There was this economic intelligence group who once predicted Cambodian income to have lost 75% while only 25% was left and it was the same team that wrote and requested for an audience with me. I find it incredible even in family level that 75% of its income has been depleted by their children in anyway and the family is still doing fine. The country’s economy is emerging in a growth rate of about 10% five consecutive years, where 10.4% was the highest in 2005, Cambodia was at that time predicted to be 1.6% or 1.7% growth country. You know what, we did 13.3%. Because of this fact-missing assessment of the Cambodian economy, I do not know how to respect their intelligence …
Cambodia has been classified according to their reading similar to those countries of Sudan, Angola, Chad, Zimbabwe, while as I said elsewhere we have decided to send our de-mining troops to Chad and Central African Republic in addition to those that are working in Sudan as an international contribution under the United Nations umbrella …
How could we then send our troops to Chad if Cambodia is ranked as equal as Chad … Some countries have been classified as better off (than Cambodia) while their countries are still at war, social upheavals. Is it an effort to thwart off investment influx into Cambodia? I think this is the question to ask.
Cambodia is not free from crisis but we are not as stupid to destabilize the country and to create political turmoil, thus losing its normal socio-economic process … I do not think the Cambodian people are that stupid that when they know that there are economic hardships, instead of laboring harder, they take to the forest to wage war, if I may say as an example. One cannot tell as there can be countless of political risks … Sometimes, demonstration brings about instability or a revolution … But being in Cambodia, have they seen us preparing for all of those? Is it a political intention to block influx of investment into Cambodia?
I would like to inform you all that all projects have been implementing and we do not retreat from them, take for instance, all electric power stations developed with the Chinese assistance are to keep going, while roads and other infrastructure are to mentioned, as HE the Chinese Ambassador is here too, China has now played an ever bigger role, and I wish China to be richer. I was once asked by President of Nikkei Company in Tokyo if China will become a threat being a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) … I gave them a simple answer, to receive Chinese tourists or to accommodate Chinese refugees …
IN our history when China was in difficult situation because of invasion from foreign countries, the Chinese had fled their countries and some have been living in Cambodia and some in other countries in Southeast Asia. So if about 20 million Chinese took refuge what kind of drama we all will have …
But if we all make China a rich country and we all receive Chinese tourists, I think it would be better … I would like to take this opportune moment to give my appreciation to the fact that Chinese tourists seem to increase in number as they have changed their tour destination because of economic difficulties from Europe to Asia, Cambodia included, which cost less …
Further to that trade between China and ASEAN countries are for the benefit of the ASEAN countries more than for China itself because the ASEAN countries’ volume of export to China is bigger than the volume from China to ASEAN …
Again I met the President of Nikkei Company and he said to me Your Excellency’s understanding is quite justifiable as China has now become a reality and it has given no threats to any country …
Having said all this I wish to remind you that concerns have been expressed about China being member of WTO and it will be a stronger country economically leading to being strong in military and influential in politics …
As for Cambodia, all projects are on the move and I would say there would not be major impacts … As exports crisis is a normal experience as buyer countries suffer financial and economic difficulties making money scarce …
What has been lost in our income is the tax on vehicles and I am sure the people of Cambodia know their situation full well that if they could not afford new cars, they would go for the ones of a lower prices. If we were to have no new car, we would not be dead as without rice … and that situation is not existing here …
They have thought of Madagascar as better than Cambodia, Guinea Bissau whose President had been assassinated to be better off, while Guinea has indeed requested to buy rice from Cambodia … I have no intention whatsoever to discredit the two countries but the EI seems to have put Cambodia in a wrong position. What is the heck as they invite me to London only after they criticized me? The problem is if I should take the invitation or not and to respond to their letter or not?
Cambodia still benefit from a situation that its workers have not been entirely cut off from their farms because we just have factories while they still have their parents owning farms back in their native villages … Our way of helping them is to increase, and we have incorporated in the budget law, spending in agricultural sector and more will be provided every year so that agriculture will accumulate more capital …
What seems to be our concern here is if we are able to meet the millennium development goals in this state of economic downturn? Or should we readjust them? Given situation has been changed if we compared to the time when we set out objectives for the millennium …
Will the United Nations readjust them, for example the time frame? Cambodia is also concerned that its objective of eliminating 1% of poverty every year will be affected as those who have been cleared off the poverty line might fall back again under it because of the situation … but we do not anticipate political risk as is predicted by EI because the people of Cambodia do not see why that have to go back to war or social unrest …
HE Ambassador of the United States of America, the other day brought a delegation of US-ASEAN business groups to see me and many have introduced their investment interests in Cambodia but can we ask if Cambodia is in this risk level, why should they come to us? The same is true with HE the Ambassador of Australia as we have cooperation in the field of Bauxite mining and they are in final stage of preparation … no one has abandoned the project yet …
Please do not take my response as a clash with EI but I just need to make sure that the country is being seen in an objective way that it does suffer in this financial and economic climate but to die from it is not what it is going to be … We have all that the world needs and that is rice …
We have a crisis now and it is how to sell out rice because we have too much in surplus and we also have too much cassava and I have requested to Vietnam to buy up more from us and the Thai Trade Minister also came to find a way to break through but Cambodia in addition to all this has to be prepared to final products processing by itself before exporting.
I would call on Cambodians of all walks of life to act seriously in solving economic problem and to prove it is wrong the kind of prediction from such an organization … I wonder if the Global Witness and EI are one of a kind …
There was this comment that in Tumring Rubber plantation of Kompong Thom province there were not even a single rubber tree, and I returned my comment that yes not a single tree but thousands of hectares … How come they classified countries at war to be better off than Cambodia? But the importance is it is not up to what other people say – take for instance IMF predicted Cambodia in the first three months of this year will have growth of 0.5%, while ADB said Cambodia will get 2.5% for the same period – but it is up to what we are doing.
It is hard to exercise trade relations though as some countries have pursued strictly two policies – protectionism and subsidy – only they are disguised under hygiene criteria, for example. For Europe the deal seems to be better in agricultural products as long as they are organic. So we have to make efforts in producing organic products … Exports from developed to developing countries seems to be comparable to water running off the hill top while on a reverse order like from foot hill back up top …■
