GLOBAL: Internationalisation has corrupted higher education

Roger Y Chao Jr26 January 2013 Issue No:256

 

 Over the past two decades, neoliberal globalisation has opened up trade borders, commoditised the higher education sector and established a global higher education market.

Furthermore, the changing political and economic environment especially after the Cold War resulted in rapid globalisation, technology development and a contraction of borders for trade, labour and academic mobility purposes.

Currently, a global higher education market exists particularly for internationally mobile students and lately for domestic students wishing to take international programmes in their home countries.

This article focuses on the commercialisation of higher education and its role in ushering corruption into higher education.

Corruption in higher education

Corruption in higher education should not only be seen in terms of misuse of research funds, presentation and construction of fraudulent data or inequitable admissions practices.

It should also include micro-level university-related practices in learning, assessment and certification of students and graduates respectively. Grade inflation, sub-standard graduates, and the usage of postgraduate students in teaching and research as free or low-cost assistants form part of the phenomenon of corruption in higher education.

The commercialisation of higher education has made universities into corporations whose primary objective is the profit motive and gaining market share and rankings. This is seen in the design and offering of market-based programmes, practices in assessing and awarding degrees, opening offshore (and domestic) branch campuses, and even offering overseas programmes.

The tensions between universities and key stakeholders – industry, society, governments and students themselves – within an environment of decreasing public sector funding, society’s and industry’s demand for higher education and the rise of a global higher education market, further complicates the matter.

In fact, the demands of the key stakeholders take precedence over traditional university mandates around the betterment of society and the formation of global citizens.

International higher education

The establishment and rapid increase of tuition fees, business enterprise within universities and increased privatisation of higher education show the commercialisation of national higher education systems.

The proliferation of overseas (and even domestic) branch campuses and programmes in (but not limited to) developing nations goes beyond national and regional boundaries, expanding a highly lucrative but increasingly competitive global higher education market across national borders.

What these trends have brought into the higher education sector is an increased competitive environment and the decline of the capacity of universities to function efficiently.

New university standards seem to be characterised by increased student intake, the importance of ranking high on national and global tables, financial sustainability and a short-term focus on meeting industry demands at the expense of quality, relevance and a sense of communal identity and responsibility.

Offshore branch campuses and overseas programmes have followed the money trail to developing nations, charging high tuition fees and granting degrees affiliated to or even awarded by their mother institutions.

Questions about quality, learning, assessment, recognition and awards linger, but the profit motive of offshore branch campuses cannot be denied.

In Hong Kong, degrees from overseas programmes are not recognised (although allowed) by the government, and industry is given the choice to accept or decline recognition. Similarly, local programmes are increasingly offered based on consumer and industry demands.

Short-term demands and contemporary trends dictate university programme offerings based on a profit rationale rather than society’s needs and the long-term skills and competencies required by university graduates to survive and prosper in an ever-changing knowledge-based economy.

These new standards have led to lax admission requirements, a focus on short-term goals and short-term relevance of academic programmes. Furthermore, university practices such as limiting failures have led to grade inflation and the awarding of degrees to sub-standard graduates.

Practices of students assessing lecturers and professors' teaching performance also enhance grade inflation as poor student assessment affects promotion and tenure possibilities. Similarly, university practices of using postgraduate students in teaching, grading, and research worsen the quality of teaching, the students’ learning experience and even the quality of research conducted by these postgraduate students.

In essence, when we disregard the quality of student learning and its outcomes due to the profit motive and the race to the top of the league tables, we have ventured into a new form of corruption in the higher education sector.

Long-term needs

Universities' diminished power and effectiveness is seen in the case of City University of Hong Kong, whose students protested against Hong Kong’s national education plan last September. The students demonstrated just outside the library, an area where silence is a necessity, and even painted the floor of the university with giant white Chinese characters.

In spite of repeated emails and reminders by the university administration, these demonstrations outside the library and other public areas within the university continued for some time and as of 12 January, the giant painted characters are still on the university's floor.

Do we teach students to respect the rights of other people and public property? Or is it no longer the university's role to mould the future leaders of society and give them a sense of responsibility towards local, national and global issues? I am sure a vast number of similar cases can be found not only in Hong Kong, but in other parts of the world as well.

The commercialisation of higher education tends to diminish the role and power of universities to function effectively, given the competitive environment and the demands of the various stakeholders.

Giving in to the pressures and tensions faced by universities, however, leads to corruption in higher education in the sense of not fulfilling the traditional university role of societal betterment, lowering the quality of teaching and learning, and providing sub-standard graduates lacking a sense of responsibility and the necessary long-term skills and competencies to survive and adapt in a rapidly changing knowledge-based society.

It is time to step back and rethink the role and function of contemporary universities and the contribution commercialisation has made to corrupting the higher education sector.

* Roger Y Chao Jr is a PhD candidate in Asian and international studies at City University of Hong Kong, and vice-president of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong. His research mostly focuses on regionalism, higher education and internationalisation of higher education.

ASIA: Better planning and data needed to raise HE quality

Patrick Boehler23 January 2013 Issue No:256

 

Education professionals from Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand met in Hong Kong from 14-18 January to better understand how to improve the gathering and processing of data for more accurate planning for their education systems up to universities, under a UNESCO programme to promote education policy coordination in Asia.

Citing the need for better planning Aryo Sawung, a director general with the Indonesian Ministry of Education, said: “We have not yet addressed problems beyond increasing the [education] participation rate.”

“Our next step will be to look into more accurate budgeting and how to set quality standards,” said Aryo, who attended the weeklong workshop, which involved almost 85 ministry officials and university researchers from Asia.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is decentralising its education budget to give provincial authorities more responsibility.

It will be more difficult for provinces to deal with their new responsibilities and make budgetary predictions with data that the central government has not gathered before, said Aip Badrujaman from the faculty of education at the State University of Jakarta.

According to participants, accurate projections into the future needs of their education systems are difficult, and education quality in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam has suffered because of inadequate data on demographic changes – especially as birth rates are slowing.

Against this changing backdrop, “We need to find ways to address two [education planning] problems: budget and the training of educators,” said Charoen Puwijit, a Thai Ministry of Education official.

“Education, especially higher education, is expanding in all three countries, possibly over-expanding. In South East Asia, the focus is on how to raise the quality of education,” said Mark Bray, a professor at Hong Kong University who organised the workshop.

The education picture in these countries had become more “fluid” than in the past. Education policy planners needed to consider a more complex picture, including cross-border migration as well as declining birth rates, Bray told University World News.

“The three countries have universal secondary education, which has increased demand for tertiary education,” he said. For education administrators, the challenge was also to deal with cross-border flows of students and manage new ways of teaching, such as distance learning.

While the most pressing challenges lie in primary and secondary education, reforms were necessary to guarantee a healthier development of the tertiary sector. “The base of the house needs to be kept standing, otherwise the roof, higher education, will fall,” Bray said.

Gabriele Göttelmann-Duret, head of the education and training unit at UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning, said problems were faced by many developing countries:

“On the one hand, we have more and more professionals working in the education sector. On the other, we are seeing increasing decentralisation in policy-making.”

The education sector planning workshop was the third of its kind organised by UNESCO. Earlier sessions, in 2008 and 2010, took education administrators from Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia to Paris.
 

GERMANY: Plagiarism proceeding against minister splits academia

Michael Gardner26 January 2013 Issue No:256

 

Allegations of plagiarism in the doctoral thesis of Germany’s Education Minister Annette Schavan have sparked a dispute among academics, universities and science organisations. Meanwhile, undaunted by considerable pressure from various sides, the University of Düsseldorf has initiated formal proceedings against former student Schavan.

Christian Democrat Annette Schavan wrote her doctoral thesis at the University of Düsseldorf 32 years ago.

Allegations of plagiarism arose last May, and the thesis was reviewed by Jewish studies scholar Stephan Rohrbacher, who concluded that wilful intent to deceive could be detected.

Nevertheless, Rohrbacher did stress that Schavan’s case could not be compared to that of her Christian Social Democrat colleague Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who was stripped of his doctoral title and had to step down as defence minister in 2011.

Schavan denied the allegations. One of her most outspoken supporters was Jan-Hendrik Olbertz, president of Humboldt University in Berlin.

Christian Democrat Olbertz, who was formerly education minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, was particularly outraged over results of the review being leaked to the press, and claimed that Rohrbacher himself should have prevented this from happening.

He described the event as “disgusting” and said that attempts were being made to damage a successful higher education minister’s reputation.

Olbertz is now calling for a second, independent review, despite the University of Düsseldorf having commissioned Bonn law expert Klaus F Gärditz to assess its preliminary proceedings. Gärditz confirmed that no procedural errors had been made and that the review performed did not give any cause for complaint.

Only a few days before the university officially initiated formal proceedings, the Allianz der Wissenschaftsorganisationen, comprising Germany’s chief higher education and research bodies, issued a joint statement amounting to a harsh criticism of the University of Düsseldorf’s action.

The weighty alliance comprises the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina, the German Academic Exchange Service, the German Research Foundation, the Fraunhofer Society, the Helmholtz Association, the Rectors’ Conference, the Leibniz Society, the Max Planck Society and the Science Council.

It argued that withdrawing a doctoral thesis required procedural elements such as the principle of multi-assessor verification, assessors, evaluators and decision-makers acting separately, and expertise in the relevant subject.

And it demanded that “all those playing a responsible role in the proceedings should act in accordance with established standards, also in ongoing proceedings”.

The University of Düsseldorf maintained that the statement was an attempt to pressurise it. The rules referred to by the alliance, it argued, do not apply to formal procedures but merely to “internal procedures not tied to a legal form that are intended to settle issues of misconduct”.

Regarding the requirement to have separate assessors, evaluators and decision-makers, the university stressed that this is not stipulated in official regulations on doctorates. Referring to the issue of multi-assessor verification, the university said decisions were taken by the 15 members of the faculty committee, and not by a single person.

Politicians have responded cautiously to the matter. Not surprisingly Schavan, who is Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel’s closest ally, can reckon with her party’s support.

Christian Democrat Secretary General Hermann Gröhe has professed his unwavering trust in the minister, while opposition Green Party whip Jürgen Trittin said that innocence had to be assumed as long as proceedings were under way. However, Trittin added that if Schavan were stripped of her doctoral title, she would be “untenable” as minister of education and research.

Bernhard Kempen, president of the Deutscher Hochschulverband, which represents higher education lecturers, said the union fully trusted the University of Düsseldorf’s ability to conduct legally sound and orderly proceedings.

But he was highly critical of the intervention by the alliance of science organisations, arguing that “leading academic representatives are doing higher education and research a bad turn by creating the embarrassing impression that politically expedient results can be encouraged by speaking out for them in public”.

Andreas Keller, head of the higher education and research board of the teachers’ and scientists’ union Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, echoed that sentiment. Keller said that if the University of Düsseldorf did not confirm the allegations of plagiarism, this would create the impression that the alliance had been putting pressure on it.

He believes that in future, “as soon as decisions are made concerning the alliance, for example, issues such as university funding or money for research, the question will always arise whether this is because a helping hand was lent at the right time”.

Value of construction in Cambodia skyrockets

Last Updated on 23 January 2013

By Hin Pisei

 

The amount of money spent on construction in Cambodia soared by 72 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011, according to data from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.
The ministry said it had issued 1,694 construction patents covering 6.5 million square metres of land, involving total capital of $2.1 billion in 2012, compared with 2,125 patents for 4.2 million square metres and capital of $1.2 billion in 2011, an increase of 71.9 per cent, the data shows.
Lao Tip Seiha, deputy general director of construction at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and an adviser to the Supreme National Economic Council, said the significant growth of capital was due to several construction projects in 2012, as many high buildings on more than 3,000 square metres each had been constructed in Phnom Penh in 2012 and in provinces such Preah Sihanouk, Battambang, Kampong Thom and Kandal.

“Because Cambodia’s economic situation is stable, the capital has increased well, local and international investors are confident in the political policies, and our country is rich in infrastructure,” he said.

As Cambodia’s population and economy have climbed steadily, the demand for housing, trade buildings, offices, factories, hotels, schools, hospitals and entertainment centres has increased as well.
“In 2013, construction will be boosted further than in 2012 despite Cambodia holding a general election, because the economic situation, daily life, micro-finance and security are good, and investors have confidence in the government. All these are the foundations to push the national economy, because it can provide many jobs to people such as workers, architects, engineers, technicians... and urge the price of real estate up further,” Tip Seiha said.

Many countries have invested in Cambodia since 2000, such as China, South Korea, Britain, Thailand and Malaysia.

In 2012, several big Japanese companies have also invested heavily in Cambodia.

 

Interesting times for Phnom Penh office market

Last Updated on 23 January 2013

By Ryan O’Sullivan

Tight market conditions, strong demand for office space and constrained levels of new supply are the principal reasons behind the rising occupancy costs in prime office markets across the globe. 

Canadia Tower in central Phnom Penh. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Out of the top five most expensive office markets in the world, the Asia Pacific region contains four: Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing and New Delhi. With Hong Kong’s inherent lack of office supply, prime rents remain robust at $171 per square metre per month (psqm/m).

Demand from global financial and manufacturing companies kept occupancy costs high in Tokyo, while in Beijing pharmaceutical companies continued to expand.

Worldwide, office demand stemmed from the automotive, high-tech and energy industries. The latter is evident in Cambodia, where drilling off the coast near Sihanoukville has helped to increase office demand. Thus, companies such as Total and Chevron are large office occupiers, and new Japanese oil exploration firms will also establish operations in Cambodia by the end of 2013.
The growing insurance industry, particularly life insurance, is also a key office demand driver in Phnom Penh.

Cambodian Life, Manulife and Prudential jointly occupy more than 3,000 sqm of office space in Phnom Penh and will likely expand by the end of this year.
The top office buildings in Phnom Penh are seeking rents of between $21 and $28 psqm/m, and with the lack of high-quality office developments, rents are unlikely to decrease.
In terms of new supply, Vattanac Capital will be ready for occupation this year. The building will be the first Grade A office development in the Kingdom.

The development recently won an award for the best commercial property in Southeast Asia, and its specifications match many office buildings in Hong Kong and Singapore. This is not only welcome news for occupiers, but also helps to elevate Cambodia’s standing among investors.
Cambodia’s sound macro-economic fundamentals, the first Grade A office development in the country, and the continued expansion of multinational corporations will make 2013 an interesting year for the Phnom Penh office market.

Number of construction companies in Cambodia soars

Last Updated on 09 January 2013

By Seun Son

 

Construction and design companies that have registered for business in Cambodia have grown to number 1,205 at the end of 2012, according to an official at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.

Lav Tepseiha, deputy director of the construction department of the ministry said it is a large number, and is good for Cambodian construction.

“The construction sector in Cambodia has increased every year and it is continuing to boost the Kingdom’s real estate,” he said.​

There are 932 Cambodian and 273 foreign construction and design firms at the end of 2012, he said.
“I have noticed that foreign companies that invest the construction in Cambodia have climbed much more, especially in 2012, because they are looking for the potential of construction investment in Cambodia,” he said.

Foreign investors in Cambodia come from 16 countries: China, Korea, England, Japan, Russia, Lao, Malaysia, Taiwan, India, Vietnam, the United States, Singapore, Belgium, Australia and France. China is number one, South Korea number two and England third.

This growth is a good sign for Cambodia’s real estate, said Tepseiha. With the Kingdom’s political stability and rich human resources have come technical prowess, and specialist construction companies have sprung up.

“Companies will increase more and more next year because the number of proposed projects that are being submitted for permission continue to increase,” he added.

Key Real Estate Company CEO Soun Seap said that this growth is good for Cambodia’s economy.
Cambodia’s construction sector has increased due to economic and political stability, he said.
 

Phnom Penh’s historic quarter to go pedestrian

Last Updated on 14 January 2013

By Bennett Murray

 

 

 

A new tourist promenade is to open in the heart of Phnom Penh’s old French quarter.

Scheduled for a February opening, the tourist walk zone will provide an outdoor leisure area on Street 13 that will be closed to cars and motorbikes on weekends from 6pm till 12am, as well as on national holidays.

It will be adjacent to the colonial-era post office that today houses the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication.

“Everywhere in the world, especially in the cities, there are some places for the people to walk down,” said Minister of Tourism Thong Khon, whose ministry is helping Phnom Penh Capital Hall build the tourist walk zone.

“In Cambodia, we also need a place for tourists to walk down.”

The neighborhood includes some of Cambodia’s most prominent examples of French architecture from the turn of the 20th century, including the disused police commissariat, Manolis Hotel and the Banque de l’Indochine that today houses Van’s Restaurant.

“It is good to walk down for tourists because of the large, colonial-style buildings,” said Khon.

According UNESCO Head of Office Anne LeMaistre, it is not just tourists who stand to benefit.

“Phnom Penh has a unique chance to have a garden-city image with large avenues and trees, which is extremely rare for a capital in the region. The colonial heritage and the Khmer New architecture contribute enormously to the identity and beauty of the city.

“It is an opportunity which should not be missed for ob­­vious touristic reasons but also for the memory of all inhabitants of Phnom Penh,” she said.

“Heritage, silence, space and green environment are part of this quality of life and appreciation of living in a city. In addition, this area is unfortunately the only remaining coherent his­toric quarter of Phnom Penh,” she added.

Restoration and preservation in the area has been erratic, with some buildings getting far more treatment than others.

“The post office and the Van’s Restaurant were restored and are well-maintained buildings,” said LeMaistre.

“The Manolis Hotel and the former Commissariat are magnificent buildings but which need urgent interventions,” she added.

LeMaistre said that despite widespread enthusiasm for preserving Cambodia’s Angkorian heritage, more needs to be done to promote the country’s more recent urban heritage.

UNESCO is supporting the efforts of the Heritage Mission, which is attached to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, to make the old French Quarter a special heri­tage protected zone.

However, increased visitation to the area may encourage preservation of the historic quarter.

“The tourist walk zone will hopefully attract Phnom Penh inhabitants who will discover this area, maybe, for the first time and invite them to appreciate the harmony of the architecture and the pleasure of walking in a nice environment,” said LeMaistre. “We hope that this discovery and appreciation will lead to the understanding of preserving heritage.”

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To contact the reporter on this story: Bennett Murray at ppp.lifestyle@gmail.com

Australians mourn King Father’s passing

Australian Ambassador to Cambodia, H.E. Penny Richards

Last Updated on 25 January 2013 

By Penny Richards

Australia Day is an occasion on which we reflect on the events of the past year and look forward to the challenges of the coming year.

Cambodians are currently mourning the death of the King Father, His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk. Prime Minister Gillard visited the Royal Palace on 19 November 2012 to express her condolences to Her Majesty the Queen Mother NorodomMonineath and His Majesty the King NorodomSihamoni upon the death of His Majesty the King Father Norodom Sihanouk.

The King Father was a towering figure in Cambodian history: he oversaw Cambodia’s independence and its development as a modern state.  He played a significant role in global and regional relations. He was integral to the negotiation of the Paris Peace Accords signed in 1991.

The King Father’s death reminds us of the warm historical ties between Australia and Cambodia. Australia’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Gareth Evans, worked closely with the King Father and other Cambodian leaders to draft the Accords.  Australian General John Sanderson led the military component of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), which oversaw the election of a new National Assembly in 1993 and the promulgation of Cambodia’s current constitution.  Since then Australia has assisted Cambodia’s development in many fields.

Cambodia’s role as Chair of ASEAN in 2012 provided the impetus for a higher pace of activity in Australia Cambodia bilateral relations and regional cooperation. Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Bob Carr, visited Cambodia twice, in March and again in July. His visits highlighted the work Australia is doing to support Cambodia’s health sector, especially through our midwifery program, the avoidable blindness initiative and the anti-drug resistant malaria initiative we are progressing through the East Asia Summit.

His visits underlined our cooperation with APSARA and UNESCO to build a sound framework for managing Cambodia’s cultural heritage, in particular growing tourism flows to the Angkor World Heritage Park. Senator Carr also reinforced Australia’s support for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, to which Australia has been the second largest donor, emphasising the importance of judicial independence.

Australia’s Minister for Trade and Competitiveness, Dr Craig Emerson MP, also visited Cambodia twice, in August and again in November. As one of ASEAN’s six free trade agreement partners, Australia has joined negotiations for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which were launched in Phnom Penh in November.

Australia will work with Cambodia and other partners to conclude a comprehensive, high quality agreement which will further deepen regional economic integration and trade liberalisation.

Dr Emerson is also Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Asian Century Policy. Australia’s White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century sets out a blueprint for further deepening Australia’s already strong engagement with Asia, including through business, education and people-to-people links with Cambodia and other Asian countries.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard attended the East Asia Summit Leaders’ Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Hun Sen in November. Australia considers the East Asia Summit to be the premier forum for discussion of political and security issues affecting our region. We were pleased that Leaders were able to engage each other in frank discussions with no issues off the table. Australia will also work closely with other EAS members to take forward practical cooperation in key areas: finance; education; energy and environment; disaster management; and pandemic diseases.

In her public remarks, Prime Minister Gillard acknowledged that Cambodia had made a great deal of progress on human rights since the days of the Khmer Rouge but said that more needed to be done, with a focus on extrajudicial killings, land disputes, electoral reform and freedom of speech.

Looking forward to next year, we will mark the 20th anniversary since the 1993 general election supervised by UNTAC, the military component of which was led by Australian General John Sanderson. In the context of the July 2013 National Assembly elections it will be important for Cambodia to defend and implement the rights enshrined in its 1993 Constitution, including the rights of freedom of assembly, association and speech.

Throughout 2013 Australia will continue to work with Cambodia in many fields: reducing poverty, promoting regional security and fighting transnational crime. We will strengthen our people-to-people links through our scholarship and volunteers program.  I would like to thank all our partners, both Cambodian and international, for your ongoing contribution to and support for those goals.

I would like to wish everyone a happy Australia Day, and a safe and successful 2013.

 

Banker turns English teacher and loves it

Last Updated on 25 January 2013

By Stuart Alan Becker

 

When Ashley Irving worked for the prestigious Rothschild Bank in Sydney, earning a massive salary and enjoying a lot of status in the community, he still wasn’t happy with all the stress that comes naturally with corporate finance.

On vacation at Ayer’s Rock in Australia he met a group of three English teachers from Argentina. They were so happy and fun, he decided to visit them in Argentina and the trip changed his life. He walked away from corporate finance and made his career in the teaching of English.

He absolutely loves it.

Today Irving works as principal at the Australian Center for Education (ACE), a purely English language school and the largest one in Phnom Penh.

“We belong to IDP education based in Melbourne. The main business lines are placing students with universities in most English speaking countries,” Irving said.

Purely an English language school, ACE offers the IELTS test and variations including academic English, general English, English for young learns and programs for kids.

Irving says the communicative method is used.

“We get them talking. To learn language they use the language; the focus on kids is getting them to use language, reading and speaking.”

At ACE, every term is 10 weeks, 45 hour courses and cost about $200 to $230 per term depending on the level.

“We are affordable but not cheap. People who come in are serious. The families spend money and they want something for their money. If it wasn’t working it would not come back.”

One of Irving’s own early teachers had been profoundly influenced by Professor Noam Chomsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his work in linguistics and language acquisition.

“He wore a T-shirt that said Chomsky is My Hero.”

ACE’s general English course is available to ages 16 and up, with levels from beginner to upper intermediate.

“We test reading and grammar and use that to establish their level and place them in appropriate course, and have courses running from 6:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night.”

Even though he’s now the principal and therefore the administrator, Irving loves teaching English and remains passionate about it.

“If you are giving out positive energy, they enjoy it and you get it back tenfold, from people in the room. Some days you go home dancing. The best teachers are nice people, they talk to you, and you put them in front of a class and they light up.”

ACE is located on Street 214 in Kampuchea Krom. They also have a school in Siem Reap. Irving invites anyone to take a placement test for the $5 fee, which students get back when they enroll.

Irving has been here in Cambodia for the last eight months and loves his job.

“My only regret is not doing it 10 years earlier,” he said.

Between the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap schools, ACE has about 8,500 students.

The ages are 8 to adult, and most of the students are ages 17 to 21 and more than 95 per cent Khmer students.

“English is the mandated language of ASEAN, so from the top down English is important. The Khmer s are all keen from the start. We’ve been here 20 years and we’re well known. They come to us for English and once they are there, they are fun to be around.”

When you smile at somebody here, Irving says, they smile back.

“The levels of cynicism are much lower, which is great fun. The teenagers are open and they’ll come and talk to you. It is a privilege, so the need the break down barriers doesn’t exist, because they already assume you’re worth talking to.”

Irving studied applied mathematics at Australia’s La Trobe University and worked for many years for National Mutual Insurance as an actuary, dealing with statistics and probabilities.

Following his term as a corporate banker, his whole life changed when he met the teachers from Argentina.

Returning to Australia after time teaching English in Argentina and Brazil, Irving went to work at Sydney’s Holmes College teaching international students from around the world.

He later became director of study at Access Language Center at Sydney and managed the teaching center for the Adult Migrant English School Service (AMES) in New South Wales.

“To learn a language is just sheer hard work. Work, review, go to class, be prepared to fail, be embarrassed, it’s hard, for a teen or adult, and for somebody working full time it is really hard.”

ACE employs 120 teachers both expats and Khmer.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Alan Becker at stuart.becker@gmail.com

 

 

PM Hun Sen chastises RCFA for unprofessionalism

Last Updated on 25 January 2013

By Vong Sokheng

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blasted unnamed senior military officers for breaking RCAF regulations and urged the Ministry of Defence to improve both its training and its level  of professionalism.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Chinese-Cambodian Friendship Infantry Institution — a new facility at Kampong Speu’s Combined Arms Officer School Thlok Tasek — the premier said there were reports that unqualified officers had bribed their way to higher ranks.

“What we are interested in at the moment is irregularities in the promotion of military officers that were not conducted in a good manner,” he told the gathering of about 1,000 newly graduated soldiers.
The soldiers returned recently from a Chinese military academy. At the new facility in Phnom Sruoch district, young soldiers will receive quality training from Chinese advisers to improve their knowledge and skill so  they can replace retiring officers.

Calling for stricter regulation and enforcement of laws already in place, the premier also suggested the Defence Ministry “conduct a study into the establishment of sub-decrees and Prakases about the training of RCAF to keep them in order and effective.”

“Some senior military officials have not respected the law on the statute of RCAF and general procedure,” Hun Sen said.

His suggestion was given concurrent to a National Assembly debate that took place yesterday over a long-dormant draft law to create an oversight body called the Supreme Council of National Defence.
The council would be given the right to monitor the military and take disciplinary action against officers.

It would also be responsible, more generally, for safeguarding the nation’s territorial integrity and would have the power to evaluate whether to declare a state of emergency.
In the law that passed yesterday – with 85 of 97 lawmakers present voting in its favour – King Norodom Sihamoni would serve as head and Hun Sen as deputy president.
The members of the council – enshrined in the constitution two decades ago – are the minister of Defence, minister of Interior, head of the Council of Ministers, minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance minister, and general-commander of RCAF.

That composition drew the ire of opposition lawmakers, who said during yesterday’s debate they were concerned over the heavy presence of the ruling party on the council.
“We think that the members and deputy president would all be from the CPP, therefore it would not guarantee for the neutrality,” said lawmaker and Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann. “I would request for amendment of the composition and will provide to the power for the King to elect the members.”

Such criticisms, however, did little to sway the vote.
Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, who is also a lawmaker and would be among the members once the law goes into affect, defended the structure during the five-hour debate.
“The law did not name the members, just the title, therefore if another political party comes to take the power in the government, they would sit in this composition,” he argued.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Vong Sokheng at sokheng.vong@phnompenhpost.com

My Academic Publication at the University of Science, Malaysia (USM)

Dear friends,

It is my pleasure to share my brief impression regarding to academic papers during my PhD journey at Malaysia. Honestly, when I worked at Cambodia, I didn't know what are academic publication and research paper. Fortunately, I have received USM fellowship award to study at USM, and I was trained by many experts how to write academic papers for publishing in Journals and Book Chapters. Therefore, I have to increase my capacity building to publish in high impact factor journals such as ISI and Scopus.

First step, I must publish in low quality journals (without impact factors) like Peer Reviews Journals (Open Access Journals) and Indexed Journals (Google Scholar, Ulrich's Periodical Directory, Open J-Gate, EBSCOhost, Gale's Academic Databases, AMICUS, Canadiana, Library and Archives Canada, Lockss, PKP Open Archives Havester, and ProQuest).  

I need to cope with various academic publication environment. Next step, I will publish in Scopus and ISI journals only. During one year of my doctorate studies, I have published 5 articles (4 published and 1 under review process). If you want to read them, please access at following links:

1. Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com.my/citations?hl=en&user=I70xug4AAAAJ

2. Academia Edu: http://usm.academia.edu/SamRany

3. ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sam_Rany/?ev=hdr_xprf

Have a nice day!

All best wishes,

Sam Rany

Government Tells Unions to Agree on Minimum Wage Demands

 By Phok Dorn and Colin Meyn - January 23, 2013

The government on Monday re­quested that manufacturers look at raising the minimum wage for garment workers, but only after divided trade unions agree on what that wage should be.



At the moment, union leaders are demanding that the current $61 per month minimum wage be raised to between $93 and $150, a 52 percent and 145 percent hike, respectively.

“After discussions, those present at the meeting agree in principle to discuss raising the minimum wage for workers,” the Ministry of Labor said in a statement after a meeting between manufacturers and unions on the issue.

“The meeting requested all un­ions meet and raise a joint re­quest for the minimum wage to be discussed with the employers to reach a resolution,” the statement says, adding that union leaders should submit their request to the government before the next meeting at the ministry on February 26.

Yesterday’s meeting followed a speech from Prime Minister Hun Sen on Decem­ber 12 in which he called on manufacturers to up sal­aries in Cambo­dia’s garment factories in order to keep workers in the country.
The last time the minimum wage was increased was in July 2010, when it was raised from $50 to $61.
Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Asso­cia­tion of Cambodia, said prior to Monday’s meeting that demands from many of the unions were “unrealistic.”

“We can’t expect 50 to 60 to 70 percent [increase in the minimum wage]. The Royal Government an­nounced a 20 percent salary in­crease [for civil servants], so I would presume that that would be a good starting point,” he said.

Jill Tucker, chief technical adviser for the International Labor Organiza­tion’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambo­dia program, said that the ILO would mediate discussions between the various trade unions—which represent some 300,000 workers.

Sam Aun, president of the CPP-aligned Cambodia Labor Union Federation, said that $93 would be a fair figure, while Ath Thorn, president of the nonaligned Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, said that he would stand behind raising the minimum wage to $150.

“I think that workers can live on a minimum wage of $93 per month because they also get their bonus, rent, and transport allowances and add overtime to their salary,” said Mr. Aun. But Mr. Thorn warned that if the wage hike was too modest, workers would likely continue to protest.

'Hostage' standoff at Acleda bank branch ends with five arrests

Last Updated on 24 January 2013

By Kim Yuthana, Sam Rith and Chhay Channyda

 

 

 A suspected hostage situation that began Tuesday night was no more than an elaborately staged attempted heist of an Acleda Bank branch, police discovered late last night after apprehending the so-called kidnappers following a 30-hour standoff.

Five men allegedly involved – including the acting branch manager and three other employees – were arrested by police yesterday in Kampong Cham province.

According to provincial police chief Chhay Kimson, the alleged bank robbers had fabricated the hostage situation – with two suspects, one with a gun, masquerading as meth addicts – as a bizarre ruse after plans to rob the small bank branch in Stung Trang district’s Beak Anlung village took a turn for the worse when police caught wind of a situation at the bank.

“Really, there were no hostages,” Kimson said late last night. “All of them are perpetrators. It is really an internal plan. We confiscated their K-54 [pistol].”

Until nearly midnight last night, police believed that two men had taken control of the bank at around 6pm Tuesday evening, taking three employees hostage, and initiating a standoff that lasted through Tuesday night and well into the next.

During the protracted negotiations, the supposed hostage-takers first demanded crystal meth, then that police loosen the ring of some 200 security personnel encircling the bank, and finally, two motorbikes for making good their escape.

After getting the motorbikes at about 10pm, police said, three men were seen fleeing into the darkness of a nearby rubber plantation, where they ditched the bikes, scattered and were later apprehended by security forces.

Upon arresting the three men – and questioning acting branch manager Sim Kimthath, who had been brought in as a person of interest, and branch employee Mat Ly, who had “escaped” the bank early Wednesday morning claiming to have been held hostage – police finally ascertained the truth of the matter, said Kimson.

Ly, he said, cracked under questioning, admitting that an injury where he had been struck in the face had actually been staged to lend his story authenticity.

Kimthath admitted to planning the heist to pay down a sizeable debt, said an unnamed provincial police officer.

The confessions, Kimson said, confirmed inklings of suspicion that the men were in cahoots that had been raised earlier when he overheard a voice – ostensibly a hostage’s – say from within the room where the men were holed up, “Don’t tie me too tight”.

One other suspect was Nou Tola, also known as Gem, 28, a soldier stationed at a border checkpoint in Preah Vihear province, and the only one of yesterday’s five alleged  bank robbers who was not employed by Acleda, said another unnamed officer. The final two suspects’ identities could not be ascertained as of press time.

Throughout the entire day, police and Acleda Bank representatives were convinced that two meth-addled men, one armed, were holding two bank employees hostage, refusing food, declining an offer to leave with the bank’s 57 million riel (about $14,250) in exchange for the hostages, and repeatedly demanding that crystal meth be delivered to them.

In the end, even the number of people inside the bank turned out to be untrue, said Kimson.  After Ly’s so-called “escape”, he said, there were only three men left inside.

Over the course of the day, police acquiesced to the suspected captors’ demands, first providing methamphetamines to the men inside around mid-afternoon, then sending for more to be delivered from Phnom Penh by Ministry of Interior police forces.

When roughly 25 black-clad anti-terrorism police showed up around 4pm, a Post reporter inside the bank overheard one of the suspects say: “If they shoot at us, we shoot back”.

Negotiations between the anti-terrorism police and the men broke down around 5:30pm, and at the request of both the assailants and Acleda representatives, police withdrew further from the premises, giving the men some breathing room, said Acleda Executive Vice President Prom Visoth.

“Our staffers have been detained in a room where we keep the money, but only a small amount of money,” he said at the time. “Police can’t do anything. The robbers want only drugs. They didn’t want money, but the police have no drugs for them.”

Visoth added that he had offered to let the suspects take the 57 million riel when they made their escape, but they declined.

Before learning that the branch had fallen victim to an inside job, Visoth called the incident a lesson for Acleda about the importance of security, saying that while most Acleda banks have armed police, the especially small Beak Anlung branch did not.

“In general, our banks have armed forces that we request from the national police providing us security, but at this office there is no police or security,” he said, noting that the branch handled little money, and sent what little it did handle to a district branch every night.

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To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Yuthana at yuthana.kim@phnompenhpost.com, Sam Rith at newsroom@phnompenhpost.com
and Chhay Channyda at channyda.chhay@phnompenhpost.com

Freedom of information law dealt blow

Last Updated on 24 January 2013

By Meas Sokchea

 

 Discussion of a long-awaited freedom of information law was shot down by the National Assembly yesterday, with ruling party officials claiming the draft version violated the constitution.
Drafts floated by the Sam Rainsy Party had been repeatedly rejected by the National Assembly, though legal experts had been pushing for such legislation for years. Monitors had pointed out frequently that without public access to information, corruption will remain rampant.
Yesterday, CPP lawmaker Chheang Vun, who is president of the Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Information and Media said the draft proposed by the SRP was not suitable for debate.

“The draft law [as it stands] contrasts to the constitution and abuses sovereignty of King’s institution,” Vun said, declining to elaborate on the problems.
The SRP maintained the draft had no such failings, and SRP spokesman Yim Sovann accused the ruling party of stonewalling a law that could prove damning for corrupt officials.

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Cambodia's 'worst year’ for land disputes

Last Updated on 24 January 2013
By May Titthara and Shane Worrell

More than 200 people were arrested while defending their land in 2012 – a year human rights groups described yesterday as Cambodia’s “worst” for land disputes.

Of the 201 people arrested – a figure that more than doubled the 2011 total – 29 were imprisoned, mostly on charges of destroying property, faking documents and encroaching on private property, said Chan Soveth, deputy head of the land rights department at rights group Adhoc.

“Two thousand twelve was the worst year for residents being arrested as they tried to save their homes,” he said, adding that disputes themselves had also soared.

The comments came as heads of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, the Housing Rights Task Force, Adhoc and the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee called on the government to take measures to end forced evictions and resolve land disputes.

A joint statement released by the organisations said more than 700,000 people had been affected by land grabbing and forced displacement since 2000, including 51,000 in 2011.
“In Phnom Penh, at least 145,000, or approximately 10 per cent of the city’s population have been evicted since 2000,” the statement said, adding that 40,000 had been under immediate threat of eviction at the end of 2011.

Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force, said forced evictions had decreased in 2012, but the fact 611 families had fled from disputes last year suggested conflict hadn’t.
“We’ve noticed that actual evictions decrease in the lead-up to elections,” he said.

Recommendations put forward by those involved in yesterday’s press conference included that the government end forced evictions, demarcate state and private land, release imprisoned Boeung Kak lake mother Yorm Bopha, make the economic land concession (ELC) review process transparent and prioritise systematic land registration for poor communities.

Soveth said more than 1,000 people involved in disputes had been arrested since 2007, many as a result of the government cracking down on protests against ELCs.

“Often the court sentences these people without properly investigating.”
Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum, said it was essential that disputes were resolved and villagers’ rights protected.

“Currently, landlessness is estimated at between 20 and 25 per cent of the total population.”
Phay Siphan, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the government was doing a lot to help residents with land issues, including deploying students to demarcate land and issue land titles.
“This is a historic strategy, one that is very important for Cambodia,” he said.

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To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phnompenhpost.com

Time to invest in people (Cambodia)

Last Updated on 07 December 2012

By Pamela Cox

For more than a decade, Cambodia has sustained impressive economic growth.

The World Bank expects real gross domestic product to increase by 6.6 per cent this year – a figure to be envied in today’s fragile global economy.

At this pace, Cambodia can rapidly become the industrialised and productive economy it aspires to be.

Is this the future that Cambodians can rightfully look forward to?

The answer is yes, but only if Cambodia invests in its most precious resource – its people – to enable each individual to realise his or her potential and productively contribute to the nation’s economy.

Until now, much of Cambodia’s investment has focused on infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing – priority areas during the early stages of the country’s economic development.

But with economic progress, it has become increasingly clear that these efforts are not enough to help the country achieve equitable, sustainable growth and, most important, reduce poverty.

Today, despite the nation’s economic achievements, roughly 20 per cent of Cambodians – that’s 2.8 million people – are still poor.

Nearly 40 per cent of children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition, and 28 per cent in the same age group are underweight.

Over the past decade, workforce skills of adults improved at a slower rate than in other East Asia countries, and the proportion of skilled workers among earners stagnated.

When the economy is booming, it’s tempting to turn a blind eye to such statistics.

But for the sake of Cambodia’s future, these are the figures we must confront, and this is where the World Bank can help.

Ending poverty, and building shared prosperity, are central to the Bank’s mission. 

Investments in human development, particularly in the areas of health and education, need to be a priority in Cambodia to create opportunities for all, especially the poor and vulnerable.

Interventions in these areas work hand in hand to build a country’s human-resources pool even before schooling begins.

Growing evidence shows the importance of adequate nutrition and health care during early childhood, to lay the foundation for intellectual progress and life-long learning.

The government has taken significant steps towards improving access as well as the quality of education, and 96 per cent of children aged six to 11 now go to primary school.

The average test performance of primary- and secondary-school students has improved, and higher-education enrolments increased fourfold between 2001 and 2011.

The World Bank is supporting health and education in Cambodia.

With the government and our development partners, we are financing health equity funds and school scholarships, having provided 2.5 million health-care treatments for poor people since 2009 and scholarships for 63,000 poor secondary-school students since 2005.

But much more needs to be done to improve the coverage, quality and governance of these sectors.

Although Cambodia’s economy is growing, employers report a mismatch between the skills university graduates bring to a job and the skills the labour market demands.

A recent World Bank study found that 22 per cent of foreign employers in Cambodia identify skills as a severe constraint to businesses.

This means many Cambodians earn less than they could if they had adequate education and skills.

For the country, this leads to lower productivity, limiting Cambodia’s potential to attract investment and improve living standards for all.

As a global knowledge and financial institution, the World Bank works with governments and a broad array of stakeholders gathering best practices and providing solutions for the most difficult development issues countries and communities face.

It draws from the knowledge and experience of other nations, and is able and ready to assist, inspire and inform Cambodia’s efforts to achieve its development goals.

In Indonesia, for example, the World Bank supported a social assistance program designed to address three lagging Millennium Development Goals – maternal health, child health and universal education – using a successful, community-driven approach.

Communities themselves took charge and allocated block grants targeting 12 health and education indicators, enabling 1.6 million women and children to receive nutrition counselling and support; helping 365,000 children receive immunisations; eliminating 185,000 cases of underweight children; and providing assistance to about 380,000 poor school students.

Tajikistan also has a high percentage of underweight children resulting from malnutrition exacerbated by the 2008 food-price shock.

The World Bank supported a community and basic health project to provide food packages and micro-nutrient supplements to about 50,000 women, infants and children.

By mid-2011, the project had trained 1,000 primary health workers and 300 community volunteers to deliver education on breast-feeding, good nutrition and the care of sick children.

Delivering these results requires a tremendous, co-ordinated effort by governments, donors, the private sector, civil society and others.

During my visit to Phnom Penh this week, I discussed with the government and our development partners how the World Bank can support Cambodia’s development strategy, to ensure all Cambodians can participate in, and benefit from, their country’s future prosperity.

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Pamela Cox is the World Bank vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific.

Xayaburi Dam: How Laos Violated the 1995 Mekong Agreement

Sun, 01/13/2013 - 8:45pm

By: Kirk Herbertson

 

 On November 7, 2012, Laos officially began construction on the controversial Xayaburi Hydropower Project, the first mainstream dam proposed for the Lower Mekong River. The process has not gone smoothly. Construction activities began almost two years before the official announcement. Vietnam and Cambodia called for a delay in construction because concerns over the dam’s transboundary impacts remained unresolved. Laos never conducted a comprehensive analysis of the transboundary impacts, instead insisting that the dam was engineered to be environmentally sustainable. The Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) Secretariat disagreed with many of Laos’ claims, but its advice went unheeded. Although the dam is going forward, its risks remain unknown.

The Xayaburi Dam was the first significant test for the Mekong Agreement, a treaty signed in 1995 by Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The treaty is intended to promote shared use and management of the river basin. Instead of cooperating with neighboring governments, however, Laos began implementing the Xayaburi Dam while Cambodia and Vietnam voiced concerns about the project’s transboundary impacts. Thailand remained silent through much of the dispute, but quietly financed the project and agreed to purchase its electricity. By November 2012, Laos’ and Thailand’s implementation of the project had advanced so far that Cambodia and Vietnam had little leverage left to raise concerns.

Laos insists that the Xayaburi Dam complies with the 1995 Mekong Agreement. Few others have questioned this claim.

In a new report, we examine the requirements of the Mekong Agreement in closer detail. On its surface, the text of the Agreement is often ambiguous. In an effort to seek greater clarity, we examine the requirements of the Mekong Agreement in its entirety. We also examine: (i) the historical record of the negotiations that describes what the parties intended when they drafted the Agreement; and (ii) international law that describes the meaning of the words that were carefully placed in the Agreement. In doing so, a clearer picture of the Mekong Agreement emerges. We find that Laos has misinterpreted the Mekong Agreement and failed to comply with several of its key requirements.

The full report is available below, but key findings are summarized here.

Laos is required to seek agreement with its neighbors before beginning the project.

To balance the rights of upstream and downstream countries, the Mekong Agreement requires all four governments to make a “good faith” effort to reach agreement on whether a project goes forward. Instead of trying to reach agreement on the Xayaburi Dam, Laos claimed that it only must consider comments of the other governments. Laos made no efforts to compromise on its position or to reach a mutually agreeable solution.

Laos must provide other governments with opportunity to evaluate the project’s impacts.

The MRC’s “prior consultation” is the process where the four governments try to reach an agreement. The primary purpose of the prior consultation is to provide the governments with an opportunity to evaluate the project’s transboundary impacts. Yet for the Xayaburi Dam, Laos did not provide neighboring governments with an opportunity to evaluate the project’s transboundary impacts. In particular, Laos did not assess the transboundary impacts before starting the prior consultation in September 2010.

Laos is not permitted to implement the project while consultations are still underway.

International law and the Mekong Agreement prohibit the governments from implementing a project while the governments are still discussing it—this is part of the obligation to negotiate “in good faith.” Laos and developer Ch. Karnchang began implementing the Xayaburi Dam in late 2010 before the Mekong governments even met to discuss the project. Later, Laos incorrectly claimed that “preparatory work” was allowed under the Mekong Agreement while the consultations are underway.

Laos is required to study the project’s transboundary impacts before consultation can take place.

Under international law, governments are required to prevent significant harm to other countries, which includes setting aside enough time to assess the project’s transboundary impacts. After failing to assess the Xayaburi Dam's transboundary impacts in 2010, Laos refused to delay project implementation after Cambodia and Vietnam requested these studies during the prior consultation. Instead, Laos claimed that untested technologies proposed by consulting company Pöyry were sufficient to mitigate any harm.

Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand have a right to extend the prior consultation’s timeframe.

The default timeframe for the prior consultation is six months, but under international law the downstream governments have a right to extend it. Laos claims that the Xayaburi Dam's prior consultation ended automatically after six months. During this initial six month period, Laos failed to provide the information that other governments needed to evaluate the project’s impacts. This undermined the primary purpose of the prior consultation. Laos also began project implementation during this initial period.

Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam have a right to seek compensation for any harm caused.

Laos has an obligation under international law to stop the project immediately if it causes harm to neighboring countries. Downstream governments Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam can seek compensation for any harm that the dam causes. Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam will have difficulty seeking compensation, however, because there is insufficient baseline data at this time to measure how the Xayaburi Dam will change the Mekong River. All three countries now face the difficult task of closely monitoring the impacts caused by the dam.
The Xayaburi Dam has set a dangerous precedent that could undermine future cooperation. In 2013, work might advance on two other Mekong mainstream dams—the Don Sahong and the Pak Beng Dams. Unless reforms are made quickly, disagreements over the Mekong dams could escalate into a conflict with serious economic and political implications.

Attached files: 

 

Click here to download the full report

More information: 

 

• Please visit our Xayaburi Dam webpage for more information.

Cambodian economy expected to grow 7 pct in 2013: official

Xinhua | 2013-1-14 13:02:20
By Agencies

Cambodia's GDP is projected to grow by 7 percent this year even though the global economy remains fragile and high risk due to persisting sovereign debt crisis in Europe and sluggish economic recovery in the United States, a commerce official said Monday.

"Through Cambodian government's deep reforms, Cambodia's economic growth has rapidly recovered from the global economic crisis and it has maintained annual growth of 7 percent last year and the same rate is expected this year," Ou Proum Virak, deputy director of the Commerce Ministry's Trade Promotion Department, said in a trade seminar.

He said the growth would come mainly from garment exports, tourism, agriculture and construction.

Meanwhile, he said global economy at the end of 2012 and in 2013 still faces high risks amid lingering sovereign debt issue in Europe and slow recovery of the US economy.

"These could be challenges for Cambodia either to increase external businesses or to attract foreign investment," he said.

Last Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted that Cambodia is expected to register an economic growth rate of 6. 7 percent this year.

"A fragile global economic outlook, rapid credit growth, and potentially extreme weather conditions continue to pose significant risks," the IMF cautioned in the annual review of Cambodia's economic and financial conditions.

A symbol of Cambodia - Angkor Wat -

http://www.china.org.cn/travel/2013-01/14/content_27679522.htm

 Angkor Wat, a Hindu temple complex, was built in the early 12th century. As the most famous and best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation - first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. Angkor Wat is on UNESCO's culture heritage list and has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag. [by sunway111/bbs.fengniao]

China eyes natural resources in Cambodia

The Irish Times - Tuesday, January 8, 2013

CLIFFORD COONAN

China’s influence in Asia is sure to keep growing in 2013, and two Chinese companies have set out their stall early, signing an €8.6 billion deal to build a new railway, port and steel mill in Cambodia.

As with investments in Africa, accessing natural resources is a big part of the motivation behind the spending.
China Rail Group will co-operate with Chinese-owned Cambodia Iron and Steel Mining Industry, to jointly build a 404km railway from Preah Vihear province to Koh Kong province in the southwest.
They will also build a seaport in Koh Kong to support the metal mining industry in Preah Vihear. A spokesman told local media construction should begin by July.

Chinese companies have invested heavily in Cambodia over the last 10 years in projects ranging from hydroelectric dams to agriculture.

Late last month, the Cambodian government gave the green light to construction of its first oil refinery. Sinomach China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp was given the go-ahead to invest €1.77 billion.