Chom Chao (Cambodia), 06 October 2008. For several months now, customers are hard to come by in Phnom Penh, especially on the eve of the Water Festival (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)11 Nov 2008
By Chan Soratha
Ka-set
Unofficial translation from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French
Click here to read the article in Khmer
While the Water Festival will take place during three days and thousands of provincial visitors will come to Phnom Penh, the capital, business among small shopkeepers has been bad for past several months, even though, these shopkeepers claim that the current period is when people buy the most. The crisis with Thailand does not help boost orders either, some shopkeepers said, several of their wholesale customers from border provinces have decided to slow down their business activities. The following gives an overview of the situation.
Market gloom
Channy is bored in her mosquito net shop that she operated for the past eight years in Phsar Olympic market. “I can’t say that I sell much! Customers from the province have disappeared this year! Maybe people are afraid to spend their money right now…” she tried to explain.
It is 2PM and the market alleyways remain desperately deserted. Shopkeepers kill their time by chatting among themselves. Be Vouch Shaing, comfortably wedged behind piles of clothes, said that she does not understand the situation. “I’ve never seen this! Every year, near the Water Festival period, we make good business. Look at my stock! The volume remains the same!”
The shopkeeper disarray can be seen in every market in the capital. If Cambodian customers are nowhere nearby, tourists are nowhere to be found either. “November had always been a good month, but this year: nothing! There are very few tourists who came to the market,” Sok Eng, a souvenir store shopkeeper in Tuol Tompoung market, lamented.
The same complaints can be heard at the O’Russei market. Chheng’s dry fish has no buyer since the July general election. “Before, I sold 200 kilos each day, but now only 10 kilos! Can you imagine that? I’m waiting to see what I can switch my business to!” she grumbled.
Whose fault?
While everyone displays their gloom, Laing, a jewelry shopkeeper at the Tuol Tompoung market, blamed the financial crisis which shook up the US as the culprit of her misfortune. “During the past years, I sold my jewelry well starting from September.. Now we are in already in November, I don’t know what I am going to do … but, I only know how to sell jewelry!” she said in desperation.
At the Phsar Kandal market, shopkeepers are busy chatting about the future of their businesses. Meng’s trees find no buyer for the first time since 1989. “Maybe people don’t want to spend their money on superfluous stuff when inflation takes out a big chunk from their budget…” he speculated with other shopkeepers who nodded their agreement.
Concerns over the financial crisis
Chan Sophal, president of the Economic Association of Cambodia, indicated that fear about political instability in the country slows down consumption in Cambodia. “When people are not assured, they don’t spend and they save for the upcoming hard time. However, if domestic consumption is not getting back on track, the Cambodian economy will pay a price for it, and it could even collapse,” he warned.
To Kang Chandararoth, director of the Cambodia Institute for development studies, the border conflict with Thailand would not have an impact on the consumption level by Cambodians, but, according to Kang Chandararoth, the galloping inflation and the worldwide financial crisis eroded the purchasing power and now people are looking twice before they spend.
Market gloom
Channy is bored in her mosquito net shop that she operated for the past eight years in Phsar Olympic market. “I can’t say that I sell much! Customers from the province have disappeared this year! Maybe people are afraid to spend their money right now…” she tried to explain.
It is 2PM and the market alleyways remain desperately deserted. Shopkeepers kill their time by chatting among themselves. Be Vouch Shaing, comfortably wedged behind piles of clothes, said that she does not understand the situation. “I’ve never seen this! Every year, near the Water Festival period, we make good business. Look at my stock! The volume remains the same!”
The shopkeeper disarray can be seen in every market in the capital. If Cambodian customers are nowhere nearby, tourists are nowhere to be found either. “November had always been a good month, but this year: nothing! There are very few tourists who came to the market,” Sok Eng, a souvenir store shopkeeper in Tuol Tompoung market, lamented.
The same complaints can be heard at the O’Russei market. Chheng’s dry fish has no buyer since the July general election. “Before, I sold 200 kilos each day, but now only 10 kilos! Can you imagine that? I’m waiting to see what I can switch my business to!” she grumbled.
Whose fault?
While everyone displays their gloom, Laing, a jewelry shopkeeper at the Tuol Tompoung market, blamed the financial crisis which shook up the US as the culprit of her misfortune. “During the past years, I sold my jewelry well starting from September.. Now we are in already in November, I don’t know what I am going to do … but, I only know how to sell jewelry!” she said in desperation.
At the Phsar Kandal market, shopkeepers are busy chatting about the future of their businesses. Meng’s trees find no buyer for the first time since 1989. “Maybe people don’t want to spend their money on superfluous stuff when inflation takes out a big chunk from their budget…” he speculated with other shopkeepers who nodded their agreement.
Concerns over the financial crisis
Chan Sophal, president of the Economic Association of Cambodia, indicated that fear about political instability in the country slows down consumption in Cambodia. “When people are not assured, they don’t spend and they save for the upcoming hard time. However, if domestic consumption is not getting back on track, the Cambodian economy will pay a price for it, and it could even collapse,” he warned.
To Kang Chandararoth, director of the Cambodia Institute for development studies, the border conflict with Thailand would not have an impact on the consumption level by Cambodians, but, according to Kang Chandararoth, the galloping inflation and the worldwide financial crisis eroded the purchasing power and now people are looking twice before they spend.
9 comments:
The worse have yet to come.
yup the situation only get worse while everyone is preparing for the global economic recession.. Already, world's giant companies started to fall down, one following another.. financial markets & commodity markets are also on the slum.. Cambodia, are you ready? here i come, Mr. Global Recession.
The US is to blame! They created the sub-prime loan and started the credit crunch.. motherfucker!
^ Yep, the US is mostly to blame but don't forget about OPEC. Those fuckin' greedy oil producing nations jack the price of oil so much that people all over the world can't afford it. Now look what happen, now they are trying to sell oil at the cheaping price. They should have sold oil at a resonable price.
All blames go to AH TRA NGAUL KING MEE NHEE(SIHAKMEENHEE)...because of his gay ass le Cambodge ne marche pas!Cambodia goes nowhere because of Ah Sdach Chkuot Ding Dong!
The German economist Karl Marx demonstrated in the last century in his diverse works the contradictions of the capitalist system: the capitalism, it is the man's exploitation of man, this system is profoundly unstable because it is governed by the money, this system entails the oppression of strong on the weakest, the poverty and the injustice and the unbearable social disparities.
This liberal economic system creates of the competition, some dominion, fights for the ownership of the rare resources, the wars and the economic crises.
The present financial bankruptcy and the current world economic crisis underlines clearly the exactness the Marxist's theory as economics and demonstrates so clearly the bankruptcy of the capitalist economic system and the incapacity of the liberalism as the social and economic model of regulation.
All this show that the Marxism as economics did not lose its interest.
The partisans of the liberalism say to you that with the liberalism you are free to make all which pleases you.
Yes, it is indeed the freedom but if you have no means to take advantage of this liberalism what that's for this liberalism?
If you are a poor country, or if you are working poor, the liberalism will have for you a taste certainly very bitter and for your future a dark prospect.
Do not forget that it is the poverty of some which make the wealth and the fortune of the others.
If you want be rich quickly, I give you an advice, exploit wildly the others, especially those who are weaker than you. It is it the secret of capitalism
It is just what you say.
When Karl Marx wrote his books on the wrongdoings of the capitalism, his ideas were ahead of at its time, K.Marx was not understood by many people.
Today with the bankruptcy of the liberalism current as social and political model of regulation, we can appreciate completely the ideas of K.Marx and his criticisms on the ravages of the liberalism.
It is time today that the CPP gathers its central committee to discuss initiatives and new economic propositions to help Cambodia to face the current world economic bankruptcy.
Cambodia has to help at first Cambodia before waiting for the helps of the other countries.
And we should not follow any more and to listen to blindness the advice of the IMF's and the World Bank's experts because they are incapable to foresee the arrival of the current world economic bankruptcy.
It has been said that the worst thing one can do to those who seek to control others to their own benefit is to give them what they want. The premise being that such people lack a functional mental capacity that leads them to desire constructive or good things. So it seems logical to provide those folks with what they want, understanding that eventually they will consume themselves with it and normal people will no longer need to contend with their dysfunctional behavior.
Whether Karl Max vs. Capitalism, or Liberalism vs. Conservatism ideas, many modern economist belief that the key objective of an economic development strategy is business development and job growth, which comes from the creation of new firms, attraction of outside firms into the region, and the expansion, relocation, or retention of existing firms. Government policies indirectly affect the production process and can play a crucial role.
Government must provide quality basic services and an efficient regulatory environment if it wishes to create economic development. An important role of government is to increase economic capacity by improving the quality and efficiency of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, airport and cargo facilities, energy systems, and telecommunications. In some cases, where the product is electronic information, the telecommunications infrastructure actually brings the product to its market.
Even though government cannot affect all the important factors to economic development, government can have a significant impact both through its traditional role as public service provider and regulator, and through its entrepreneurial role as a deal-maker and business recruiter.
The fundamental dilemma facing a government attempting to build and protect markets is this:
It must not only be strong enough to enforce the legal rights and rules necessary to maintain the economy, but also strong enough to credibly commit itself to honoring such rules. The mixed success of market-reforms led international institutions to understand that it takes capable, committed governments to promote and manage successful reform, even market-oriented reform. Otherwise, reform efforts will flounder and be derailed or captured by special interest groups of actual or potential losers from reform. The problematic therefore shifted from minimizing the role of government towards making governments more effective.
In the absence of credible limits on governmental behavior, nothing prevents the government from taking away wealth from the citizens for its own purposes. This may take many forms: an outright confiscation of wealth, onerous taxation, or inflationary financing by printing money. The absence of such a commitment, in turn, adversely affects the "positive incentives" of economic agents. Because rational actors understand that this political environment reduces their economic benefits ex post, they will withhold their efforts, investments, and information ex ante, thus jeopardizing economic growth.
There have been three phases in this dominant view concerning the optimal role of government in development:
1 The Government as Prime Mover
2 The Government as a Problem
3 Rehabilitating Government
It is the CPP government has to prove their willingness and capability to the people and to the nation as a whole.
Ya three last gays are scholarly cool, even though I don't have comprehensively clue?
The CPP governments have no desire to help the nation and her people, these bloodsuckers are selfishly only knowing how much dollars will be inside their pockets!
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