Over 5,000 families need immediate help in Cambodia: Oxfam

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia is still in emergency relief mode though flood waters in some areas are beginning to stabilize, the international humanitarian agency Oxfam said Tuesday in its press release. Affected populations are in need of food, plastic sheets, mosquito nets, water filters and water containers among other non-food item needs. Livelihoods have greatly been threatened especially with loss of the current rice crop. Wage labour opportunities are no longer available to those who rely on agriculture labour for income, the release said. According to Oxfam, 5,000 families or about 20,000 people need immediate assistance in four provinces. This figure may grow bigger as more information is received and more areas accessed. Oxfam's staff reported that flood victims in Kampong Thom, StuengTreng, Kratie, and Preah Vihear remain among the most vulnerable. Source: China View "We can't underestimate the situation" said Francis Perez, Country Lead of Oxfam International in Cambodia. "We are still in an emergency situation. Public health concerns and people's livelihoods are our priorities. We must keep strong coordination with other humanitarian agencies." It is now estimated that 60,000 people are affected with at least 17 deaths including one pregnant woman, 65 injured with 18 serious cases and 30,000 hectares of rice fields and plantation destroyed by flood waters. Oxfam's field reports show that 1,519 houses, 55 public buildings, 40 km of rural roads, 160 irrigation systems, channels, dams, embankments, and three bridges were damaged, causing major disruption to people's livelihoods. Relief works are hampered by transportation problem as roads and bridges have been damaged. The traditionally dispersed settlements of Cambodian people also make some of the forested villages inaccessible for need assessment and aid distribution, whilst public health concerns are mounting among unaccounted population in remote and forested villages. Oxfam's health experts warn that people must be careful about drinking water, as flood waters are highly contaminated.

Pregnant woman dies of swine flu in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia's health minister says a pregnant woman died from swine flu, the country's third reported fatality from the illness.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng says the 25-year-old woman, who was nine months pregnant, went to a Phnom Penh hospital several days ago with flu-like symptoms and tested positive for swine flu.

He said doctors performed a cesarean section and the baby was born healthy, but the woman died Tuesday.

Cambodia's second swine-flu related death, a 47-year-old man, occurred Monday at the same hospital, the minister said.

The World Health Organization reports more than 340,000 confirmed cases of H1N1 worldwide, and more than 4,100 deaths. Many countries have stopped counting individual cases.

Source: AP

Cambodia: Functioning Judiciary Required

Cambodia: Functioning Judiciary Required For Rights To Become A Reality

Thank you Mr. President,

The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) welcomes the initial report of the Special Rapporteur on Cambodia, in particular the highlighted areas of priority for future work, namely: the freedom of expression, the independence of the judiciary, land and housing rights, impunity and prison reform.
The ALRC wishes to take this opportunity to underline the need for an end to long-standing delays by the government in implementing provisions of the 1993 Constitution of Cambodia, in particular concerning the functioning and independence of the judiciary.

The Constitution specifically stipulates that a number of laws need to be enacted, including a law on the statute of judges and prosecutors and a law on the organization of the judiciary. However, after 16 years, these laws are still missing. As a result, Cambodians are not entitled to be tried by an independent, competent and impartial tribunal, in practice. They are being tried by judges whose status has not been defined by law and by courts whose establishment has no legal basis under the Constitution.
The government has preferred to continue to apply an outdated law on the nomination of judges and the activities of courts, enacted during the country’s communist past, which is unconstitutional, does not live up to international standards and does not ensure the independence of the judiciary. This leads to corruption, favouritism for certain judges and infringements by the Ministry of Justice and the Executive on the workings of the judiciary.
In light of this, the ALRC firstly wishes to know whether the Special Rapporteur has taken up this issue with the Cambodian authorities and whether they have responded and shown any credible intent to take action to ensure the separation of powers and an independent judiciary? Has the government provided any time-frame for the enactment of the above laws, which are essential for there to be any hope of independence of the judiciary.
Finally, you have stated sensing a disconnect between national law concerning land rights and widespread land grabbing ongoing in the country. We firmly believe that without a functioning, independent judiciary there will always be a disconnect between the law and the enjoyment of rights in practice, notably concerning the mentioned issues of priority, and support your efforts in this regard, as well as the continuation of your mandate.

Monday, 5 October 2009, 1:24 pm
Press Release: Asian Human Rights Commission

After delays, Cambodia rekindles stock market dream

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Construction cranes and unfinished high-rise buildings surround the silty marshland where a year from now Cambodia hopes to turn the page on decades of upheaval by opening a stock exchange.
The idea of a Cambodian stockmarket has been floated since the 1990s but has struggled for traction in a country known for a culture of political impunity, chronic poverty and a history of violence, including the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields."
But authorities argue those days are over and plan to sign a deal this month with World City Co Ltd, a South Korean-backed developer, to start building a $6 million, four-storey stock exchange on the waterfront of a new financial district.
"We want to do it next year," Mey Vann, director of the financial industry department at Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance, said in an interview. "It'll be good timing for us with the economic recovery."
It was supposed to open in September, a target set last year when South Korea's stock exchange operator agreed with the Cambodian government to set up and run a joint stock exchange.
But the global financial crisis intervened, ending an unprecedented boom which saw Cambodia's economy expand 10 percent annually in the five years up to 2008. Foreign investment collapsed, tourist arrivals fell by double digits and garment exports, a mainstay of the economy, shrank by 15 percent.
In recent weeks, Cambodian officials have cautioned against moving too fast, in some cases questioning whether a country whose education system was decimated during Pol Pot's 1975-79 reign of terror is ready to invest in stocks.
"We've been waiting for a green light," said Intyo Lee, project director for Korea Exchange, Asia's fourth-largest bourse operator which will own 49 percent of the exchange and is recruiting and training workers for it. Cambodian will own the rest.
"We're pretty much ready," he added, "but many people say it's too early. The government is trying to build consensus."
STARTING SMALL
The exchange expects to start small with just four or five companies issuing about $10 million worth of shares each, said Lee. That's comparable to neighboring Vietnam's first stock market launched in 2000 with its initial market capitalization of $43 million. Today, Vietnam's market is worth $27 billion.
Yet there are risks to Cambodian investors. In Vietnam, most of the investors were local, often unaware of the risks, and many were burned as the market steered a rollercoaster course. Meanwhile, foreign investors largely sought to dip into the potential high returns of an emerging frontier market while hedging their bets with a highly diversified portfolio.
Like its communist neighbor, Cambodia is giving privatizing state companies priority with a place to sell stock. The Finance Ministry has asked three state-owned companies to list shares: Telecom Cambodia, port operator Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority.
Some of those companies have a simple question: why do it?
"We don't have any financial constraints. I don't understand the reasons we are going to be listed," said Ek Sonn Chan, who runs the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, which employs about 600 people, has about $200 million in assets and generates about $25 million in annual revenue. He said the company is profitable.
"If we become a public company, maybe we are more responsible, more transparent and maybe we can help the government allocate financial support to our company. But in the meantime, we don't know much about how it happens. It's very new to Cambodia, very new to me," he said.
Others say the timing may not be right for some time. Foreign direct investment nearly halved to an estimated $490 million from $815 million in 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund, which expects Cambodia's economy to shrink nearly 3 percent this year before growing about 4 percent next year.
Most of the disappearing capital had flowed into construction projects, including a $2 billion satellite city on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh where the exchange will be built.
Developed by South Korean-backed World City, the two-year-old project known as Camko City aims to create a new financial district by 2018 spread over 125 hectares, complete with glass-walled office towers for stockbrokers, upmarket apartments, securities regulator offices and sleek retail spaces.
But construction has slowed, said Kim Duk-kon, a vice president at World City. Although the first phase is nearly complete with many of the residential villas built and sold, subsequent phases are on hold after capital dried up.
FLOODED SWAMPLAND
The area where the stock exchange will be built is flooded swampland on the edge of Boeung Kak Lake in the heart of the city. The Finance Ministry said the end of the rainy season this month will allow workers to begin building the exchange on the corner of what developers are calling Phnom Penh Boulevard.
Cambodian officials rejected an initial design, saying the exchange's exterior was too modern and not Cambodian enough. It has since been redesigned using traditional Khmer accents.
Vann at the Finance Ministry and Kim said a news conference this month will announce construction of the exchange. A new Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, he added, is drafting market regulations that will be issued soon.
"We have a very good team at the Securities and Exchange Commission. They graduated from overseas. They are new blood in terms of enforcement of the law," he said. "Our law is very strict in terms of speculation."
Some observers are unconvinced and say authorities need to demonstrate how investors will be protected in a country with a reputation for corruption at nearly every level of the bureaucracy. Some fear speculative gambling by public employees.
David Cowen, deputy division chief for the International Monetary Fund's Asia and Pacific Department, met recently with the new securities regulator and urged its officials to work closely with the central National Bank of Cambodia.
He said the Commission would soon issue operational guidelines on securities firms. The IMF wants to see if those rules are consistent with banking laws and recognize the central National Bank of Cambodia's role as the nation's chief regulator.

Source: Yahoo News