Day: March 5, 2024

Cambodia and the United Kingdom (UK) have been committed to promoting their bilateral relations and cooperation, particularly in the areas of trade, investment, human capital, green growth and renewable energy, as well as economic development.

The commitment was made during a meeting between H.E. Dr. CHEM Widhya, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC), and the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, Minister for Indo-Pacific of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, at the ministry office on Mar. 4.

According to an MFAIC’s news release, on the occasion, H.E. Dr. CHEM Widhya recalled the 70th Anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries last year, which saw the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of Bilateral Political Consultations between the two ministries.

The Cambodian secretary of state also took the opportunity to profoundly appreciate the UK Governm
ent for her assistance and support to Cambodia so far, in particular the granting of the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), by underlining the importance of the synergy between traditional and parliamentary diplomacies.

For her part, the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP noted Cambodia’s additional economic opportunities, by pledging to report that to her government.

Both sides expressed their mutual satisfaction with the traditional relation, friendship and fruitful cooperation of both countries so far, and also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest and concern.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse

Cambodia recorded some 540,023 international visitors in January 2024, up 34 percent compared to the same period last year, a report of the Ministry of Tourism showed on Tuesday.

Thailand topped the chart among foreign arrivals to the Kingdom with 163,661, followed by Vietnam (85,700) and China (46,781), the source pointed out.

Some 206,506 million tourists arrived in Cambodia via international airports, a year-on-year increase of 44.2 percent and the rest via land and waterways, it added.

At the same time, the report stated the rise of Cambodian outbound tourists by 8.1 percent to 155,983.

Tourism is a major pillar supporting Cambodia’s economy, in addition to garment export, agriculture, and construction and real estate.

The Ministry of Tourism has predicted that the Kingdom would welcome 7 million international visitors by 2025, surpassing the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level of 6.6 million in 2019.

Cambodia is well known for its world cultural heritage sites, namely the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem
Reap province, the Preah Vihear Temple and Koh Ker Temple in Preah Vihear province, and the Sambor Prei Kuk Archaeological Site in Kampong Thom province.

Besides, the Kingdom has a 450-kilometre-long pristine coastline stretching across four southwestern provinces of Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong.

Cambodia attracted some 5.43 million international tourists in 2023, a sharp increase of 139.5 percent from 2.27 million in 2022, earning US$3.08 billion, up 117 percent from the US$1.41 billion recorded in 2022.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse

The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has announced its acceptance of the 5th senate election’s result, commenting on its being free, secure, safe, and law-abiding without violence or intimidation.

The ruling party issued the instant support statement following the announcement of the election’s official result by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Mar. 5.

The result of the election completely reflects the strong will of Cambodian people across the country to continue to maintain peace and foster socio-economic development as well as their livelihoods, according to the statement.

The party deeply thanked all electors for going to cast their votes, which demonstrates their responsibility to represent the public who had voted for them to be parliamentarians and commune/Sangkat councillors.

It highlighted that the trust given to the CPP through a landslide victory during the election will allow the party to further serve the Cambodian people as well as Cambodia.

The party highly valued the NEC and pertin
ent authorities who had carried out their duties effectively and responsibilities to ensure a smooth election process.

Four political parties, including the CPP, Khmer Will Party, FUNCINPEC Party, and National Power Party, join the senate election on Feb. 25.

The result shows that the CPP won 55 of the total 58 seats, while the Khmer Will Party got the remaining three seats.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse

The Australia-based SPC Group has expressed its intention to invest in food industry in Cambodia, Mr. Neil Brimacombe, the company’s CEO, told Cambodian Premier, Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet, in a courtesy meeting in Melbourne, Australia this morning.

Mr. Neil Brimacombe said his company focuses on agro-industry and specialises in food production and fruit processing. It is now operating fruit processing plants for export to both Asia and the world, while importing raw materials from a number of countries to support its production chain.

For his part, Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet welcomed the investment intention and encouraged the company to visit Cambodia to explore investment opportunities.

The Prime Minister also highlighted the attractiveness of Cambodian investment environment which is realistic, favourable and flexible, as well as the country’s investment policies and law which provide incentives for investors and business people, especially in the agricultural sector.

Source: Agence Kampu
chea Presse

Vietnam, Laos, Singapore and Cambodia continue to enjoy the best legal protections for women among ASEAN’s ten members, according to the World Bank’s annual report on Women, Business and the Law.

In the broader Asia-Pacific region, the report released in Washington on Monday found that only nine out of 25 economies granted women 80 percent or more of the legal rights of men.

Hong Kong had the top score (91.9 percent) followed by Taiwan (91.3 percent), Mongolia (90.6 percent), South Korea and Vietnam (both 88.1 percent), Timor-Leste (86.3 percent), Laos (85.6 percent), Singapore (82.5 percent) and Cambodia (81.3 percent).

The nine economies all had better legal rights for women than the Philippines (78.8 percent, which was the same as Japan) and Thailand (78.1 percent, the same as mainland China).

Among other ASEAN countries, the next highest score was in Indonesia (70.6 percent) followed by Malaysia (60.6 percent), Myanmar (58.8 percent) and Brunei (53.1 percent).

With the exception of Laos and Malaysia,
the scores for ASEAN members are the same as those last year. The Lao score slipped from 88.1 percent in 2023 due to new information and the Malaysian score improved from 50.0 percent after it carried out reforms in four areas, the World Bank said.

NEW INDICATORS: SAFETY AND CHILDCARE

This year’s report has a second set of data with two new indicators – safety from violence and access to childcare services.

These are in addition to the original eight indicators on laws affecting women in the areas of mobility, the workplace, pay, marriage, parenthood, entrepreneurship, assets, and pensions.

When safety and childcare are included, the world average for 190 economies drops from 77.1 percent to 62.2 percent – and the average for the Asia-Pacific region is even lower at 57.8 percent.

Deficiencies in laws relating to safety and childcare , “discourage women from entering the global workforce,’ the World Bank said.

‘NO COUNTRY PROVIDES EQUAL OPPORTUNITY’

“When these additional indicators are taken into consi
deration, no country provides equal opportunity for women – not even just one high-income economy.’

Adding safety and childcare laws cuts scores for all ASEAN members. The two top scorers are still Vietnam (85.0 percent) and Laos (72.5 percent). But Cambodia is eclipsed in third place by the Philippines (70 percent) followed by Singapore (65 percent).

Next come Indonesia and Thailand (both 60.0 percent), Cambodia (55.0 percent), Myanmar (50.0 percent), Malaysia (47.5 percent) and Brunei (35.0 percent).

‘Nearly all economies performed poorly in the two indicators being tracked for the first time,’ the bank said.

‘The weakness is greatest in women’s safety. The global average score is just 36, meaning women enjoy barely a third of the legal protections they need from domestic violence, sexual harassment, child marriage, and femicide.’

‘SUPPORTIVE FRAMEWORKS’

In addition to the two new indicators, this year’s report goes beyond legal frameworks to assess for the first time how laws affecting women are bein
g implemented.

Such ‘supportive frameworks’ – including policies, plans, programmes, services, budgets, special procedures, and sanctions for not complying with standards – produce a third set of scores.

In ASEAN, the top score goes to Singapore (64.2 percent) with the Philippines (54.2 percent) a distant second.

The country with the next best framework for supporting laws is Vietnam (45.8 percent) followed by Indonesia (42.5 percent), Laos (41.7 percent), Malaysia (40.8 percent) and Cambodia (40.0 percent).

The weakest supporting frameworks in ASEAN are in Thailand (31.7 percent), Brunei (24.2 percent) and Myanmar (11.7 percent) – all below the global average of 39.5 percent.

‘SHOCKING IMPLEMENTATION GAP’

Comparing legal reforms and actual outcomes for women in 190 economies, ‘reveals a shocking implementation gap,’ the bank said.

“Although the laws on the books imply that women enjoy roughly 64 percent of the rights of men, economies have, on average, established less than 40 percent of the systems n
eeded for full implementation.’

Among indicators, the lowest scores were in the workplace with only 21 economies having comprehensive supportive frameworks.

The second-lowest scores were in assets, with only five economies – Cambodia, Canada, Rwanda, Taiwan, and Trkiye – achieving a perfect score of 100 percent.

‘Women have the power to turbocharge the sputtering global economy,’ said Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group.

‘Closing this gap could raise global gross domestic product by more than 20 percent – essentially doubling the global growth rate over the next decade – but reforms have slowed to a crawl.’

Unlike last year, the report this year does not rank all indicator scores for each economy.

In addition to assets, Cambodia received full scores of 100 percent for mobility, workplace and entrepreneurship laws last year. It also scored 80 percent for marriage laws and 75 percent for pay and pension laws. But for parenthood laws – comprising paid leave for mothers and fathers, and b
ans on pregnant workers being fired – Cambodia scored only 20 percent.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse