About Me
Goals of information publication by Prey Nokor News
Monday, August 24, 2009
Eradicate red tape — Angara
August 25, 2009
By: Bernadette E. Tamayo
SEN. Edgardo Angara is saddened by a recent study by the World Bank and International Finance Corp. that it is easier to open business in Cambodia than in the Philippines.
The WB and IFC report said it would take only four days to start a business in Singapore, while in the Philippines it takes 52 days. The study also put the Philippines at 140th out of 181 countries on the ease of doing business.
“Our country, one of the lowest-ranked in the region, was behind Cambodia at 135 and only ahead of Laos at 165 and East Timor at 170. The average ranking for East Asia is 83,” Angara said.
Angara said the country should improve its business environment by eliminating “red tape” amid the global economic crisis affecting job creation and investment generation efforts. “Starting a business in the country takes an average of 18 procedures, 11 of which are required nationally and seven by local governments,” he said.
He noted that the IFC report, entitled Doing Business 2009, took into account the laws, rules and regulations that enhance or impede business activities.
Aside from cutting the time it takes to set up a business, Angara said it is also important to provide necessary infrastructure and human capital development.
By: Bernadette E. Tamayo
SEN. Edgardo Angara is saddened by a recent study by the World Bank and International Finance Corp. that it is easier to open business in Cambodia than in the Philippines.
The WB and IFC report said it would take only four days to start a business in Singapore, while in the Philippines it takes 52 days. The study also put the Philippines at 140th out of 181 countries on the ease of doing business.
“Our country, one of the lowest-ranked in the region, was behind Cambodia at 135 and only ahead of Laos at 165 and East Timor at 170. The average ranking for East Asia is 83,” Angara said.
Angara said the country should improve its business environment by eliminating “red tape” amid the global economic crisis affecting job creation and investment generation efforts. “Starting a business in the country takes an average of 18 procedures, 11 of which are required nationally and seven by local governments,” he said.
He noted that the IFC report, entitled Doing Business 2009, took into account the laws, rules and regulations that enhance or impede business activities.
Aside from cutting the time it takes to set up a business, Angara said it is also important to provide necessary infrastructure and human capital development.
Singapore demand and phony contracts sustain booming Mekong sand exports
24/08/2009
VietNamNet Bridge – The volume of sand exported to Singapore from Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in the first half of 2009 was equivalent to the total exports of the last ten years. Ironically, most of it is shipped under falsely backdated contracts.
VietNamNet Bridge – The volume of sand exported to Singapore from Vietnam’s Mekong Delta in the first half of 2009 was equivalent to the total exports of the last ten years. Ironically, most of it is shipped under falsely backdated contracts.
The many channels of the Mekong river are filled with sand dredging barges. Though the area has long supplied building sand to the Ho Chi Minh City region, its sand export business has not been considerable until now.
The Customs Office of Can Tho City reported that the volume of sand exported in the January-June period of 2009 rose dramatically to nearly 7 million tones, as much as was exported during the previous ten years.
The surge in exports was stimulated by Cambodia’s decision to ban further exports of its own river sand in order to reserve it for domestic use and limit further erosion of river banks.
Prior to May, while Cambodia still allowed sand exports, sand from Vietnam’s Mekong Delta was not favoured because it is of lower quality than Cambodian river sand.
Now, with the demand for sand by Singapore and some other countries in the region still on the rise, Vietnamese companies have lept at the opportunity to export this natural resource to Singapore, reports Tuoi Tre newspaper.
Nguyen The Hung, manager of a sand exploitation enterprise in Can Tho city, said that before Cambodia closed down sand exports, the prices for sand in the Mekong Delta were quite stable, from 15,000 to 17,000 per a cubic meter. Now, the prices are 25,000 to 30,000 per a cubic meter.
Cambodia exported its high grade sand to Singapore at the price of 90,000 dong per cubic meter. Currently, Vietnamese firms ship sand to Singapore for 40,000 dong per cubic meter. However, the profit from sand is still big because exporters can purchase sand at only 15,000-17,000 dong per cubic meter.
Vu Duc Hung of the River Police Bureau in Can Tho City said that since Cambodia banned sand exports, hundreds of sand barges travel on local rivers while sand ships of 10,000 tons or more anchor at Tra Noc and Cai Cui every day to take aboard sand from the barges. Each day around ten ships leave Vietnam, each carrying hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sand.
Ironically, the booming sand export business is in patent violation of the intent of Vietnamese law. Prime Ministerial Instruction No. 29, issued in October 2008, established a temporary ban on Vietnam’s own exports of sand and gravel exploited from rivers and seas.
There was a huge loophole, however, exports could continue indefinitely under contracts signed before November 30, 2008. Based on this clause, sand is still exported to Singapore.
The deputy head of the Can Tho Customs Office, Nguyen Minh Thong, said that the the total volume of sand for export committed in contracts signed before November 30 2008reaches tens of millions of cubic meters.
“Lured by virtually unlimited profits,” Thong said, “sand exporters change the date of signing contracts to before November 30 2008 to continue exporting sand.” The customs official added that hisoffice is not responsible for controlling these contracts.”
Thong said that because sand is a limited natural resource, the government should study the matter and establish a sand exploitation plan. He said the Can Tho authorities have proposed the Prime Minister to reconsider the instruction on sand export.
VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre
Starting Over in Cambodia
The Washington Post
FAITH IN ACTION
By Katherine Marshall
Everyone in Cambodia has an extraordinary story of personal or family survival. Almost the entire population was displaced, often fleeing again and again, during the genocidal era of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, from 1975 to 1979. Most people lost everything they had. About two million people died. Schools were closed and destroyed, and anyone with an education was targeted. It is only in the past 10 to 15 years that it has been possible to talk of hope.
Most Cambodians are under 20 so they remember only more recent traumas - one young colleague described how in 1997 her house and her grandparents' house were set afire. She remembers vividly seeing dead and dying soldiers along the road as she walked to school. Cambodia's leaders all hold, not far below the surface of warm smiles and constant cell phone conversations, their vivid memories. With only a little encouragement they tell stories of a modern reality few of us can even imagine. At last, 30 year later, some of the perpetrators of the very worst atrocities are on trial at an international tribunal. The papers report on it every day and in the market every stall with a television is tuned to the trial.
But most Cambodians have their eyes on the future and the formidable task of rebuilding. They want to benefit from globalization, but also recapture some of the magic they see in their society, though it has known so much evil.
I've spent the last two weeks here trying to understand the current situation and where things are headed, with the basic question: what's religion got to do with it?
In a sense religion is so much a part of Cambodia's past and present that it is hard to separate out its distinctive roles. Few people mention religion when they talk of development but there are countless links. Cambodia is almost 95 percent Buddhist, and monks in bright orange are everywhere. Though many were killed during the genocide, today there are some 60,000 monks and over 4,300 temples. Cambodia has a fascinating Muslim community, the Cham, with their own ethos; the Cham were also targeted by the Khmer Rouge but the community seems to be reviving. And though the Christian community is very small, Christian organizations are extraordinarily active here in just about every field, from HIV/AIDS to helping abused children to campaigning against smoking.
Venerable Sareth Brak, a young monk from a small village about an hour from Phnom Penh, is determined to build a modern school for his community of about 12 villages. His story is one example of the complex ways that religion comes into the picture.
His temple (called the pagoda, or wat) has almost 50 monks today. That includes some young boys who are among the 27 orphans the pagoda cares for. The pagoda used to serve as the community's school, teaching many subjects, and welcoming, he said, girls and boys, young and old. But the system collapsed during the time of troubles and what was left was a desultory system where a few volunteers taught bits of knowledge to children, sitting under the palm trees or in the ruined pagoda. Fifteen years ago, when Ven. Sareth finished secondary school, he restarted the school, at the pagoda at first. Then he gradually cobbled together funds to build a set of serviceable if mismatched buildings (UNICEF built one, the community itself most of the others). Today, the complex has more than 300 children, four government paid teachers, and nine volunteers.
Computer classes (only keyboarding, no internet within miles) and tailoring are taught in the pagoda. Ven. Sareth and and other monks try to teach the adults and they work to resolve conflicts within the community. Domestic violence, they say, is widespread, one legacy of the period of turmoil. And it is increasing, as people come back from the city with many vices, angry at the limited opportunities to make a living.
Ven. Sareth stands out among monks I met because he shows a passion and determination to overcome formidable obstacles and he can show results. He talks the language of human rights. Where did he learn that? From his mother, he says, who was a teacher before the Pol Pot era. He argues that all Cambodians should learn about all religions and all cultures. Only knowledge, he says, can overcome the violence and pain he sees in the society. He sees Buddhist values as contributing to modern life as well as linking Cambodia to its happier past. And the pagoda itself, with some rebuilt structures and crumbling ancient remnants of the past, can help bridge past and present. It is the community center and development starts from there.
Ven. Sareth's is one of many stories that help answer that difficult question for a traumatized country: where to start. Cambodia is a classic example of what is termed a post-conflict society, where the needs are so enormous and the pain of conflict still so fresh. He started with what he had, engaged his community, took what he could find as resources, and forged ahead. It's an inspiration.
Katherine Marshall is a senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, a Visiting Professor, and a senior advisor for the World Bank
Dancing Away From Tragedy
Sophiline Cheam Shapiro (right) teaching Khmer Arts Ensemble dancer Pum Molyta at the Khmer Arts Theater in Takhmao, Cambodia. Photo by James Wasserman.Sophiline Cheam Shapiro '97 was among the first students to re-learn the classical dances of war-ravaged Cambodia. Now, she teaches the almost-lost art form and produces original choreography, which has been staged around the world.
By Angilee Shah
Contributing Writer
UCLA Magazine
http://www.international.ucla.edu
Khmer Arts Ensemble dancers Mot Pharan (left) and Sao Phirom in Sophiline Cheam Shapiro's Shir Ha-Shirim. Photo by Sophiline Cheam ShapiroAfter the terrible violence of Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, the joy of dance returned to war-ravaged Cambodia. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro '97 was among the first students to re-learn the country's classical dances. Now, this National Heritage Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts is teaching the almost-lost art form in the Long Beach studio of her Khmer Arts Academy.
Cheam Shapiro's students are often the children of refugees; she hopes her students find inspiration in the arts the same way she did as a young girl who survived a terrible tragedy. "You can either run [from the past] or come back and help," she says. "I chose dance."
Cheam Shapiro is from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and at 8 years old, in 1975, she was forced to leave the city and work in the fields. It was the time of the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields of Cambodia. In four years, more than 1 million people — as many as 2.2 million by some estimates — were killed by the genocidal Communist regime. Among them were Cheam Shapiro's father and two brothers.
The Khmer Rouge saw Cambodian classical dance as a symbol of royal power, a backwards spectacle that went against the principles of a cultural revolution. But Cheam Shapiro saw it as resurrection of Cambodian cultural pride. When she returned to Phnom Penh with her mother in 1979, their house had been burnt to the ground. But her uncle, a well-known artist, had survived and begun the work of reviving classical art by creating an artists colony. He told Cheam Shapiro, then a teenager, that she could have a long career if she studied theater arts.
But she loved the slow and intricate movements, the representations of nature and life that infuse Cambodian dance. In 1988, she graduated from the University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh (now the Royal University), part of the first class to master the now-rare art form after the Khmer Rouge was removed from power. She joined the university's faculty and performed her unique pieces around the world, including uniquely Cambodian adaptations of such English-language classics as Othello, and choreography that both built upon and challenged traditional forms.
In 1991, Cheam Shapiro moved to California with her husband. But she felt that she had lost her "sense of Cambodian-ness" and started practicing dance at home. She made her own practice costumes, and when she put them on she felt like she was maintaining her identity.
At UCLA, she graduated with a degree in dance ethnology. Since then, her choreography has been seen around the world. In 2002, she opened the Khmer Arts Academy with her husband, and more recently created the Khmer Arts Ensemble in Takhmao, outside of Phnom Penh. The 29-member troupe of dancers and musicians has performed Cheam Shapiro's original choreography in festivals and shows around the world.
"I came from Cambodia and I had nothing with me but dance," Cheam Shapiro explains. Thanks to her, people around the world have it, too.
VimpelCom to Release Second Quarter 2009 Financial and Operating Results on Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, 24 August 2009
MOSCOW and NEW YORK, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications" ("VimpelCom" or the "Company") (NYSE: VIP), the leading provider of telecommunications services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) today announced that it will webcast its conference call on its second quarter 2009 financial and operating results on Thursday, August 27, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. Moscow time (10:30 a.m. US ET).
The conference call will be hosted by Boris Nemsic, Chief Executive Officer, and Alexander Torbakhov, General Director. They will be joined by Elena Shmatova, Chief Financial Officer, Kent McNeley, Chief Marketing Officer, Andrey Patoka, Head of B2B Business Unit and Dmitry Pleskonos, Head of CIS Business Development.
The press release announcing the Company's second quarter 2009 financial and operating results will be available on the Company's web site, located at http://www.vimpelcom.com, prior to the conference call.
The call and slide presentation may be accessed via webcast at http://www.vimpelcom.com.
US call-in number: + 1 800-334-8065 International call-in number: + 1 913-312-0711
The conference call replay and the slide presentation webcast will be available through September 03, 2009 and September 27, 2009, respectively. The slide presentation will also be available for download on the Company's website.
US Replay Number: +1 888-203-1112 Confirmation Code: 1341755 International Replay Number: +1 719-457-0820 Confirmation Code: 1341755
The VimpelCom Group consists of telecommunications operators providing voice and data services through a range of mobile, fixed and broadband technologies. The Group includes companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia, as well as in Vietnam and Cambodia. The VimpelCom Group has licenses to operate in territories with a total population of about 340 million. The Group companies provide services under the "Beeline" brand. VimpelCom was the first Russian company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"). VimpelCom's ADRs are listed on the NYSE under the symbol "VIP".
SOURCE VimpelCom
Source: PR Newswire
MOSCOW and NEW YORK, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Open Joint Stock Company "Vimpel-Communications" ("VimpelCom" or the "Company") (NYSE: VIP), the leading provider of telecommunications services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) today announced that it will webcast its conference call on its second quarter 2009 financial and operating results on Thursday, August 27, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. Moscow time (10:30 a.m. US ET).
The conference call will be hosted by Boris Nemsic, Chief Executive Officer, and Alexander Torbakhov, General Director. They will be joined by Elena Shmatova, Chief Financial Officer, Kent McNeley, Chief Marketing Officer, Andrey Patoka, Head of B2B Business Unit and Dmitry Pleskonos, Head of CIS Business Development.
The press release announcing the Company's second quarter 2009 financial and operating results will be available on the Company's web site, located at http://www.vimpelcom.com, prior to the conference call.
The call and slide presentation may be accessed via webcast at http://www.vimpelcom.com.
US call-in number: + 1 800-334-8065 International call-in number: + 1 913-312-0711
The conference call replay and the slide presentation webcast will be available through September 03, 2009 and September 27, 2009, respectively. The slide presentation will also be available for download on the Company's website.
US Replay Number: +1 888-203-1112 Confirmation Code: 1341755 International Replay Number: +1 719-457-0820 Confirmation Code: 1341755
The VimpelCom Group consists of telecommunications operators providing voice and data services through a range of mobile, fixed and broadband technologies. The Group includes companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia, as well as in Vietnam and Cambodia. The VimpelCom Group has licenses to operate in territories with a total population of about 340 million. The Group companies provide services under the "Beeline" brand. VimpelCom was the first Russian company to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"). VimpelCom's ADRs are listed on the NYSE under the symbol "VIP".
SOURCE VimpelCom
Source: PR Newswire
Top Commanders Meet Over Border Dispute
By Chun Sakada, VOA KhmerOriginal report from Phnom Penh
24 August 2009
Top military commanders for Cambodia and Thailand met Monday to ease mounting military pressure over a prolonged border standoff and recent maritime grievances.
Gen. Pol Saroeun, commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, met his Thai counterpart, Gen. Songkitti Jaggabatra, following protests from Thailand of recent offshore oil exploration initiated by Cambodia.
The two also discussed potential removal of troops from the border near Preah Vihear temple, where they have been entrenched since July 2008, said Chhum Socheath, spokesman for the Cambodian Defense Ministry.
“The two sides spoke in the name of the two states,” he said. “We unite and cooperate in keeping peace along the border of the two nations for not having the standoff and to let the border committees of the two countries solve [the dispute]. Besides that, we are prepared to meet military officials of the two countries in all levels more often.”
The Thai commander said the border issue was not a problem, “because the two nations are neighbors and have since ancient times shared the same culture and tradition,” he said. The Cambodian commander said he requested Prime Minister Hun Sen withdraw a number of troops from the border.
The two sides also agreed to develop the border area to improve people’s livelihoods there. They agreed to hold a joint Buddhist ceremony to raise money for pagodas.
The Thai delegation was scheduled to visit the temples of Kampong Thom and Siem Reap provinces Tuesday.
Cambodia announces plan to build country's biggest prison
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com
http://www.nationmultimedia.com
August 20, 2009
Phnom Penh - The government has approved a plan to build Cambodia's largest prison, capable of holding 2,500 inmates, national media reported Thursday.
Cambodia currently has 24 prisons with a combined capacity of 12,500 prisoners. Many jails are overcrowded.
Heng Hak, the general director at the Ministry of the Interior's prisons department, told the Cambodia Daily that inmates would learn skills such as farming and animal husbandry.
"One of the most important functions in government prison reform is to make a big change in prisons from a place of punishment to a place of education and vocational training centres for prisoners," he told the Cambodia Daily newspaper.
Heng Hak said the grounds of the new centre, called Correctional Centre 4, or CC4, will cover 846 hectares in Pursat province.
"It will be the biggest prison (in Cambodia)," he said. "We expect that CC4 will be a key tool in resolving the matter of overcrowding."
Australia is providing support for CC4 through its government aid programme. The project's corrections adviser, Cheryl Clay, told the Cambodia Daily that the new prison would have five sections capable of holding 500 inmates each.
Clay said the vocational training programmes would help to cut violence and aggression.
"This is a way for providing some meaningful skill development and meaningful activity, and is an accepted way of creating an avenue for more income for the prison," she said.//dpa
Police scramble to confiscate leaflets critical of premier
http://www.topnews.in/
Submitted by Mohit Joshi
Phnom Penh - Police in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh scrambled to gather up hundreds of photocopied leaflets critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen that were scattered around the capital, local media reported Thursday.
The leaflets, which were left at a number of locations in the capital around 2 am on Wednesday, accuse the prime minister of being a dictator, of being politically subservient to Vietnam, and of "selling the nation."
Government spokesman Phay Siphan told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that Cambodians would not be influenced by the leaflets.
"This has happened many times before, but the result is always the same at the elections [with victory for Hun Sen]," said Phay Siphan.
Police are investigating the origin of the leaflets. (dpa)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)