join

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that Cambodia would consider to join Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) if all ASEAN members reach consensus, speaking at the 18th Royal Government-Private Sector Forum held Friday at the Peace Palace.

Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that Cambodia should not depend on two or three big markets. The kingdom has started to diversify markets outside of the United States and Europe by negotiating bilateral trade agreements with Canada, China, Japan, Korea, and some countries in Africa. For the multilateral agreement, Cambodia must continue to push forward the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Eurasian Economic Union.

At the same time, Prime Minister urged the Council for the Development of Cambodia to
(1) setup Special Economic Zone (SEZ) along the border;
(2) expand electricity grids and ensure cheaper price at SEZs;
(3) boost incentives for investment; and
(4) enhance trade facilitation and logistics at borders and SEZs.


Source: CNV

ASEAN payment connectivity a major step towards cutting transaction costs

Migrant workers, tourists and small and big businesses will be able to cut the cost of their financial transactions in Asean after regulators, bankers and non-bank operators decided to integrate and upgrade their financial services across the region.

Eight Asean countries agreed on Asean Payment Connectivity, which aims to cut transaction fees for migrants, tourists and businesses, during the meeting of Asean Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Chiang Rai Wednesday.

Bank of Thailand (BOT) Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob and Perry Warjiyo, governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) signed the memorandum of understanding on Cooperation in the Area of Payment Systems and Financial Innovation.

Facebook still leads social media, but sees slower growth among young users

This is not your father’s Facebook. It’s your grandfather’s.

Facebook’s strongest growth over the past year came from users over age 65, who have signed on to the site to keep in touch with their friends, children and grandchildren, according to a Pew Center for Internet and American Life survey released Monday.

The survey found that 45 percent of U.S. seniors who use the Internet are on Facebook, up from 35 percent the previous year. The site saw usage grow for all adults over 30, and it is used by 71 percent of Americans, an increase from 67 percent last year.

Use among teens, however, has stagnated at 84 percent. The percentage of those between 18 and 29 who use the site fell two percentage points compared with last year, according to the survey. That’s in keeping with growing concern that Facebook is seeing lower engagement with the younger users who drove its early popularity, something that the company has acknowledged.

Facebook may be a victim of its own success after nearly 10 years as the country’s leading social network, Pew senior researcher Aaron Smith said.

“It’s hard to get more than 85 percent of anyone doing anything,” he said. “A lot of the easy converts in the younger group, or even in the older and middle-aged group, are already on the site. The senior group is the only area that has any substantial area for growth.”

Facebook is seeing an uptick in teen use on Instagram, which it bought for $1 billion in 2012, giving it another avenue for growth. Facebook could not be reached for comment on the study.

Still, Pew’s survey supports a recent study from researchers at University College London that found that some British teens are leaving Facebook because of the influx of older users.

An ethnographic study of 16- to 18-year-olds north of London found that teens are migrating to private-messaging services such as WhatsApp and Snapchat to communicate with their friends. In many cases, the study said, teens stay on Facebook at the behest of their parents, who have made it a tool for keeping track of their children.

“You just can’t be young and free if you know your parents can access your every indiscretion,” wrote Daniel Miller, a professor of Material Culture at UCL who ran the study.

In other words, teens are using Facebook but not for the same reasons they once did. And that fits in with a larger trend in the social media space: Americans are diversifying the social networks they use. More than 40 percent of Americans, Pew found, maintain multiple social network accounts for different purposes.

Facebook, which has more than 1 billion users, seems to be the “default” social network, Smith said, while Pinterest skews more heavily toward women, LinkedIn to more educated or wealthier users, and Twitter to young adults and African Americans.

Users go to specific sites based on what they’re trying to do, Smith said, and engagement for many of the smaller sites are on par with Facebook. Fifty-seven percent of Instagram users, for example, return daily to the site to check for updates, compared with 63 percent of Facebook users. Nearly half of Twitter’s users, 46 percent, also make the site a daily habit.

Pew researchers surveyed 1,800 adults in English and Spanish via landlines and cellphones. The survey interviews were conducted in August and September.

Follow The Post’s new tech blog, The Switch, where technology 

Increase Cambodia organic rice to US

The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), an agricultural enterprise, exported 114 tonnes of organic jasmine rice to US in the first quarter of this year, a 30 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.

A representative of CEDAC said that this is a good sign and encouraging for farmers of organic rice.

“We aim to transform farmers into organic rice farm entrepreneurs or commercial organic fragrant rice producers,” CEDAC president Yang Saing Koma said. “We can generate extra funds for social development through the business with our international partners.”

During the first three months, CEDAC exported 59 tonnes of organic jasmine brown rice and 55 tonnes organic jasmine white rice to the US.

As a result, hundreds of organic rice producers in Takeo, Kampong Chhnang and Kampong Speu provinces have benefited, a press release said.

Experts within the sector say Cambodia has the potential to become an important organic rice producing country in the region.

Srey Chanthy, an independent agricultural analyst, told the Post yesterday that compared with most Asian countries, Cambodian farmers use relatively few chemicals on their fields.

On average, Cambodian farmers apply just 23 kilograms of chemical fertiliser per hectare with application rates especially low in the wet season (mid-May to early October), he said.

Nevertheless, he said if Cambodia really wants to develop its organic rice production, it would have to put in place a new institutional framework to ensure quality and grade standards to build trust from international buyers.

“Boosting organic rice exports is easier said than done,” said Srey Chanthy. “We need to be patient and overcome all obstacles because there is so much potential benefit.”

CEDAC has been actively encouraging farmers to adopt organic techniques.

By 2022, CEDAC plans to support up to 100,000 farmers, producing more than 400,000 tonnes a year of organic fragrant paddy to supply the markets.

organic rice grows

In a sign that demand for organic rice is increasing, Mekong Oryza Trading yesterday became the first private company in Cambodia to agree to export the product abroad.

Phnom Penh-based rice exporter Mekong Oryza signed the memorandum of understanding with agricultural non-profit CEDAC, which introduced the concept of organic rice farming in 2004, and became the sole exporter about five years later.

Organic rice is produced without modern synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. From beginning to end, the process needs to follow a clear step by step system in order to receive certification.

While demand is on the rise, the market is still puny compared to Cambodia’s staple milled rice product. On the strength of more interest in the US and EU, CEDAC estimates it will export 320 tonnes of organic rice in 2013, compared with 100 tonnes for all of last year. In the first 10 months this year, Cambodia exported nearly 300,000 tonnes of non-organic rice.

As part of the agreement, starting in early 2014, Mekong Oryza Trading will provide funding to farmers and help scout potential markets. Speaking at the signing at the Rural Development Bank in Phnom Penh, Hun Lak, managing director of Mekong Oryza Trading, said that Cambodia should capitalise while it can.

“[Producing] organic rice is our great opportunity,” Lak said.

Yang Saing Koma, president of CEDAC, said there are 5,000 households applying organic rice methods on their farms.

EU clarifies rice comments

While the European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht never told the Ministry of Commerce that Cambodian rice was “30 per cent” mixed with the same product from Vietnam, he did say Cambodia had to better ensure that its harvest was homegrown and not from another country, a spokesman for the commissioner said yesterday.

“Rice exports from Cambodia have been rising very fast in recent years,” said John Clancy, spokesman for the trade commissioner, in an email.

The original comments date to an article last week in industry publication Oryza. In the report, the commissioner also says that Cambodia risks losing its Everything But Arms (EBA) status with the EU.

Cambodia’s rice exports for the first 11 months of the year totalled more than 332,000 tonnes, almost doubling from the 171,000 tonnes during the same period last year, and dwarfing the 2009 total.

Cambodia, unlike Vietnam, benefits from an EBA agreement with the EU, which gives developing nations duty-free and quota-free shipping on products excluding armaments to all European countries.

European Union nations accounted for more than 60 per cent, or 200,000 tonnes, of Cambodia’s total rice exports as of November 2013. Poland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany imported more than 47 per cent of the total figure.

The EU’s ambassador to Cambodia, Jean-Francois Cautain, said the dramatic rise will be closely monitored as the sector and rice-producing EU countries are sensitive to increased imports and potential market disturbances.

“In that respect the origin of the Cambodian rice should be fully ensured. The EU is in contact with the Cambodian authorities on this matter,” he said.

Mey Kalyan, senior adviser to Cambodia’s Supreme National Economic Council, called on the government to investigate the issue of rice origin contamination amid fears that changes to the country’s EBA status could have consequences.

“We need to get to the bottom of the issue, find hard evidence and take corrective measures,” he said. “Removing Cambodia’s EBA status could have disastrous effects on the whole rice sector, future exports to the EU, our pride as an emerging exporter, our trust in doing business, our branding as a world-class rice exporter, and we may not reach the one-million-tonne rice export target of 2015.”

In response to the trade commissioner’s concerns, the Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC) will form a Code of Conduct in a bid to protect the country’s rice exports.

ARPEC said in a statement released yesterday that all Cambodian rice exporters had taken note of the views and would sign the Code of Conduct with the Ministry of Commerce to self-regulate exports.

ARPEC deputy secretary David Van said the issues raised in the Oryza article were informal and emanated from rumours within “EU circles”.

“As far as the rice exporters are concerned, we maintain that until clear evidence is produced by the EU, we do not condone their claims,” he said.

In response to suggestions that some Cambodian rice could be contaminated during transit to Vietnam-based milling facilities, Van said the external process does not mean the two rice origins are mixed. He added that the low supply of Cambodian milling facilities producing the country’s rapidly increasing harvest forces farmers to send their rice to Vietnam for milling.

“But all rice grown, harvested, milled and exported in Cambodia is 100 per cent our product,” Van said.

IMF: How to grow Cambodia

Cambodia’s economic take-off has been truly impressive. With peace and stability, and the government’s focus on export-led development, growth has averaged about 8 per cent in the last decade, doubling per capita income and halving the poverty rate. 

Cambodia is now poised to enter the next phase of its development and with aspirations to soon join the ranks of emerging markets, the focus now, understandably, is on the continuity of that take-off.

That prompts some deeper questions: What is the recipe for igniting and sustaining take-offs in developing countries? What can Cambodia learn from the previous generation of countries on how to navigate the next phase? 

With over one-third of Cambodians below 15 years and the vast need for job creation, these questions and their answers have profound real life implications for so many.  

Researchers at the IMF have analyzed precisely these questions in the April 2013 World Economic Outlook, which has been published worldwide and presented to policy makers in Phnom Penh a few days ago. 

The research project has sifted through the experience of more than 60 low-income or developing countries over the last 60 years. To add to that, it has featured Cambodia as one of the impressive growth stories since the 1990s.

Before we highlight the main findings, let’s touch a bit on the global growth context.  

In recent economic history, there have been two waves of growth take-offs among low-income countries over the past 60 years. The first wave started around the 1960s and 1970s; the second around the 1990s. 

Cambodia has solidly been a part of the second wave. 

Here is some good news: growth take-offs are now more likely and longer-lasting. 

What explains the higher probability of take-offs? It is mostly due to better structural and macroeconomic conditions, findings the policy makers in Cambodia can fully relate to. 

Unfortunately, the promise of the first wave fell short as many take-offs fizzled out, when the global economy turned sour in the late 1970s and 1980s. 

In fact, one-third of take-offs prior to the 1990s ended with a currency, debt, or financial crisis, and some countries even saw reversals in per capita income levels within 15 to 20 years after take-off. That’s why understanding the shared features of successful take-offs is so critical. 

Although many roads lead to growth take-offs, they usually involve strong investment and export growth, underscoring the importance of policies to improve the investment and business climate and foster trade integration in developing countries. 

Furthermore, recent take-offs have been supported by stronger FDI, higher education levels, lower regulatory burden for businesses, lower income inequality and more stable political conditions. Fortunately, many of these are outcomes of policy choices, not accidents.  

What are the lessons for Cambodia? 

Cambodia’s open trade and investment regimes, and proximity to some of the most dynamic economies in the world, have served it well and provided immense opportunities to continue to attract foreign direct investment and deepen trade links in regional and global markets. 

This will further improve productivity and support activity. But to get there, it has to address many policy challenges. 

First, removing infrastructure bottlenecks, most urgently with respect to power supply and roads, and improving the business climate will remain critical for continuing to attract private investment and further diversify its economy. 

Second, in light of the rapid growth of Cambodia’s banking system and the introduction of new financial instruments and markets, such as the stock exchange in 2012, it is important to keep in mind that financial deepening must continue without compromising financial stability, one critical lesson from the first wave of take-offs. 

That will require managing financial deepening by enabling market participants to better manage risks, and continuously upgrading prudential supervision and regulation. This is especially important in a system like Cambodia’s that is also marked by a high degree of dollarisation and capital account openness. 

Third, mobilising fiscal revenue will help build fiscal buffers and generate the resources necessary to cushion the economy against adverse shocks and meet the country’s development needs. 

The latter concerns in particular human capital development through improved health and education, a goal the government has also embraced.  

It is worth noting that the IMF’s regular policy dialogue with Cambodia has over the years led to a convergence of views on these lessons and has also guided the IMF’s technical assistance in Cambodia, from financial supervision to economic statistics to fiscal management.

An old Khmer proverb advises us to “negotiate a river by following its bends”. Cambodia is fast approaching the proverbial bend of the river of development – transitioning from a developing to an emerging market economy. 

One efficient way to navigate the bend would be to internalise the lessons from the sustained growers and design policies accordingly. 

The IMF is happy to be a part of that journey and to think together with Cambodia’s policy makers on how best to get ready for the next phase.

Sons of the party anointed

At least eight candidates standing in the upcoming July election are sons of high-ranking Cambodian People’s Party officials, a CPP registration list released yesterday confirms. 

The list puts an end to speculation concerning the children of a number of party stalwarts. Previously, the names of only a handful of scions had been released by the party, which has created an unprecedented push to exploit family ties come July. 

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An’s son, Sok Sokan, 30, becomes the latest child of a member from the party’s upper echelon to be confirmed as a CPP candidate, and will run for a seat in Takeo province.   

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s youngest son, Hun Many, 31, and his son-in-law, Dy Vichea, 32, will run as lawmakers in Kampong Speu and Svay Rieng, respectively. Sar Sokha, 31 – the son of Interior Minister Sar Kheng – will run in Prey Veng. 

Say Sam El, 34, son of Senate deputy president Say Chhum, is to stand in Kampong Cham, and Dith Tina, son Supreme Court president Dith Monty, in Kandal. Royal Cambodian Armed Forces deputy commander-in-chief Kun Kim’s son Kim Rithy, 33, will run in Kandal; senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap’s son, Cheam Chansophoan, 40, will run in Battambang. 

Ban Srey Mom, 39, the wife of Pailin provincial governor Y Chheam, is running along with five others believed to be the children and nephews of high- and mid-ranking CPP officials. 

Puthea Hang, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia, said the CPP’s push to stand so many of its members’ children – though unique in this election – followed a long political tradition. 

“It’s a habit of politicians in Cambodia,” he said. “We have seen that people who have no family line have lost opportunity [over time].”

The opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party has not yet registered, and it is unclear how many, if any of its members’ children will run. 

CNRP vice president Kem Sokha said yesterday he did not have the names yet of candidates and couldn’t say whose children were running. Personally, he said, his would not be. 

Speaking at a pagoda opening last week, Hun Sen defended the CPP policy, insisting that there was no nepotism involved and saying it was an important way to ensure continuity of the party.

Source: Phnom Penh Post, 06 May 2013

By Meas Sokchea

Export growth to US slows

Cambodia's exports to the United States, the Kingdom’s largest market, were valued at $695 million for the first three months this year, a rise of only 0.2 per cent from $693.3 million in the corresponding period last year, according to statistics from the US Department of Commerce.

Experts attributed the slow growth in exports to the gradual recovery of the US economy as well as Cambodian efforts to focus on other international export markets.

“Even though the US economy is recovering, it is still slow,” said Doung Poullang, senior economics officer at the Asian Development Bank. 

“Also, the slow increase of consumer demand makes the volume of exports to the US grow slowly.”

He added that Cambodia is attempting to diversify its export destinations instead of relying largely on the US market as it had in the past. 

The Kingdom’s exports to European and Asian markets such as China and Japan are on the rise, he said. 

Cambodia sold mainly garments, textiles and footwear, milled rice and agricultural products to the US this year, according to data from the US embassy in Cambodia.  

Data from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) shows that the Kingdom exported about 27.5 per cent fewer garment products to the US market, a decline from $501 million in the first three months of 2012 to $363 million in the same period this year. 

“The major reason behind the decrease of exports is because we have got less orders from the US market,” Ken Loo, GMAC secretary general, told the Post yesterday. 

In 2012, Cambodia exported goods worth about $2 billion to the US market, which totalled 36 per cent of the Kingdom’s export market value of $5.5 billion, figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance show.

The bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and the US reached $758.3 million in the first quarter of this year, a slight rise of 0.8 per cent 

compared with $752.4 million in the corresponding period last year. 

The total volume of Cambodia’s exports reached over $1.65 billion in the first three-month period of this year, a jump of 21 per cent from the goods exported during the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce’s export data.

Source : Phnom Penh Post, 06 May 2013

By Hor Kimsay

Toll Royal Railways expands

Toll Royal Railways signed two freight logistics agreements with Siam Concrete Group and United Logistics and Distribution at their offices in Phnom Penh’s Central Railway Station yesterday.

SCG Cambodia contracted TRR for the transport and warehousing for bagged cement from Touk Meas in Kampot province to Phnom Penh, said David Kerr in a press conference yesterday.

Kerr believes January 2013 will bring an additional opportunity for TRR to transport SCG’s bagged cement to Sihanoukville. 

“It’s been announced that the line will be open through to the port of Sihanoukville in January 2013,” he said. “This opens up further opportunities for us to work with SCG in the transport of domestic bagged cement to Sihanoukville and the import of up to 8,000 tonnes of coal per month.”

Beyond the line to Sihanoukville port, Kerr spoke of possibilities for transport to the north for mining products, oil and bitumen. 

He also mentioned the transport of rice into Thailand when the rehabilitation of the “missing link” between Cambodia’s border crossing at Poipet and Thailand’s Aranyaprathet is completed. However, dates for when these lines will be in operation are not yet known.

Lia Giang, ULD’s general manager, expressed similar sentiments. 

“ULD Cambodia looks forward to further development on the railway service, in particular the transport of salt and rice with the support of Toll Railway.”

The agreement with ULD is for the transport and warehousing of bagged salt from Kampot to Phnom Penh and of bagged rice from Battambang to Phnom Penh and Kampot. The first trainload of salt under this agreement was moved on September 24.

Kerr commented on the commitment from the government and the private sector to transporting goods via railways and roads. 

“The interest in Cambodia has been strong with people being interested in signing 30-year contracts,” he said. “We have a 30-year concession with the government and people are that committed to the project that they’re looking at extended terms.”

Penny Richards, Ambassador of Australia to Cambodia, was in attendance yesterday due to Australia’s involvement in the railway rehabilitation project in Cambodia. Also in attendance were Chan Sothy, director of the Department of Investment and Cooperation in the Ministry of Economy and Finance. 

Kerr mentioned the importance of railways to realising the government’s goal of exporting one million tonnes of rice by 2015. When asked about how railway transport will fit with waterways also being developed for the same goal through foreign investors, Kerr said he sees a lot of potential for cooperation.

“Where roads aren’t high developed, [the products] can come in through feeder vessels into the new river port and then they can be distributed either by waterways or by rail.”

Source: The Phnom Penh Post, Friday, 12 October 2012 by Erika Mudie

Officials trained on fake goods

Cambodia lacks the resources for implementing intellectual property rights, while relevant officers lack skills to monitor the import of counterfeit products, according to an official.  

Var Roth San, Head of the Secretariat of National Committee for Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) and Director of  the Department of  Intellectual Property Rights in the Ministry of Commerce, said Cambodia, among the least developed countries, faces many problems in monitoring conterfeit goods, distinguishing those from genuine products and implementing the intellectual property rights.

During a training course on identifting counterfeit products, organised by law firm Tilleke & Gibbins yesterday, Var Roth San said Cambodia lacks finances, human resources, materials and other techniques to monitor and identify fake goods. 

Seventy officials from  Customs, Camcontrol, the police, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Department of  Intellectual Property Rights, public prosecutors and judges conevened to learn how to identify and verify genuine and counterfeit goods, according to a press release issued by Tilleke & Gibbins. 

Var Roth San said Cambodia produces few counterfeit goods, but many are flown in from neighbouring countries. 

“We bring counterfeit goods from Vietnam; we bring them from Thailand and China in huge [amounts]," he said. 

"China can produce everything. Anything we want to order, China can produce,” he said. Var Roth San said  most faked goods are clothing and cosmetics. 

Alan Adcock, deputy director of the Intellectual Property section of Tilleke & Gibbins, which has offices in Vietnam and Thailand, said: “The production of counterfeit goods doesn’t only happen in Cambodia or in Asia. It happens all over the world. To resolve this problem, clients need the right contracts with manufacturers.”

source from The Phnom Penh Post, 

Friday, 12 October 2012

 Rann Reuy

Cambodia to get more benefits in Mekong Region trade: ADB

Cambodia could benefit more from trade in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) by implementing time and cost, cutting measures and removing constraints on exports, according to a new book by the Asian Development Bank.

“Cambodia’s exporters are well-positioned within the GMS to grow and expand,” Peter Brimble, senior country economist and author of one of the book chapters, said in a news release. 

“Policy adjustments can help reduce cost and transport times, making Cambodian exporters more competitive and enhancing their credibility.”

During a media briefing yesterday, Brimble said logistics costs in Cambodia were high compared to other countries in the region. Using the GMS Southern Economic Corridor, which links Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City, as a case study, he identified factors contributing to higher costs and delays in cross border trade. 

According to the news release, transport costs in Cambodia are US$9 per tonne per 100 kilometre from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and $13 per tonne per 100 kilometres from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City, compared to $6 in Thailand and $7 in Vietnam. 

 With $19 to $20 per tonne per 100 kilometres, logistics costs for the Cambodian section are almost double the costs for the Thai  and Vietnamese sections.

To overcome trade constraints, the book recommends nine policy measures, prioritizing an increase in the availability of information about agreements, laws, rules and regulations; minimizing checkpoints along the corridor and expediting issuance of certificates of origin. 

“If certain improvements are made, we can cut the costs and time down significantly in Cambodia,” Brimble said during the briefing.

The book, jointly produced by AusAID, also looks at export constraints in Cambodia’s private sector, covering garments, rice and wood exporters. 

Based on interviews with enterprises and export companies in the private sector, the book identifies a lack of reliable energy supply, shortages of labour with sector-specific skills, financing limitations and government regulations among the challenges.  

“If you get trade and logistics right in countries, it not only allows the Cambodian private sector to grow and flourish but also allows for foreign direct investment,” said Gordon Peters, manager at Emerging Markets Consulting and author of one of the chapters. 

The book says despite export growth, Cambodia’s share in the total 2009 trade share of the GMS5, excluding China, accounted only 2.2 per cent.

source from The Phnom Penh Post, 

Friday, 12 October 2012

 Anne Renzenbrink

Officials trained on fake goods

Cambodia lacks the resources for implementing intellectual property rights, while relevant officers lack skills to monitor the import of counterfeit products, according to an official.  

Var Roth San, Head of the Secretariat of National Committee for Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) and Director of  the Department of  Intellectual Property Rights in the Ministry of Commerce, said Cambodia, among the least developed countries, faces many problems in monitoring conterfeit goods, distinguishing those from genuine products and implementing the intellectual property rights.

During a training course on identifting counterfeit products, organised by law firm Tilleke & Gibbins yesterday, Var Roth San said Cambodia lacks finances, human resources, materials and other techniques to monitor and identify fake goods. 

Seventy officials from  Customs, Camcontrol, the police, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Department of  Intellectual Property Rights, public prosecutors and judges conevened to learn how to identify and verify genuine and counterfeit goods, according to a press release issued by Tilleke & Gibbins. 

Var Roth San said Cambodia produces few counterfeit goods, but many are flown in from neighbouring countries. 

“We bring counterfeit goods from Vietnam; we bring them from Thailand and China in huge [amounts]," he said. 

"China can produce everything. Anything we want to order, China can produce,” he said. Var Roth San said  most faked goods are clothing and cosmetics. 

Alan Adcock, deputy director of the Intellectual Property section of Tilleke & Gibbins, which has offices in Vietnam and Thailand, said: “The production of counterfeit goods doesn’t only happen in Cambodia or in Asia. It happens all over the world. To resolve this problem, clients need the right contracts with manufacturers.”

source from The Phnom Penh Post, 

Friday, 12 October 2012

 Rann Reuy

Former detention site to become genocide research centre

Youk Chhang (C), director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, and Minister of Education Im Sothy sign an MoU, yesterday, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. Photograph supplied

The Documentation Center of Cambodia and the Ministry of Education signed an agreement yesterday granting the historical research non-profit body an empty plot of land on the former Boeung Trabek detention centre site for a museum, school and research centre, said DC-Cam director Youk Chhang.

According to the project’s website, the Sleuk Rith Institute – whose name is a reference to the papyrus-like leaves once used by Cambodian scholars to record history – will be situated near Boeung Trabek High School, and will set out to be “the leading centre for genocide studies in Asia”, in addition to housing facilities through which DC-Cam will continue its work of recording the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

In addition to its school of genocide, conflict and human rights and its genocide museum, the institute, said Chhang, will be involved in examining and recommending national policy.

“DC-Cam has always been engaging the government on all issue[s] through research,” Chhang added.

Leng Bun Hong, secretary-general of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association – which has raised concerns over the project in the past – said the union feared the institute would displace students, if not now, then in years to come.

“I think that for my idea, the [number of] students will increase more in the future, so the government and ministry should keep the school’s land to balance with student’s growth,” Bun Hong said, noting that “some areas must be preserved”. 

Chhang, on the other hand, insisted the project would represent a net gain for education.

“We will build a school, museum, research centre not only for both teachers and students at Boeung Trabek High School, but [for students] all across Cambodia,” he said.

source from the Phnom Penh Post, 

Thursday, 11 October 2012

 Sen David and Stuart White