13 May 2007Two Cambodian women honored this month (1)
Earlier this month, at the University of California (Berkeley, USA), SRP Secretary-General and former Minister of Women's Affairs Mu Sochua was the recipient of the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award for 2006. One of the most prestigious honors conferred by the Berkeley campus, the award was created to honor an alumnus of the University of California who has a distinguished record of service to his or her country.
At a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) earlier this month in Bali (Indonesia), Opposition Member of Parliament Tioulong Saumura was elected as a Member of the Standing Committee for Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade. This is the first time that Cambodia, a member of the IPU since 1993, is elected to any position in that organization that assembles Parliaments from over 150 countries.
New Cambodian political refugees given asylum in Norway (2)
New political refugees from Cambodia were resettled last week in Norway. Among them, there were Kem Phanara, his wife and their eight children. Kem Phanara used to be a driver for Opposition leader Sam Rainsy. Following the anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh on 29 January 2003, he was pressured by the Cambodian police into "confessing" to having driven Sam Rainsy to some suspicious places where the riots were allegedly being prepared. Sam Rainsy narrowly escaped arrest by taking refuge at the American Embassy. He had to wait there a few days, until Prime Minister Hun Sen positively responded to a letter from then King Norodom Sihanouk asking for guarantees for the Opposition leader's freedom.
Cambodia on a par with Zimbabwe regarding joblessness (2)
In the April 2007 edition of the Asean Business magazine, Nisha Agrawal, the World Bank country representative in Cambodia, is quoted as saying that more than 70 percent of Cambodians under the age of 30 (about 60 percent of the country's population) have no job. Only Zimbabwe, the destitute African country run by dictator Robert Mugabe since 1980, presents such an appalling economic and social performance (See KI, 2 January 2005: " Unemployment is a time-bomb for Cambodia" )
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02 January 2005
Unemployment is a time-bomb for Cambodia (2)
There are no credible statistics to measure unemployment in this country (KI, 25 October 2002: "Statistics are inaccurate in Cambodia"). If some peaks in agricultural employment – totally a few months a year – are put aside, joblessness probably exceeds 50% most of the time throughout the year, taking into account landless farmers, beggars, prostitutes, scavengers, unpaid family workers, and destitute people doing petty and occasional jobs because they have no alternative livelihoods for survival (disguised unemployment).
Cambodia currently has a population of over 13 million inhabitants, of which more than 50 percent are less than 20-year old. Each year, approximately 300,000 people leave school or reach the age to look for a job. Only 30,000 to 40,000 jobs have been annually created over the last ten years, of which 25,000 in the garment industry (which now employs about 250,000 workers).
Starting from 2005, with the end of the quota system in the garment industry, prospects for job creations look rather dim. Even though, from an optimistic point of view, up to 30,000 jobs could still be created every year thanks to the anticipated growth of tourism and some other industries such as trade and construction, this would represent at best only 10 percent of the annual additional workforce. Therefore, joblessness will dramatically increase in the years to come. On the basis of the above figures, unemployment can be seen as a time-bomb for Cambodia. Consequences will be reflected in an increase in poverty, prostitution, human trafficking, illegal emigration, criminality, drug consumption, and all forms of violence (robberies, murders, acts of banditry, proliferation of gangs, domestic violence, and suicides). That type of situation will likely lead to social and political unrest.
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