Wednesday, January 28, 2009

An opposition MP asked the Minister of Finance to explain to the parliament


Radio Free Asia

By Huy Vannak
27th January, 2009
Translated from Khmer by Khmerizarion

The leader of a group of opposition MP's on Tuesday has written a letter to Minister of Finance and Economy by requesting him to personally explain to the parliament about the government's policies to tackle the economic downturn which has resulted from the global economic crisis.

This is a second attempt by the opposition MP's to push the Cambodian government to take measures to tackle the effects of the global economic crisis.

Mr. Son Chhay (pictured), leader of the group, said: "We've seen that the global financial crisis has affected our economy such as the loss of employment in the textile industry, in the tourism industry and other sectors such as the construction sector etc which necessitate the government's measures to help tackle further losses of jobs. Other than that, the government must have a financial stimulus package to prevent the economy fron slipping into a financial crisis, especially in the banking sector and the lending sector."

On the 16th of January, Mr. Sam Rainsy, leader of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, has written a letter to the Council of Ministers, especially to Prime Minister Hun Sen personally, to request the government to appropriate $500 million of a financial stimulus package to help stimulate the local econmy.

Minister of Finance Keat Chhon cannot be contacted for any comments, but Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said that the government has earmarked a budget package to help in any eventual economic crisis.

Mr. Hang Chuon Narong, Secretary of State of Ministry of Finance, told Bloomberg News Agency that Cambodia has no cash reserve to help its citizen. What Cambodia can do is offiering tax cuts to textile industries and infrastructure sectors which are instrumental in stimulating the economy.

A new World Bank report released in 2009, forecast that, even though Cambodian economy has not been affected much, Cambodia cannot avoid the resultant effect of the global financial crisis.

Mr. Van Sou Eang, Chairman of Textile Industry Association, predicted that by this April at least 70,000 jobs will be lost, if they don't receive orders from their foreign customers.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't listen to Pouk Ah Scam Rainxy and his potato diggers. Despite some drop in growth, Cambodia is sill one of the fastest developing countries on the planet.

Anonymous said...

Dictators never listen to anybody, like the Khmer Rouge regime, that's why the country has been very poor. If the govt. doesn't have an economic plan for tackling the financial crisis Cambodian businesses will suffer badly, more jobs will be lost.

Anonymous said...

Hey 9:30PM,

What is the diameter of earth? or better yet, do you know how many hour in a day?

Durain Durain

Anonymous said...

please be smart people; listening to all view points is very important in solving financial crisis. please be open-minded, a good trait to have as a leader, otherwise, it's not suited to be a good leader if try to fix everything by oneself. i hope people think about competitiveness with neighboring countries because cambodia is never alone in the world, so, it is important to think in terms of competitiveness, if cambodia were to be effective and prosperous for all. thank you.