Cambodian deputy PM to join ICJ’s hearing on Preah Vihear temple issues

   PHNOM PENH, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will send a Cambodian expert team to join the public hearing on the issues of Preah Vihear temple at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on May 30-31 in The Hague, The Netherlands, according to a press release on Thursday.

   The team will lead by Cambodian deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong, minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, said the ministry’s statement.

   “The public hearing will focus on the conservatory measures for Preah Vihear Temple,” it added.

   The upcoming public hearing is held after Cambodia, on April 28, submitted a request to the Court for the interpretation of the Court’s judgment of 1962 on the case concerning the temple of Preah Vihear temple. Also, it submitted a request to the ICJ to take conservatory measures for the temple.

   “Cambodia considered conservatory measures as unavoidable for engendering a permanent ceasefire between the two countries, thus stopping the loss of lives and preserving the temple of Preah Vihear temple from serious damages, until the interpretation of the ICJ’s 1962 judgment is finalized,” said the statement of the ministry of foreign affairs on April 29.

   The ICJ awarded Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia in 1962 and the temple was enlisted as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.

   The border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand has occurred just a week after the enlistment due to Thailand claims the ownership of 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) of scrub next to the temple.

   Since then, both sides have built up military forces along the border and periodic clashes have happened, resulted in the deaths of troops and civilians on both sides.

   The two sides agreed to accept Indonesian observers to monitor a ceasefire on their respective border side on Feb 22 at the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Jakarta, but the deployment was always delayed because Thailand demanded that Cambodian soldiers and locals be withdrawn from the disputed area of 4.6 sq km near the temple first.  (Nguon Sovan)

China gives over 50,000 sets of military uniforms to Cambodia

   PHNOM PENH, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The government of China on Thursday delivered 50,000 sets of military uniforms to Cambodia, signaling a closer defense cooperation between the two nations.

   The hand-over ceremony was held at the Military Airport in Phnom Penh between Zhang Jianlin, Chinese military attaché to Cambodia, and Lt. Gen. Sun Samnang, director general of Cambodia’s Defense Ministry’s logistics and finance department, under the witness by the four-star general Moeung Samphan, a secretary of state for Cambodian Defense Ministry.

   Speaking after the hand-over ceremony, Zhang Jianlin said that the donation of military uniforms was made after the meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in May last year in Shanghai.

   At that time, Hu Jintao pledged a joined package of 257 military trucks and 50,000 sets of military uniforms to Cambodia.

   The 257 military trucks had delivered to Cambodia in June last year.

   “Now, to honor the promise, Chinese government has handed over the uniforms to Cambodia today,” he said.

   “Chinese Defense Ministry hopes that the uniforms will help relieve the shortage of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces,” he said. “The donation also reflects honest and good cooperation between Chinese and Cambodian armies.”

   He continued to say that China is pleased to help Cambodian military sector as much as possible to tighten closer cooperation ties between the two nations.

   Meanwhile, Moeung Samphan expressed profound thanks to the government of China and Chinese Army for their continuous supports to Cambodian armed forces and highly evaluated the good cooperation between Cambodian and Chinese defense ministries.

   “The donation of the military uniforms today is on the right time as Cambodia is facing the shortage of military materials,” he said. “Cambodia firmly hopes that China will continue further support to Cambodian armed forces.”  (Nguon Sovan)

Cambodia and China sign trade promotion cooperation

   PHNOM PENH, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) on Tuesday afternoon signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the development of bilateral trade.

   The MoU was inked between Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh and Wan Jifei, visiting chairman of CCPIT and president of China Chamber of International Commerce.

   Speaking before the signing ceremony, Cham Prasidh said the agreement will be useful for Cambodia to strengthen and expand trade cooperation between Cambodia and China.

   “As Cambodia and China have good relations in all levels ranging from the two countries’ governments to businesspeople and common people, I believe that Cambodia and China will be able to achieve the bilateral trade volume of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2012,” he said.

   The minister has suggested China to help encourage Chinese investors and people to purchase Cambodian agricultural products such as rice, corn, cassava and rubber in order to fulfill the expected trade target in 2012.

   Meanwhile, Wan Jifei said that the two countries’ cooperation in terms of trade and investment has a lot of room to grow.

   He added that through the agreement, the CCPIT will encourage more Chinese investors to come to Cambodia, will arrange more meetings between the two countries’ businesspeople, and will organize trade fairs in China or in Cambodia.

   Wan Jifei stressed that currently, the exports of Cambodian products to China are done by the third country such as Vietnam or Thailand.

  “This is the reason that Cambodia’s exports to China are far fewer than those China’s exports to Cambodia because the third country buys products from Cambodia and exports to China,” he said. “So it’s necessary that Cambodian and Chinese businesspeople have to meet more often in order to bridge direct trade between the two countries.” (Nguon Sovan)

Cambodia sees sharp rise in trade with Vietnam in Q1

   PHNOM PENH, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and Vietnam had reached 331 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year, rose 32 percent from only 251 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, according to the government report on Tuesday.

   Of the figure, from January to March this year, Vietnam’s exports to Cambodia were 295 million U.S. dollars, up 28 percent from 231 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, while Cambodia’s exports to Vietnam were 36 million U.S. dollars, rose 80 percent from 20 million U.S. dollars, recorded the report of the commerce ministry’s statistics and planning department.

   Generally, Cambodia exported unprocessed agricultural products such as rice, corn, cassava, rubbers to Vietnam, while Vietnam exported petroleum, construction materials, IT equipment, agricultural machinery, fertilizers, and consumer products to Cambodia.

   Vietnam is the second largest trade partner with Cambodia. The first largest one is Thailand and the third one is China.

   Last year, Cambodia-Vietnam’s total trade volume was 1.83 billion U.S. dollars, of which the exports from Cambodia worth 276 million U.S. dollars. (Nguon Sovan)

China seeks to expand trade and investment ties with Cambodia

   PHNOM PENH, May 24 (Xinhua) -- China sees Cambodia as one of the potential trade and investment partners among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and pledges to boost closer economic ties between the two countries, said a senior Chinese official on Tuesday. 

   During a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, the visiting Wan Jifei, chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and president of China Chamber of International Commerce, said that his visit to Cambodia was to boost closer cooperation between Cambodia and China on trade and investment.

   He has brought with a number of large Chinese companies to explore trade and investment opportunity in Cambodia.

   “China is pleased to encourage Chinese investors to Cambodia in order to help Cambodia in its efforts for national development,” he said. 

   Meanwhile, premier Hun Sen said that the bilateral relation between Cambodia and China on economics and investment has strongly developed since the visit of Wu Yi, Vice Premier of the State Council of China to Cambodia in March 2004.

   “To date, China is the largest investor in Cambodia,” he said, adding that most of Chinese investments here are in infrastructure development, hydro-power dams, mineral resources exploration, irrigation system, and garment industry.

   “These investment projects are very vital for sustainable and long-term development of Cambodian economy,” added the premier.

   According to the report from the Council for the Development of Cambodia, China is the largest investors in Cambodia with the accumulative investment of 8 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2010.

   Hun Sen continued to say that Cambodia would try to boost bilateral trade with China to hit 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2012 from 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2010.

   Wan Jifei will also hold meeting with Cambodian minister of commerce Cham Prasidh and officials at Cambodian chamber of commerce on Tuesday afternoon on trade and investment cooperation opportunity. (Nguon Sovan)

Cambodian officials head to UNESCO for talks with Thailand over temple issues

   PHNOM PENH, May 23 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian delegation led by the cabinet minister Sok An on Monday evening left Phnom Penh for the UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris for a meeting with Thailand over the Preah Vihear temple’s management plan proposal.

   The UNESCO-organized meeting will be on May 25-26 in order to enable Cambodia and Thailand to negotiate about Cambodia’s unilateral management plan proposal of Preah Vihear temple, but it is opposed by Thailand.

   Speaking at Phnom Penh International Airport before his departure, Sok An, who is also Chairman of the Cambodian National Commission for UNESCO, said that in the upcoming meeting, he will hold talk with Thai minister of natural resources and environment Suwit Khunkitti, chief of the Thai heritage affairs.

   “The meeting will focus on Preah Vihear temple and its management plan,” he said.

   “Cambodia’s proposal for the inclusion of the temple’s management plan to the World Heritage Committee (WHC) does not affect Thailand because the plan is conducted in Cambodian territory,” he said

   However, the Bangkok Post online newspaper reported on May 20 that Suwit Khunkitti said that Thailand stands firm on addressing the issue by determining the boundary on the Thai-Cambodian border first before a management plan around the temple is proposed to the WHC.

   He claimed that part of the land in the management plan around the temple is still located on the Thai soil, the newspaper reported.

   Sok An said that the upcoming meeting, he will present to UNESCO about the damage of the temple after Thai troops had fired 414 rounds of artilleries on the temple in the deadly clashes on Feb. 4-7.

   “We will also urge UNESCO to send its experts to evaluate the damage order to consider for renovation,” he added.

   The upcoming meeting is the preparatory one prior to the World Heritage Committee’s annual meeting to be held in Paris in June 19, he added.

   Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple was enlisted as World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008.

   The border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand has occurred just a week after the enlistment due to Thai claim of the ownership of 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of scrub next to the temple.

   Since then, both sides have built up military forces along the border and periodic clashes have happened, resulted in the deaths of troops and civilians on both sides.

   The two sides agreed to accept Indonesian observers to monitor a ceasefire on their respective border side on Feb 22 at the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Jakarta, but the deployment was always delayed because Thailand demanded that Cambodian soldiers and locals be withdrawn from the disputed area of 4.6 sq km near the temple first. (Nguon Sovan)