Tuesday, January 13, 2009

[Vietnam's] Sacombank to open branch in Phnom Penh: [Another step to the Indochinese federation]

01/13/2009
VOV News (Hanoi)

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has allowed the Saigon Commerical Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) to open branch in Phnom Penh.

This is the first Vietnamese bank to be granted a licence to establish such a branch in the country.

At present, Sacombank is busy building office-space and recruiting and training staff. The branch is expected to come into operation in June, 2009.

According to the Cambodian Ministry of Trade, Vietnamese investment capital in Cambodia has increased sharply in recent years. Two-way trade turnover between the two countries is expected to reach US$2.5 billion by 2010. This is a positive sign that Cambodia will become an attractive destination for foreign investors in the future, esepcially when the country opens its securities market in 2009.

Currently, Sacombank has 9 branches and more than 20 transaction offices in border provinces, including Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Dong Thap and An Giang.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Srok khmer reside in US say ……………
It has been the lesson learned all well from the genocide regime, alias Pol Pot regime (as I suggest since Khmers should not call “khmer rouge soldiers anymore, but Pol Pot soldiers in attempt not to divide Khmers anymore). The point I want to make here is Khmers can prevent this regime returning back in Cambodia by using this strategy “prevention better than cure”—I mean we Khmers in this technology era, which we can spread and share flow of information rapidly, can dig in the sources or root causes of political aspects or leadership styles leading to such regime or Zimbabwe-styled regime in the future.
And below is my analysis of one-man-state leadership style, which I think is practiced by the current khmer gov.t:
1) The characteristics of this leadership are that the leaders grip the state power so tightly. The leaders control the media, news network and every information network to secure that people will listen to what they want people to listen. Their mindset is to hold tight to power by trusting their reliable several people around them, “BUT NOT THE STATE INSTITUTIONS.” Cambodia is the good example to prove these characteristics. The current leaders of CPP show trust and demand trust from only several individuals---and it is noteworthy that it is ONE OF THE PROMINENT SOURCES OR ROOTS OF RAMPANT CORRUPTION IN CAMBODIA (b/coz the leaders’ trust is heavy, so usually as long as the current leaders don’t see the corruption as threat to their power, the current leaders namely cpp leaders will let their subordinates to corrupt to feed them so that their subordinates will stay loyal and help defend their power griping.)

2) Their mindset and attitude of this totalitarian regime are that “THEY WILL ALLOW ANY PHASE OF DEVELOPMENT TO HAPPEN ONLY WHEN THEY CAN CONTROL”. To prove, some people may still wonder why like the well-known corruption at schools is never curbed or why the responsible people do not care to take measures to improve the situation. The answer is simple “IF PEOPLE BECOME MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE OR ANALYTICAL, THE CURRENT GOV.T BY THE LEADERS WITH VERY LEAST NATIONAL CONSCIENCE or since they didn’t receive proper education and was installed in power by a Vietnam—will never allow this phase of development to slip away from their control. Put it simple, if people develop wisely and intellectually, the current cpp leaders will view this development AS OUT OF CONTROL b/coz they are dumb or better put in words “LOW-EDUCATED, VISION SHORT-SIGHTED, INCAPABLE AS AN INDIVIDUAL AND THEREBY SERVE ONLY THEIR CLANS AND ASSOCIATES OR EVEN SERVES THE ALIEN COUNTRY AS LONG AS THEY CAN STAY IN POWER AND THEIR CLANS’WELL-BEING IS SECURED, THOUGH WILDLY AND UNCIVILLY.”

3) Next let us explore consequences of such leadership style: Very good example should be from Zimbabwe where Mugabe believes himself that “he will drag the fate of his country down with him.” People in Zimbabwe lead miserable lives but will the leaders like Mugabe and in Cambodia the current leaders let the people live loose from their grip of power?

If only the leaders care people’s well-being, serve people’s interests and enhance the state’s institutions capacity for functioning and operation, establish state mechanisms&policy to boost quality of human resource (Like Singapore or western European countries), Khmers will not worry about the return of Pot Pot regime or any deepened&complicated miseries that cannot be solved. BUT WHAT IF THE CURRENT LEADERS DON’T? SACK THEM AND ERODE THEIR POWER BY EMPOWERING INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE POWER SO THEIR POWER WILL SLIP FROM THEM SUBSTANTIALLY.

From Srok khmer reside in US

Anonymous said...

ល្អណាស់!​អាហ្នឹងងាយស្រួលផ្ទេរសួយសាអាករទៅថ្វាយ។

Anonymous said...

The return of the (abdicated) king ANALYSIS / CAMBODIA

King Sihanouk has sent an `open letter' to the parliaments and governments of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, calling on them to stop nibbling away the villages, lands, seas and islands belonging to Cambodia

By JULIO A. JELDRES

When King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicated in October 2004, the political elite in Phnom Penh promptly celebrated and felt that at last they were going to be able to continue their activities without the old monarch bothering them through his daily postings on his website condemning the corruption of the elite, the lack of good governance, illegal logging and the dire poverty in which most ordinary Cambodians live.

They hastily passed legislation in the National Assembly proclaiming King Sihanouk ``The King-Father of Independence and National Reconciliation'' together with a budget to enjoy his retirement.

But they were in for a surprise.

The king-father had already planned a retirement which includes making sure that Cambodia's borders remain as they were back in 1969, respected and recognised as they were by most countries, including the United States, with the exception of Thailand, Laos and the then Republic of South Vietnam.

The king-gather, who has been in Beijing since January this year treating a recurrent stomach cancer, has long been concerned by bilateral border agreements signed by the former People's Republic of Kampuchea with Vietnam, when that country's army occupied Cambodia after overthrowing the Pol Pot regime.

He has said that he will never recognise those agreements which are contrary to formal promises made to him by the Vietnamese leadership to respect Cambodia's territorial integrity after the re-unification of South and North Vietnam.

The former monarch says Thailand profited from a treaty it signed with Vietnam in August 1997, delimiting the waters of the Gulf of Thailand, while Cambodia lost some 30,000 square kilometres of its maritime territory.

He also alleges that Thailand took over border areas that were controlled by the Cambodian resistance during Vietnam's occupation of the country.

Laos is alleged by King Sihanouk to have taken parcels of land belonging to Cambodia in the border province of Stung-Treng, preventing the renovation of an old road built during the French Protectorate, which China has agreed to finance.

An ancient Khmer prediction suggested in olden days that the Khmers would have to choose one day between being eaten by the tigers or swallowed by crocodiles.

Following the signing of the Paris Agreements of 1991, many believed that the agreements would end any territorial problems as they were signed by all of Cambodia's neighbours and also because the then State of Cambodia engaged itself to revoke any treaties that were incompatible with Cambodia's sovereignty.

On March 31, six months after his abdication, King Sihanouk began what amounts to a new royal crusade to preserve Cambodia's territorial integrity.

He issued an ``open letter'' to the parliaments and governments of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the DPR of Laos, that called on them to stop nibbling away the villages, lands, seas and islands belonging to Cambodia.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who maintains close relations with Vietnam, is reported to have been furious with the king's open letter, as he does not wish the special relationship with Vietnam to be disturbed by border issues.

However, following the advice of calmer voices in his cabinet, he hastily decided to follow up one of King Sihanouk's recent suggestions: the establishment of a non-partisan body to tackle the thorny issue of Cambodia's borders.

On May 9, 2005, King Norodom Sihamoni signed a decree establishing the Supreme National Council of Border Affairs, which brings together one representative each of the king, the chairmen of the Senate and National Assembly and of the three political parties sitting in the Cambodian National Assembly.

King Sihanouk's strategy forced the government to tackle an issue that the government did not want to touch. He had successfully used the same tactics to get the succession issue resolved last year, when he suddenly abdicated, leaving the government with no alternative but to hastily pass legislation setting up the Council of the Crown and get a new monarch elected.

But the newly and grandly named Supreme National Council of Border Affairs is a tiger without teeth. Indeed, the royal decree signed by King Sihanouk's son, King Sihamoni, but drafted solely by senior government officials without the participation of the royal palace, does not give the council any real power to solve the border issue but only to research and assess questions pertaining to the land and sea borders of Cambodia, to advise the government, as well as to pay on-spot visits to border areas where incidents may have occurred.

The council is not empowered to negotiate with foreign countries when problems arise in the border areas.

King Sihanouk had planned the activities of the Supreme National Council of Border Affairs with gusto and haste, calling for a meeting of the council the afternoon after his scheduled return to Cambodia, on May 8, immediately after a press conference, the first he would have given in at least five years.

But fate threw his arrangements into chaos. On May 1, Chinese doctors informed the king that the cancer treatment he had been following in Beijing was not working and that it was necessary for the retired monarch to follow a course of chemotherapy. Disappointed but undeterred, the king called a meeting of the Border Council in Beijing. This took place on May 11 and 12 in the Chinese capital but as its deliberations are supposed to remain confidential, not much was known of what transpired at the Beijing meeting.

This was until it was leaked to the press that during the meeting, Princess Norodom Vacheahra, vice president of the border council representing the chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly and half-sister of the king-father, proposed the amendment of the royal decree establishing the council in order to give more power to the council and its president.

Critics of the way the border council was created say that it should have been established by legislation passed by parliament and proclaimed by the king in order to have a legal competence properly recognised and not just by a royal decree. The decree gives the border council president no executive power but holds King Norodom Sihanouk responsible for the country's border disputes. Since the first meeting of the border council and following an appeal by King Sihanouk, volunteers, students and other concerned citizens have been paying visits to the border areas and reporting back to the king-father on their findings.

The former monarch has posted them on his website in Khmer but without the names of the authors in order to protect their identity.

Phnom Penh newspapers have reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen, angered by Princess Vacheahra's draft amendment of the role of the border council, has asked Prince Norodom Ranariddh, chairman of the National Assembly, to replace her with someone who would follow the instructions of the ruling parties and speak the same language at meetings of the council.

It is not known when the next meeting of the border council will take place, and much depends on King Sihanouk's health.

Julio A. Jeldres was private secretary to King Norodom Sihanouk from 1982-1991 and remains his official biographer.

Khmer Young said...

Monday, January 12, 2009
Hun Sen has his good logic, but Cambodia will loss its sovereignty

Hun Sen is using a good logic for his personal gains such as power, wealth and self-interest. But his rhetoric is surely deteriorating Cambodia's future freedom and national sovereign integrity.

It is unarguable that January 07 are mixing with freedom from brutality and experiencing foreign invasion over Cambodia.

So, this 30 years from the Khmer Rouge brutality is meaningful for Cambodia because Khmer Rouge is not fearful to Cambodia any more. But what is fearful is that the influence and domination of foreigner VN is still overwhelmingly spreading in Cambodia. No body can deny the eternal relationship of Hun Sen and Vietnam (I mean this because not all CPP's members are agreeing with Hun Sen to bend down before Hanoi by celebrating and valuing this January 07 day).

More than this, Hun Sen is good and he is the spearhead to do whatever he can to divide and split Cambodia society into pieces. His speech likes this is to intentionally divide Cambodian peoples into small groups so that his boss, the VN, can take advantage and take over Cambodia easily, eventually.

In short, all Cambodian political parties should pursue their national interests as their absolutely goal. Hun Sen should not say that unless opposition party can control the government, so that they can eliminate January 07 and to celebrate the day of October 23. Saying this is ignorantly dividing Cambodian people and it is stupidly for a national leader.

When KR regime is totally disappeared and KR trial is ongoing performing, it is truly useless to recognize or celebrate the day of January 07, the foreign invasion in Cambodia. Whatever, they want to legitimize the day of January 07, this day is still not making any good for Cambodia's future freedom and national sovereign integrity.

Only October 23, that all Cambodian political parties shook hand to end the internal civil wars and shouldered to build our nation. Without October 23, how can we have current national constitution, monarchy, foreign aids, and others...?

Someone may argue that without January 07, we don't have October 23, but as you know that argument is just a self-interest rhetoric with short-sighted and puppetic leadership by prostrating the foreigner VN.

KY

Anonymous said...

During the French Indochina, the principal currency in use was French Franc. In the future Viet Indochina, the principal currency in use will be VN Dong.

Every Cambodian will be encouraged to open Uncle Ho's special account, in which they keep their life savings, in Sacombank. In the near future, this will be compulsory. If they refuse to deposit their life savings in that bank they will be accused of being suspected terrorists, and their properties and money will be looted.

When the time is right, Khmer Riel will be converted to Viet Dong automatically. The Viet Indochina Central Bank will based in Hanoi. In preparation for this exciting transition, Vietnamese will be the second language to be taught in all public schools.

See, it's all mapped out nicely!

Anonymous said...

When banks compete, people wins.

Anonymous said...

This vietnam bank is for easy transferring off all the money from donation to cambodia.

Youns won't stop, for they learned well from being under the french ruling.

Anonymous said...

This is NOT the first VN bank in Cambodia as the article stated. There are at least one other bank.