Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Cambodia Not Alone in Resource Mismanagement

By VOA Khmer, Sothearith Im
Original report from Washington
05 October 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 Part Five of the original VOA Khmer weekly series, airing Sundays in Cambodia.
Similar to other poor countries rich in resources, Cambodia faces problems in management of its timber and minerals, experts say. Common problems include inequity in distribution of revenues, bureaucratic politics, corruption, non-transparency and the absence of system of checks and balances.
Glen Matlack, an environmental and plant biology professor at Ohio University, said the situation in Cambodia was not surprising.

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