Original report from Washington
17 September 2009
[Editor’s note: VOA Khmer recently spoke with specialists in the field of natural resource management in developing countries and learned that Cambodia is not alone in struggling to use natural resources to benefit its citizens. The resource curse, where natural riches fail to help the poor, is a worldwide scourge, the global experts told VOA Khmer in numerous interviews. Below is the second part of a weekly series.]
Myriad factors lead to the abuse of natural resources, keeping their value out of the hands of everyday citizens, experts say. The absence of political will, of transparent management, of laws and regulations, and of capacity, and the existence of patronage systems, corruption, bureaucratic politics, abuse of power, and others, all add up to create problems.
The lack of transparent management of the resources in developing countries is not surprising, said Glen Matlack, an environmental professor at Ohio University. Governments sell concessions in the extractive industries, but the fees don’t serve the public good, and often these deals are made out of the public’s eye.
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