ASEAN Leaders Express Concern Over NK Threat

The Korea Times

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr

05-31-2009

By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

SEOGWIPO, Jeju Island ― South Korea and Thailand agreed Sunday to make joint diplomatic efforts to help North Korea return to the six-party denuclearization talks and eventually abandon its program to develop nuclear weapons.

At a summit between President Lee Myung-bak and Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva here, they shared the view that the North's recent missile and nuclear tests threaten the peace and stability of not only East Asia, but also the whole world.

The Thai prime minister is one of the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) who gathered here for a special summit between Korea and the economic bloc, the country's third largest trade partner. ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

``Lee and Vejjajiva called for joint efforts to promote regional peace and stability and agreed North Korea's provocation will put Asia and the rest of the world in danger,'' Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement.

Lee discussed North Korea with other leaders and shared the need to cooperate for a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue.

On Saturday, Lee held summits with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the presidential office.

Lee and Arroyo expressed deep concerns over the North's recent nuclear test while calling on Pyongyang to observe U.N. Security Council resolutions and to immediately return to the six-party talks, Cheong Wa Dae said.

Lee and the Vietnamese leader agreed the nuclear test was a serious challenge to the international nuclear nonproliferation regime and a threat to the peace and stability of Northeast Asia and the world, it said.

On the sidelines of the Korea-ASEAN Summit on Monday, President Lee will meet with the leaders of Laos, Brunei and Indonesia to discuss regional security and ways to strengthen economic cooperation.

``The summit will mainly focus on ways to increase trade and investment between Korea and ASEAN, but the leaders will also address North Korea's nuclear threats,'' a Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson said. ``The ASEAN leaders hoped the nuclear issue will be resolved peacefully through the six-party dialogue and promised to help South Korea achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.''

Asians talk of peace, but look to buy more arms

http://www.reuters.com

Sun May 31, 2009

By Nopporn Wong-Anan SINGAPORE, May 31 (Reuters) - Asia's defence policymakers spoke of peace in the region's top security conference in Singapore, but have been also huddling in the corridors of a luxury hotel haggling over deals with arms suppliers.

The annual Asia Security Conference, a forum for discussion, brought together some of the world's main arms-makers with military chiefs nervously eyeing their neighbours' moves and looking to upgrade defences in a region full of long-running insurgencies, potential maritime disputes and growing wealth.

"Defence suppliers find it very important to be here to make a set of contacts," said Jonathan Pollack, professor of Asian and Pacific Studies at the U.S. Naval War College.

Japan's defence minister told the gathering that the country, anxious about North Korea's latest nuclear test, would not strike first but it was still looking to boost its airforce with Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) F-22 fighter jets.

Top executives from firms such as Boeing (BA.N), the Pentagon's No.2 defense supplier, flew to Singapore to rub shoulders with potential clients, as they look to expand foreign sales at a time when the Obama government is starting to cap defence project spending.

"In the event that I'm meeting with any defence suppliers, it will be the last I'll be speaking to you," Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told Reuters, fresh from a military success that ended a two-decade old Tamil Tiger insurgency.

AIR AND NAVAL DEMAND

Boeing's defense chief Jim Albaugh told a briefing he saw growing Asian demand for air and naval forces as the region looks to protect its trade and territory.

Boeing met with India's top military official Vijay Singh at one of the hotel's private conference rooms, but the meeting was brief, and Singh later met with Britain's BAE Systems (BAES.L).

Boeing may not have had much luck, as Cambodia's Defence Minister Tea Banh told Reuters he also met Boeing but was not buying anything for now.

Boeing is vying for a $10 billion Indian contract for warplanes, one of the world's biggest arms deals, together with Lockheed, Saab (SAABb.ST), Russia and a European consortium.

India plans to spend more than $30 billion over the next five years to modernise its largely Soviet-era weapons systems. China is spending 15 percent more on its military budget this year, leading to fears among some of an Asian arms race.

"What you do see in the region is a reaction between the military programmes of certain countries," said Tim Huxley, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the conference's organiser. "There are many players, each of which is looking over their shoulders."

Indonesia, hoping to update its hardware, spoke at the meeting to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates about buying Lockheed C-130 transport planes, and told Reuters it could be in a financial position in 2-3 years to buy jets and submarines.

The world's fourth-most populous nation aims to raise its defence spending to 1.2 percent of GDP within five years, from 0.68 percent or $3.3 billion now, its defense minister said.

Indonesia's southern neighbour Australia this month released a blueprint for a $72 billion military upgrade, though its defence minister told the conference spending was "rather modest" when looking across the region.

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was asked at the meeting if the defence plan clashed with his vision for a regional security architecture and EU-style community, and replied countries had to pursue that and a defence build-up.

"The chance of conflict can never be ruled out," Rudd said. (Additional reporting by Candida Ng and Harry Suhartono; Writing by Neil Chatterjee; Editing by bill Tarrant)

Gates: N. Korea Nukes a Grave Threat

AssociatedPress

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates uses some of the harshest words yet on the nuclear weapons situation in North Korea, warning the United States will not stand by if the country transfers weapons or technology to other states.

Malaria resistance to most effective drugs proven in Cambodia

Photo by mst7022, Flickr

http://www.digitaljournal.com

■ Paul Wallis

About half the world’s population is exposed to endemic malaria. The ancient disease, which was the plague of early civilizations, kills a million people a year, even today. Now, it’s showing resistance to the artemesinin class of drugs in Cambodia.

The suspected increased resistance (see Bob Ewing’s DJ article on this subject) has now been confirmed by international studies. The story of is much the same as that of increased resistance to anti biotics. Use of the drugs in Cambodia isn’t well controlled, and misuse of the drugs seems to be taking the same path as many other diseases.

There are a lot of ramifications in the development of a new form of resistant malaria. In terms of global health, it’s much like a new war, in the numbers of lives lost. Malaria is one of the most widespread global diseases, and the resistant forms have been known to spread rapidly, particularly in other impoverished areas. Asian strains of resistant malaria have previously spread rapidly in Africa.

The problem remains the Plasmodium parasite. Its extraordinary life cycle makes it hard to fight across all stages, and even massive extermination during the postwar years simply slowed it down. Add to this the difficulty of controlling the 60 species of Anopheles mosquito able to transmit malaria, and Plasmodium is the classic hard case of epidemiology. It's one of the hardest targets in medicine. Generations of work have gone into developing treatments, and this situation adds levels of difficulty nobody needs, and no poor countries can afford.

The World Health Organization has previously warned of serious ramifications to drug resistant malaria as far back as 2001, and has continued to express deep concern about the potentials of the drug resistant strains to spread globally.

This dramatic increase in resistance has happened before, with disastrous consequences. According to the WHO, referring to a previous form of anti malarial drugs:

Resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to choloroquine, the cheapest and the most used drug is spreading in almost all the endemic countries. Resistance to the combination of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine which was already present in South America and in South-East Asia is now emerging in East Africa.

There’s been further complications caused by fake drugs sold in poor countries like Cambodia, which contain enough drugs to pass tests, but not enough to work effectively as treatment. This is roughly the equivalent of inoculating the disease against the cure, and killing a few people on the side for ambiance.

(The fake drugs are said to be sold by criminal gangs. An interesting form of mass murder of thousands of people, if so. No doubt the traditional totally ineffective international law enforcement response will take care of the cosmetic elements, and charge them with the medical equivalent of jaywalking.)

The BBC says that the WHO actually told the drug producers of the current malaria drugs to stop selling the artemesinin drugs on their own, specifically to avoid this scenario.

The routine lack of cooperation from the drug companies is another problem. Medical professionals and organizations routinely cooperate internationally, even dealing with individual cases of infection. Nations usually cooperate and enforce their own regulations. But there are no effective global governing laws or coherent mechanisms to deal with the many cases of global spreads of diseases. The WHO doesn’t have the authority to demand enforcement of its policies. An enchanting international ad hoccery, as usual, pervades international law, and the pharmaceutical companies have exploited it. They can't be compelled to comply with WHO.

From the look of the malaria situation, the drug companies haven’t even noticed there’s a problem. For the sake of a few bucks extra on sales, millions of people could be put at risk. Even media terminology hasn’t quite found a name for this process, where health risks are monetized and sold to the world’s poor.

I can only think of one, off the cuff: Free Market Genocide. Catchy, isn’t it?

Civil Society: The US$18 Million Budget Can Only Assist Farmers Indirectly – Saturday, 30.5.2009

Posted on 31 May 2009
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 614
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“Phnom Penh: A civil society organization which works in agriculture claimed that the US$18 million allocated by the National Assembly as a foundation to assist agriculture and agro-industry can only help farmers indirectly, and some said that it is not oriented into the right direction.

“The president of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture – CEDAC – Mr. Yang Saing Koma, said on 29 May 2009 that the resources allocated by the National Assembly are good news for farmers, but they can only help them indirectly.

“He explained, ‘These resources can only help big enterprises, but there is no direct benefit for farmers.

“Mr. Saing Koma added that farmers might not benefit from them unless they are used to help farmers enhance their ability in doing farming, or to help them technically while the farming season is arriving, and to increase their yields and find specific markets for them. Doing this they will directly gain benefits, but the presently allocted resources can only help them partly.

“Apparently, the resources might be offered in the form of loans by the government to support different enterprises financially, and especially to those related to increase capital to buy rice to store it and other products from farmers for export, after several rice millers had announced that they lack capital to buy rice in the country. However, it was criticized that this measure seems to be somewhat late, because the harvesting season this year has almost finished.

“Mr. Saing Koma said, ‘I think that such a budget should have been adopted since December or January 2008, because so far, the harvesting season has almost passed, but if it is for next year, then it is good.’

“Regarding the adoption of this budget, an official from a farmer association who asked not to be named seems to agree with Mr. Saing Koma; he said that helping mainly big enterprises can only provide jobs to people with low salaries, while obviously about 80% of the farmers in Cambodia still encounter difficulties. He added that if they really want to help farmers, they have to ensure that there is a real market for farmers, and this should be enough.

“He went on to say that so far, 70% to 80% of the local market is occupied by neighboring countries’ products, as farmers are not much cared for directly.

“Related to the market for local products, Phnom Penh is not the only place, but farmers can hardly find markets for their products also at provinces.

“A vegetable vendor in Siem Reap, Mr. Sim Veasy, said that generally, farmers in Siem Reap nowadays say that vegetables for this well-known tourism city are all imported from neighboring countries, and many local farmers cannot produce much vegetables because they do not have the necessary capital.

“He added, ‘The 10 tonnes of vegetables in Siem Reap are all imported, while most Khmer farmers have only one basket of vegetables to sell.’”

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.17, #4907, 30.5.2009
Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Saturday, 30 May 2009

S. Korea Criticizes N. Korea Over Nuclear, Missile Tests

KCNA via AFP
An undated photo released in January 2009 shows a firing drill of two missiles at an undisclosed location in North Korea.

May 30: South Korean marines man at their positions at the South Korea's western Yeonpyong Island, near the disputed sea border with North Korea.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Associated Press

SEOGWIPO, South Korea — South Korea and Thailand criticized North Korea on Sunday, saying the country's nuclear test threatens world peace and stability and harms efforts to prevent atomic proliferation.

The two nations' leaders discussed Pyongyang's latest nuclear blast on the sidelines of a summit between South Korea and Southeast Asian countries being held amid heavy security.

The event was planned months ago, but North Korea's underground nuclear test and a series of short-range missile launches last week threatens to steal the limelight from economic matters, the main focus of the agenda.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agreed that the test goes against international efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and "undermines peace and stability not only in East Asia but also in the whole world," Lee Dong-kwan, the South Korean president's chief spokesman, told reporters.

They also agreed to exert diplomatic pressure to assure North Korea complies with U.N. Security Council resolutions and "promptly returns to six-party talks" aimed at ridding it of nuclear weapons.

The summit venue of Seogwipo — on the island of Jeju off the southern coast — is the South Korean city farthest away from the North. Still, the nervous South Korean government is taking no chances, positioning a surface-to-air missile outside the venue aimed toward the north.

Some 5,000 police officers, including approximately 200 commandos, and special vehicles that can analyze sarin gas and other chemicals have been deployed nearby, security authorities said in a press release. Marines, special forces and air patrols also kept watch on the island.

Leaders of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began arriving for the two-day summit, which officially begins Monday and commemorates 20 years of relations between South Korea and the bloc. South Korea's president planned to use Sunday for individual meetings with ASEAN leaders.

But concerns about North Korea's most recent bout of saber-rattling loomed. South Korean officials said Saturday that spy satellites had spotted signs that the North may be preparing to transport a long-range missile to a launch site.

The North has attacked South Korean targets before, bombing a Korea Air jet in 1987 and trying to kill then-President Chun Doo-hwan in Myanmar in 1983. But Pyongyang has largely abandoned such overt tactics in the past two decades.

The U.N. Security Council is still weighing how to react to the North's belligerent moves that have earned Pyongyang criticism from the U.S., Europe, Russia and even the North's closest ally, China.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday that North Korea's progress on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is "a harbinger of a dark future" and has created an urgent need for more pressure on the reclusive communist government to change its ways.

Gates, speaking at an annual meeting of defense and security officials in Singapore, said Pyongyang's efforts pose the potential for an arms race in Asia that could spread beyond the region.

An incensed North Korea said last month that it was quitting the six-party negotiations after the U.N. Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch, widely believed to be a test of its long-range missile technology. The Security Council has imposed sanctions against the North over its first nuclear test in October 2006.

The six-party framework, which began in 2003, consists of the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In addition to the summit, a gathering of South Korean and Southeast Asian business leaders began Sunday with addresses by Lee and Abhisit, who both called for further cooperation to overcome the global economic crisis.

South Korea, Asean to Boost Investment, Lee Says (Update2)

Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com

By Heejin Koo

May 31 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will agree to boost investment and trade to speed recovery from the global economic crisis

South Korea and Asean’s 10 members will sign the accord during a two-day summit that starts tomorrow, South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said today in a speech. The countries will also pledge to elevate their yearly trade to $150 billion by 2015 from $90 billion last year.

“A global crisis needs global countermeasures,” Lee told Korean and Asean business executives on the southern South Korean island of Jeju, where the summit will be held. “A joint effort between Korea and Asean, nations full of potential, is vital.”

Lee has pushed for free-trade agreements with the U.S., the European Union and with Asean to buoy exports and avoid a recession. South Korea’s economy unexpectedly expanded 0.1 percent in the first quarter after contracting 5.1 percent the previous three months.

The won has fallen 18 percent against the dollar and 26 percent against the yen in the past 12 months.

An earlier agreement between South Korea and Asean to lower tariffs on merchandise took effect in 2007 and another on services took hold this month. South Korea exported $49 billion worth of goods to Asean nations last year and imported $41 billion.

Regional Cooperation

“Regional cooperation and integration are no longer a luxury, but a necessity,” Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in a speech following Lee at the business leaders’ gathering. “In light of the global economic and financial crisis, we need to work more closely together to ensure that our trade and investment ties will not be seriously affected.”

Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heejin Koo in Seoul at hjkoo@bloomberg.net

South Korea calls for enhanced ties with ASEAN

South Korean president calls for common 'economic community' with Southeast Asian bloc

Kelly Olsen, Associated Press Writer
On Sunday May 31, 2009

SEOGWIPO, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called Sunday for closer business and cultural ties with Southeast Asia to create a common economic community that is a leader in green growth.

Lee, who invited leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian nations to commemorate 20 years of relations between the Seoul and the bloc, hailed the expansion of their economic ties.

Total trade has grown 11 times over the past two decades to $90.2 billion last year, he said, and is expected to increase to $150 billion by 2015.

"We must strengthen our economic partnership, expand cultural exchange and become partners in our common goal of taking the lead in the new era of green growth," Lee told business executives from his country and ahead of a summit on Monday and Tuesday. "We have the vast potential for future growth."

The two sides have concluded free trade agreements in goods and services and plan to sign an investment accord at the summit.

"We must strive to become one business and economic community where business is done in a free environment," Lee said.

The ASEAN bloc is South Korea's third-largest trading partner and second-largest investment destination. South Korea is the grouping's fifth-largest trading partner.

The summit was being held amid tight security after North Korea carried out its second nuclear test and a series of short-range missile tests over the past week.

The business gathering was also attended by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh and Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein. Other ASEAN leaders were arriving Sunday.

The summit has been in the works for months, but the tensions with the North have threatened to overshadow it, though Lee did not mention them in his speech.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

South Korea, Thailand criticize North over tests

A North Korean Navy ship, second from right, moves past North Korean fishing boats off South Korea's western Yeonpyong Island, near the disputed sea border with communist North Korea, Sunday, May 31, 2009. Spy satellites have spotted signs that North Korea may be preparing to transport another long-range missile to a test launch site, South Korean officials said Saturday, as the U.S. defense secretary issued his harshest warning to the North since its recent nuclear test.(AP Photo/Yonhap, Ahn Jung-won)

A South Korean anger looks at a Navy base near South Korea's western Yeonpyong Island, near the disputed sea border with communist North Korea, Sunday, May 31, 2009. Spy satellites have spotted signs that North Korea may be preparing to transport another long-range missile to a test launch site, South Korean officials said Saturday, as the U.S. defense secretary issued his harshest warning to the North since its recent nuclear test.(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

By KELLY OLSEN, Associated Press Writer

SEOGWIPO, South Korea – South Korea and Thailand criticized North Korea on Sunday, saying the country's nuclear test threatens world peace and stability and harms efforts to prevent atomic proliferation.

The two nations' leaders discussed Pyongyang's latest nuclear blast on the sidelines of a summit between South Korea and Southeast Asian countries being held amid heavy security.

The event was planned months ago, but North Korea's underground nuclear test and a series of short-range missile launches last week threatens to steal the limelight from economic matters, the main focus of the agenda.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva agreed that the test goes against international efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and "undermines peace and stability not only in East Asia but also in the whole world," Lee Dong-kwan, the South Korean president's chief spokesman, told reporters.

They also agreed to exert diplomatic pressure to assure North Korea complies with U.N. Security Council resolutions and "promptly returns to six-party talks" aimed at ridding it of nuclear weapons.

The summit venue of Seogwipo — on the island of Jeju off the southern coast — is the South Korean city farthest away from the North. Still, the nervous South Korean government is taking no chances, positioning a surface-to-air missile outside the venue aimed toward the north.

Some 5,000 police officers, including approximately 200 commandos, and special vehicles that can analyze sarin gas and other chemicals have been deployed nearby, security authorities said in a press release. Marines, special forces and air patrols also kept watch on the island.

Leaders of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began arriving for the two-day summit, which officially begins Monday and commemorates 20 years of relations between South Korea and the bloc. South Korea's president planned to use Sunday for individual meetings with ASEAN leaders.

But concerns about North Korea's most recent bout of saber-rattling loomed. South Korean officials said Saturday that spy satellites had spotted signs that the North may be preparing to transport a long-range missile to a launch site.

The North has attacked South Korean targets before, bombing a Korea Air jet in 1987 and trying to kill then-President Chun Doo-hwan in Myanmar in 1983. But Pyongyang has largely abandoned such overt tactics in the past two decades.

The U.N. Security Council is still weighing how to react to the North's belligerent moves that have earned Pyongyang criticism from the U.S., Europe, Russia and even the North's closest ally, China.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday that North Korea's progress on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is "a harbinger of a dark future" and has created an urgent need for more pressure on the reclusive communist government to change its ways.

Gates, speaking at an annual meeting of defense and security officials in Singapore, said Pyongyang's efforts pose the potential for an arms race in Asia that could spread beyond the region.

An incensed North Korea said last month that it was quitting the six-party negotiations after the U.N. Security Council condemned its April 5 rocket launch, widely believed to be a test of its long-range missile technology. The Security Council has imposed sanctions against the North over its first nuclear test in October 2006.

The six-party framework, which began in 2003, consists of the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In addition to the summit, a gathering of South Korean and Southeast Asian business leaders began Sunday with addresses by Lee and Abhisit, who both called for further cooperation to overcome the global economic crisis.

___

Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seogwipo, Lara Jakes and Vijay Joshi in Singapore, Kwang-tae Kim in Seoul, and AP photographer Bullit Marquez in Seogwipo contributed to this report.

Cambodian PM Hun Sen to visit RoK

VOV News
http://english.vovnews.vn

05/31/2009

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will pay an official visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) from June 3-5, according to news reports.

During the official visit, Cambodia and the RoK will sign several cooperation agreements including the grant to Cambodia, loans for Cambodia's road rehabilitation, waste water treatment, Siem Reap River's development and cooperation in the fields of construction, energy, mines and communications.

The delegation included Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Senior Minister and Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister and Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction Im Chhun Lim and other members of the royal government.

The RoK became the largest foreign investor in Cambodia in 2007.

VNA/VOVNews

More markers built on Vietnam-Cambodia borderline

VOV News
http://english.vovnews.vn

05/31/2009

Vietnam’s southern Kien Giang province and its Cambodian neighbour, Kampot province, have put into use 13 new border markers built on their common borderline.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony on May 29, Kampot’s President Khuoi Khunhua said the event marked a new step in the development of the bilateral relations between the two provinces.

The event also showed the unceasingly efforts at the two countries’ border areas in building a borderline of peace, stability and development.

At the ceremony, the two sides agreed to upgrade a couple of border gates – Ton Hon (Kampot) and Giang Than (Kien Giang), in order to facilitate trade and travel between people of the two provinces.

VNA/VOVNews

CAMBODIA Rice bank helps poor families

Yem Nuon, cashier of the rice bank program in Kandal’s Stueng district

http://www.ucanews.com
May 29, 2009

KANDAL, Cambodia (UCAN) -- Caritas Cambodia is seeing positive results four years after establishing its rice bank program to help poor rural families.

In Lavear Am and Kandal Stueng districts in Kandal province, for instance, the program has significantly benefited impoverished households, says Chhay Meng, Caritas Cambodia's program manager in this province.

The program here is just one of the many rice bank schemes that Caritas is involved in across the country. Caritas is the Catholic Church's social service agency.

"Confronted by immense poverty and suffering, our most fundamental response has been supporting marginalized communities by sharing resources, supplying seeds for farmers, increasing their output and supplies, and helping to reduce their dependence on high interest loans," he said.

Meng said that Caritas has managed to help six communes and 13 villages in the province, directly benefiting up to 250 of the poorest families.

The good thing about the program, he said, is that although Caritas is the principle sponsor, it is the local people who are mainly responsible for the day-to-day running of the rice bank.

Farmers contribute 20 kilograms of rice to the bank on joining the scheme.

Participants wishing to borrow rice to feed their families will have to pay 20 percent interest on what they borrow. However, the interest rate goes up to 50 percent on rice seed for planting, which they pay back at harvest time. If they default on a repayment, then it can affect their ability to borrow in the future.

The scheme also allows farmers to save rice, said Meng.

Rice bank officials are elected by rice bank members in the villages and staff from Caritas Cambodia. There are three main officials per district: director, deputy-director, and cashier.

According to Yem Nuon, 54, cashier in Kandal's Stueng district, Caritas Cambodia in 2005 provided 250 kilograms of rice to poor families in her district. Since then the rice bank has grown significantly so that there is now a reserve of about three tons.

"I'm very thankful to Caritas Cambodia for assisting the poor families in our village," she said "If our crops fail, we can borrow seed from the bank. If we borrow from other sources, we have to pay double the interest (almost 100 percent)," she said.

Hem Pring, 60, director of the rice bank in the same village, said her village has 26 families already registered as members of the program and 56 other people are about to join. "The members are living better lives now," she added.

StockSource.us reports on ELRA's Cambodia Mineralized Deposit.

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The Porphyry Creek prospect area has been the subject of sporadic exploration activity for the last 50-years. All work to date has focused on a small area of known outcrop originally discovered in the bed of Porphyry Creek. The most comprehensive exploration work was carried out by the French in the 1950's when they completed a large excavation locally known as "French Pit" on the east bank of Porphyry Creek, approximately 50m downstream of the original outcrop.

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Cambodia's dump dwellers face eviction

A boy (left) sits at a garbage dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (AFP)

Emirates Business 24/7
http://www.business24-7.ae/

By AFP on Saturday, May 30, 2009

Scavenging for bits of plastic, metal and glass that earn them an average $10 (Dh36.70) a month, the children of Phnom Penh's municipal rubbish dump are among Cambodia's poorest.

Hundreds of families live on and around the 100-acre (40.5-hectare) site, making their meagre living from the materials they collect on the steaming rubbish heap, replenished daily with 900 tonnes of the capital's refuse.

"We don't go to school. I'd like to but I need to pick the litter and earn money. I have nine siblings and they all work the same job as me," said 13-year-old Mek.

Dump trucks rumble in and out of Stung Meanchey landfill site throughout the day, while the toxic waste that covers sink holes burns in the sun.

"I really worry about the children working on the dump especially because of the rubbish trucks that sometimes hit the children, because it's hard to see them up there," said 26-year-old father-of-two Chan Samon.

His fears are not unfounded – in February a 16-year-old girl was killed when a bin fell on her head. There have been numerous victims like her since the site opened more than 45 years ago.

Chan Samon told AFP he earns a pittance selling mostly bottles and cans to Vietnamese buyers. Middlemen come to nine storage depots at the dump's entrance, before selling it on to recycling companies for profit.

One kilogramme (2.2 pounds) of plastic fetches 10 cents, while one kilogramme of iron or a glass bottle goes for 2.5 cents.

But these slim pickings are all these families have. Many of them arrived in Phnom Penh from the rural provinces in the hope of finding better work, only to discover their only option was to join those foraging for rubbish.

Now Cambodia's authorities are closing down the site and moving the dump several miles outside the capital.

None of the residents are clear who is evicting them, only that they have been told to expect to move at any time.

"I heard something about the dump moving but I don't know what's going to happen," said Mek, who has worked at the site since he was three years old.

The move has been discussed locally since 2003, residents said, but a recent letter sent out by municipal authorities to all Phnom Penh residents confirmed the closure would take place in the "second quarter" of the year.

It said rubbish collection prices would need to rise because of the move, which it said was necessary because of the "environmental impact" of the site, citing the noise, smell, smoke and poor underground water quality.

Until the proposed eviction a few lucky children had escaped the grimy work thanks to about a dozen charities set up around the landfill site.

The organisations pay parents for lost income while they provide their offspring with schooling, clothes, food and a clean place to sleep.

"When I was up on the dump I met (charity outreach worker) Theary and he was interested in helping me and he brought me here," said 10-year-old Srey Neat, one of 96 children being looked after by Theary, who goes by only one name, and the charity "A New Day Cambodia".

The centre pays parents 10 dollars a month to keep their children away from the scavenging work.

But with the dump's closure, that helping hand may not be able to stretch far enough if the dump dwellers move further afield.

"We have some concern about whether some of the parents will need to move away and would like to take their children with them," said the centre's director Annette Jensen.

The landfill site is expected to be rebuilt next to Cambodia's infamous Killing Fields, where thousands of people were killed and buried by the communist Khmer Rouge regime during its 1975-1979 rule.

Chan Samon said he will have no choice but to take his wife and two children and move over to the new site.

"If the dump moves we will have to move with it. I have no choice because I don't have any other job," he said.

Vietnam, Cambodia: two border gates to be upgraded

http://english.vietnamnet.vn

30/05/2009

Two border gates in the southern province of Kien Giang in Vietnam and Kampot province in Cambodia will be upgraded to become national border gates.

They are Giang Thanh border gate of Kien Giang and Ton Hon border gate of Kampot.

The People’s Committee of Kien Giang province and the Administrative Committee of Kampot province on May 29 held a ceremony to launch the work and also inaugurated border landmark No. 302.

Representatives of the Cambodian consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnamese consulate in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville port city and senior officials from the two border provinces attended the event.

The upgrading of the two border gates aims to satisfy the daily needs of people from both countries and add an impetus to trade and import-export activities.

Apart from the Giang Thanh border gate, Kien Giang province also has another border gate at Ha Tien, which has become one of the busiest international border gates in the Mekong Delta region over the past three years.

In the first five months of this year, exports passing through Ha Tien’s border gate reached nearly 30 million USD, a year-on-year increase of 30 percent.

State President Nguyen Minh Triet granted the Independence Order, First Class, to the National Academy of Public Administration at a meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of its opening, in Hanoi on May 29.

The State President praised the contributions made by the academy’s professors, lecturers and staff over the last 50 years for training officials and providing professional administrative human resources for public offices.

The academy also plays a key role in conducting research on administrative science, to speed up the country’s administrative reforms, he added.

The public administration academy and other agencies play an important role in administrative reforms and improving the quality of the State’s apparatus, which is now an urgent and basic demand for the success of the country’s international integration process, he stressed.

The State leader also urged the academy to upgrade the syllabus used in administrative science to ensure better quality training and work with other countries to train public administrative officials.

During its half-century of operations, the academy has given refresher courses to more than 90,000 staff and officials from ministries and the relevant agencies as well as 10,000 officials who are chairmen and deputy chairmen of the People’s Council and People’s Committee at communal levels.

The academy has run over 10 official tertiary courses training thousands of public administrators, 14 postgraduate courses and several doctorate courses.

The academy boasts a strong pool of lecturers with 40 professors and associate professors and more than 200 others holding doctorate and master degrees.

VietNamNet/VNA