Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Plan to Create Association of Rice Exporting Countries in Five ASEAN Countries

Posted on 7 May 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 559

“In an attempt to reduce the Philippine senior officials’ worry about the creation of an association of rice exporting countries, Samdech Akkak Moha Senapadei Dekchor Hun Sen said that this issue is not new among the cooperating countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region. A few days ago, the Thai prime minister mentioned an issue related to ASEAN and the creation of an Association of Rice Exporting Countries. Samdech Dekchor stated that the Thai Prime Minister’s initiative is not new, and it is also not anyone other’s idea but Hun Sen’s idea.

“Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that on the morning of 5 May at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, as he presided over a certificate awarding ceremony to graduates of engineering of the 21st and the 22nd intakes, of bachelor’s degrees in engineering of the 1st and the 2nd intakes, and of senior technicians of the 10th and the 11th intakes. Samdech Prime Minister added that ‘during the meeting in Bangkok in 2005, I, myself, asked the countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region to create an Association of Rice Exporting Countries, and I was immediately supported by our partners, but those people have gone and passed away – first, the former Thai Prime Minister Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra who hosted the meeting, second, the former Vietnamese Prime Minister, third, the former Lao Prime Minister, and forth, the former Myanmar Prime Minister who has passed away; that is it.’

“Regarding the statute for the association, it had been planed for a meeting since 2007, the event would be held in Hanoi, Vietnam; however, there were storms and rains which destroyed infrastructure, so Vietnam asked for a delay until February. At that time the situation in Thailand was not clear, as a government had not yet been properly created, so Vietnam shifted the planed meeting until this April after the traditional Khmer New Year.

“Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen said that however, at that time, ‘I had suggested to discuss it with Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. From March until the elections [in July], I would not be able to leave my country.’

“Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen stressed again that it is not the Thai Prime Minister’s new idea, but it was Hun Sen’s idea in 2005, which had earned support from all former prime ministers, who are by now no longer in these positions or have died, and only Hun Sen is still here. In the speech regarding this issue, Samdech Prime Minister stressed that it is not an intention to create something like OPEC [the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries], which some times is producing more oil, and sometimes it cuts the production down. We really want to contribute to guarantee food safety.

“Samdech explained that this initiative was taken because Cambodia had once accepted a request from the World Food Program to establish storehouses in Cambodia for food distribution in the region. Whenever there might be a tsunami, the World Food Program would immediately send planes to load rice from Cambodia. Thus, we want to create a system of cooperation with rice exporting countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Thailand has approximately 9 million tonnes, Vietnam has 6 million tonnes, Cambodia has 2 million tonnes, as for Myanmar and Lao, they have not yet the figures, but if we check in general in these five countries, the figure is approximately 12 to 15 million tonnes per year; this covers the world market at a pretty high level.”

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6337, 6.5.2008

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