PHNOM PENH, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's import and export trade
volume had amounted to 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first two months
of this year, up 28 percent compared to the 2.1 billion U.S. dollars in
the same period last year, the statistics of the Commerce Ministry
showed Friday.
During the January-February period this year, the country had
imported goods in the total value of 1.58 billion U.S. dollars, up 37
percent. At the meantime, it had exported items in equivalent to 1.13
billion U.S. dollars, up 18 percent.
Main products Cambodia imported are garment and textile raw
materials, petroleum, construction materials, automobiles and
motorcycles, consuming items, food and soft drinks, pharmaceutical
products and cosmetics, while it exported garments and footwear, rubber
latex, milled rice, corn and cassava.
Kong Puththeara, chief of the Commerce Ministry's statistics
department, attributed the growth to better economies--either locally or
globally--and Cambodia's efforts in diversifying exports.
Cambodia's main foreign trading partners are the United States,
European countries, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, and
Malaysia.
Last year, the country's total trade volume was 13.63 billion U.S.
dollars, up 19 percent year-on-year, according to the Commerce Ministry.
សូមអញ្ជើញស្ដាប់បទសម្ភាសន៍តាមទូរស័ព្ទរបស់លោក តាំង សារ៉ាដា
ជាមួយលោក កឹម សុខា អនុប្រធានគណបក្សសង្គ្រោះជាតិ
ដែលកំពុងមានវត្តមាននៅប្រទេសកូរ៉េខាងត្បូងមានសេចក្ដីដូចតទៅ៖ Please click here to listen to the interview
Overseas supporters of the Cambodia National Rescue Party are
organizing to push for the opposition's success in the July
parliamentary polls in Cambodia. A major fundraiser will be held March
23 by the US-based National Rescue Foundation, with other supporters
overseas to follow suit. VOA Khmer's Men Kimseng recently spoke with
activist Touch Vibol to discuss the aims of the foundation and the
concept of political fundraising, which is not well known in Cambodia.
A BHP Billiton mining deal being investigated for alleged corruption
was personally overseen by Cambodian strong man Hun Sen, diplomatic
cables reveal.
The mining giant's aborted attempt to establish a bauxite
mine in Cambodia and its hospitality program for Chinese officials at
the 2008 Beijing Olympics are at the centre of a foreign bribery probe
involving the Australian Federal Police and the US Justice Department.
Diplomatic cables, several marked ''sensitive'' and
''protected'', show for the first time Cambodian Prime Minister Hun
Sen's close involvement in 2006 negotiations with BHP executives.
The cables show Hun Sen told a private audience in Cambodia
that he would give ''BHP 1 million hectares of land'' weeks before the
2006 agreement was signed. He also promised the company ''a possible tax
holiday'' and chaired a committee examining legal issues associated
with the BHP proposal.
The cables reveal how BHP decided to stop all mineral exploration in
Cambodia in 2009 just months after a British-based non-government
organisation exposed its ''tea money'' payments of $US 3.5 million to
Cambodian government departments and raised concerns some of the money
had gone missing.
There is no evidence suggesting any of the money went to Hun
Sen, who has dismissed reports suggesting BHP was involved in bribery in
Cambodia.
The cables, released under FOI by the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, show BHP in 2006 took what Australian officials
regarded as an unusual step of asking them to directly approach Hun Sen
for a meeting to ''go to the next level and close the deal''.
Although Australian officials rejected the request to
approach the Cambodian leader on BHP's behalf in order to ''preserve our
political capital'', embassy staff in Phnom Penh contacted Hun Sen's
office to get a contact name and number to pass to BHP.
In September 2006, Hun Sen and BHP executives signed an
agreement granting the firm and joint venture partner Mitsubishi rights
to explore a huge area of land for bauxite deposits. The deal was
ratified by Hun Sen and then prime minister John Howard weeks later.
The cables make clear that although BHP's exploration process
was progressing slowly during 2007 and 2008, the company's
Cambodia-based executives were optimistic about the project's success.
However, the diplomatic cables show a change in BHP's stance on Cambodia
shortly after the February 2009 release of the Global Witness report.
In April 2009, Australian diplomats sent a ''confidential''
cable to Canberra raising doubts about BHP's long-term commitment to
Cambodia, blaming the global financial crisis and the country's ''own
poor financial management''.
The cable stated that any withdrawal by BHP would ''not only
breach BHPB's MOU with the Cambodian government (signed in the presence
of prime ministers Hun Sen and Howard in Canberra in 2006)'', but would
also ''diminish Australia's influence in this major sector''.
Australian diplomats in Phnom Penh also sent a cable to
Canberra in response to the claims by Global Witness stating that ''the
specific references [to] Australian companies are very concerning''.
However, they remained confident BHP had done nothing wrong.
BHP told the Australian government in June 2009 that it would
pull out of Cambodia because the bauxite deposit was not worth mining
due to global financial conditions.
The firm asked for the information to be kept secret from Hun
Sen's administration, which was not told of the decision until August
2009.
Police raided the unlicensed orphanage and rescued
21 children. The orphanage, called Love in Action, is suspected of
beating its children and carrying out human trafficking.
March 25, 2013
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian authorities said Monday they
had shut a foreign-run orphanage that is suspected of beating its
children and carrying out human trafficking.
Officials and a
rights group said police in the capital, Phnom Penh, on Friday raided
the unlicensed orphanage, called Love in Action, and rescued 21
children.
Gratianne Quade, a spokeswoman for SISHA, an
anti-trafficking organization in Cambodia, said an Australian woman who
ran the orphanage was not arrested in the Friday raid and her current
whereabouts were not known.
Poverty compels many parents in
Cambodia to send their children to orphanages. SISHA estimates that 70
percent of Cambodia's 100,000 orphans actually have at least one parent.
Um
Sophanara, an official at the Social Affairs Ministry, which oversees
orphanages, confirmed the closure but declined to give details. A SISHA
statement said the raid came after several groups of children had fled
the orphanage recently and reported a variety of neglect and abuse
problems to authorities.
"The shutdown is a massive step forward,
demonstrating the Cambodian government's increased capacity to deal with
abusive orphanages," SISHA said, adding that its Australian owner was
under investigation for human trafficking, child abuse, neglect and
running an unregistered orphanage.
An investigation found "the
food standards were subpar, some children were visibly ill and not taken
to a doctor, the facility was dirty, sewage was blocked, and the living
quarters were overcrowded," the SISHA statement said, adding that
interviews with children revealed "many instances of physical abuse from
the staff."
Love in Action's website describes it as a Christian-run facility that receives funding from church groups in Australia.
Separately,
the 36-year-old director of an orphanage in northwestern Siem Reap
province was arrested Friday for repeatedly sexually abusing two girls,
11 and 12, over a four-month period, police said.
The suspect, Mon
Savuth, was detained for the alleged abuse at the Angkor Orphanage
& Education Organization, but the center — which cares for 36
children — remains open, said Duong Thavery, the head of the
anti-trafficking police unit in Siem Reap.
