Travel agents make bookings for tourists at Keness Travel Co Ltd in Phnom Penh last week. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Monday, 27 August 2012
Justine Drennan
The Phnom Penh Post

The vision regional leaders have for an ASEAN Economic Community by 2015 may become clearer after this week’s Economic Ministers meeting in Siem Reap, but not everyone has a rose-coloured view of what such integration might mean for Cambodia.

“My peers are really concerned that other countries have many more skills and higher study levels,” National Institute of Business student Chan Kakada, 22, said yesterday, ahead of Prime Minister Hun Sen officially opening the meeting today.

Students who have not mastered the English language also fear employment opportunities will fade in the face of stiffer competition for English skills, Kakada, who hopes to one day open her own travel agency, said.

People in my village work as unskilled laborers abroad

It's gloomy for me to see the youths commonly known as future citizens of the once Khmer Empire that ruled Southeast Asia seeking jobs as unskilled laborers abroad.

Ou Ritthy

July, 4, 2012
An article by Ou Ritthy published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

At first, I could not recognize the group of noisy skinny youths, about 20 in all, with dyed hair, ragged jeans and colorful shirts, drinking beer in this remote village in Pursat where I live. Their clothes and behaviors tell me they are not from the village. I thought they must be friends or relatives of some villagers. Normally, villagers here wear Kroma (scarf), or pants with or without shirts.

Then someone in the group shouted to me to join the group to drink. As I walked closer to them I realized they were all my friends. We used to tender cattle together in the last ten years.

They told me that they had been drinking beer since the early morning; they were proud of their capacity to consume alcohol. One of them complained that it's now hard to find and buy the popular and affordable Leo and Change beers, both Thai products, which were out of stock in Pursat during this Khmer New Year.

They told me they never had so much fun together; for these three whole days of the New Year, they confessed, each had already spent 200,000 riels ($50) to enjoy themselves, to buy and drink beer and home-made alcohol (the popular SraSor the people in Pursat love), dance to loud music through the night, and gamble (card games and KlaKlok). They were celebrating as they and their family members had just returned from work in Thailand.

I also met some villagers who could not pay for their entertainment during the New Year. They had not earned enough money. Worse, some were arrested and jailed in Thailand for a few months for working illegally. A few people who were injured in work accidents in Thailand became disable, and had not been able to help their parents in the rice-field. Sadly, their parents had to sell land for their medical treatment. And I met a villager, near death, who was very sick and skinny as she contracted AIDS/HIV while working at the border.

Cambodia Needs More Asean Awareness: Analyst

Chheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace. (Photo: VOA Khmer)

Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

That makes for “a great opportunity” for government leaders to promote awareness among its people."

Cambodia lags behind many of its Asean neighbors, a leading analyst says, while at the same time many Cambodians remain unaware of its benefits.

Cambodia is the chair of Asean this year and last week hosted a major summit of Asean countries. That makes for “a great opportunity” for government leaders to promote awareness among its people, said Chheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, as a guest on “Hello VOA” Thursday.

A lack of Asean awareness puts Cambodia at a disadvantage as the region moves closer to full economic integration in 2015. This would mean a regional free flow of goods and services, investment, capital and labor in just three years, although some experts doubt this will happen on time.

Cambodia to host meeting on ASEAN integration in 2015

March 13, 2008

Sixty officials from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam will meet on March 17-20 in Siem Reap province to boost their progress on commercial law and trade reform, said a press release from the U.S. Embassy on Thursday.

They will also discuss approaches to working together on reforms that will support the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asia Nations) integration in 2015, it added.

"They will review the findings and best practices identified in the SEA CLIR report named A Regional Agenda for Shared Growth," it said, adding that SEA CLIR stands for the South East Asia Commercial Legal and Institutional Reform and Trade Diagnostics Report.

The meeting will bring together public and private-sector officials to meet in small groups to discuss the best regional legal and institutional models to meet the challenges in Southeast Asian trade and business, it said.

Topics will include building a stronger environment for doing business, enhancing cross-border trade, and deepening regional and global integration, it added.

Source: Xinhua

ASEAN foreign ministers gather for retreat

Tue, February 19, 2008
DPA

Singapore - Foreign ministers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathered at Singapore's Sentosa Island Tuesday for an focusing on the annual retreatimplementation of the 10-nation group's charter and speeding-up its integration.

The two-day gathering is also to focus on regional developments, a statement from Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

Leaders from the ASEAN countries signed the charter at their summit November 20 in Singapore. It commits members to democracy and protection of human rights, mandates the establishment of a human rights body in the region and aims to turn the region into a European Union-style market.

Ratification must come from all members before the economic and political bloc of 560 million people could be created.

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has warned ASEAN that her country's Congress would not ratify the charter if Myanmar does not release pro-democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Other countries also have reservations over the pledge to form a human rights body.

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda met his Singapore counterpart, George Yeo, Monday. Both agreed on the need to speed up the momentum toward ASEAN integration and the importance of all member nations to ratify the charter as soon as possible.

ASEAN groups Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma.

Attending the retreat for the first time is Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith of Laos.