The Policy to Sell Fishing Lots to Commercial Fishing Companies Makes 40% of the People Living around the Tonle Sap Lake Live in Poverty – Wednesday,

Posted on 16 July 2009
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 621
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“According to studies and findings of international aid agencies and the Asian Development Bank about the condition of Khmer people, it is noticed that the Tonle Sap Lake, one of the world’s big lakes rich in fish yield, which feeds about 2 million Khmer people in the surrounding provinces, now cannot sustain the living conditions of the people and protect them from poverty.

“The Asian Development Bank noticed that up to 40% of the Khmer people living in the provinces around the Tonle Sap Lake live in poverty. This information is based on different observers, on civil society organizations, and especially on Khmer citizens who live there, depending on this Cambodian fresh water lake. This situation results mainly from selling fishing lots – areas formerly in their natural status – by the Cambodia government to private commercial interests for money.

“Therefore, the Asian Development Bank provided US$3.5 million to assist Khmer poor people in seven provinces around the Tonle Sap Lake a few months ago.

“A food crisis happened in 2008, especially after Prime Minister Hun boasted that there were was a surplus of more than 2 million tonnes of paddy rice, and then the border was opened for Yuon [Vietnamese] and Siamese [Thai] merchants to come to buy paddy rice from Khmer farmers, causing the food prices to rise, which developed into a crisis which caused more than 10 million Khmer people to get poorer.

“This is what was noticed in a statement of the World Bank, as this major donor decided to grant more than US$13 million to create small scale agricultural units for farmers, and social protection support for poor people in Cambodia.

“The economic crisis in Cambodia is derived from the global economic crisis, even though Cambodian leaders, including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy and Finance, had announced that this crisis does not pose a severe problem for Cambodia. However, a high ranking official of the government now recognizes the economic downturn in Cambodia.

“The secretary general of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Mr. Hang Chuon Narong, said recently that the economic growth of Cambodia for 2009 has declined to 2%, lower than the assessment by the Asian Development Bank, which had estimated that the economic growth of this year is more than 2%.

“The World Bank said that this economic crisis makes more than 200,000 people lose their jobs, and about 78 factories will close down.

“The secretary general of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Mr. Hang Chuon Narong, recognized that the current global economic crisis can pull down people who stay a little bit above the poverty line again to be down below it.

“This statement is not different from what a parliamentarian, the president of the Sam Rainsy Party, and a well-known economic expert of international class, Mr. Sam Rainsy, had said. Mr. Sam Rainsy said that the Cambodian economic crisis results from the inability of Prime Minister Hun Sen and from corruption of the government.

Mr. Sam Rainsy said that Khmer people become poorer and poorer, and the number of the poor is increasing; this is also recognized by the World Bank and international development aid agencies.

“The president of the opposition party explained that the major reason making most Khmer people to remain poor, and leading to an increasing number of poor people, is the wrong economic policy of the government. He said those in power in the country sell national resources, such as forests and natural fishing lots, which used to be basis for a good living of the people, to merchants. As a result, the basis to support the livelihood of people is lost.

“Those who know the facts about people who fall into poverty, because of the global financial crisis and the failed economic policy of the government, through their own observation, are the Khmer people themselves. They encounter difficulties, after the government sells the natural lake, which is full of fish, and provides grazing areas around to feed the cattle of the farmers, to ecoonomic interests, like they sell also the forest to private companies. Therefore, the livelihood of the people goes down, just as Mr. Sam Rainsy has said.”

Khmer Machas Srok, Vol.3, #446, 15.7.2009
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Wednesday, 15 July 2009