DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Journalists and NGOs Officers Trained Social Media Training” plus 9 more

CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH,​​ August 15, 2011-Cambodian journalists, NGO officers and students on Monday attended a-four-day workshop to give tips of social media practices.

Tieng Sopheak Vichea, acting director of Cambodia Communication Institute, said that the importance of organizing this work shop was to respond to the sharply increase of citizen journalism and social media practice in Cambodia especially toward young people
Vichea, who is also director of Department of Media and Communication, said "We want to train them to use social media correctly and pass to their friends or community about its usefulness and effects besides entertaining reason."

Anne Lemaistre, a UNESCO representative in Cambodia, said that workshop was not only about learning how to utilize social media, to share information but it is also about understanding the great impact and influence that Web 2.0 tools can help society and its people.

Jamie Lee, UNESCO communication focal point, said that social media also plays a crucial role for UNESCO in flowing information around. And it was really important for the participants to know how to use social media effectively.

"Potentially, it [social media] is quit dangerous if people use social media to post harmful information, we want them to use social media ethically and responsibly", she added.

Tith Chandara, one of the trainers, said that the workshop was designed to follow the world trend of how social media works.

Thol Ngornthay, 30, a participant from National Radio Kampuchea, said that he decided to participate in this workshop because it is a new social story, and he now creates facebook and LinkedIn account.

Through social media, people cannot only get access to information faster, but they are able to create a virtual community to share and support each other during time of political conflicts or even natural disaster. For example, in the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan, Google launched a Japanese language version of a Person Finder tool which helped victims to search and find their families, said Anne.

 

 

JAKARTA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian volcanologists have raised the alert level for Mount Soputan in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, while reporting that the threat posed by Mount Papandayan in West Java had decreased, local media reported here on Monday.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Two Philippine fishermen were rescued by villagers of a fishing community in southern Philippines on Sunday, 12 days after being lost at turbulent, shark-infested sea, police said on Monday.

SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Monday urged Japan to teach its future generations a correct history.

CAMBODIA, PHNOM PENH, August 13, 2011-Local Cambodia Authorities at Poi Pet Border Gate and Tourism Ministry of Cambodia said on Sunday that the number of Thai tourist arrivals have increased in the country after Thailand has a new government.

"About 1,400-1,500 Thai tourists in each day passed through Poi Pet Border Gate into Cambodia for their holidays and visited other areas in the country," Sao Bun Rith, head of Poi Pet border gate said by phone.

"The increasing of number of Thai Tourists arrived here because Thailand has a new government. Local people have confidence for their travellings, "He said, adding that now they have exchanged their normal ties.

He thanked to normal and friendship ties as neighborhood.

Head of statistics department of tourism ministry, Mr. Kong Sophearak said: the relationship between Cambodia and Thailand has eased. "That is helping to facilitate the tourists".

The Report from tourism ministry said: for first semester of 2011, the Thai tourist arrival in the country classified in 12^th rank and first place is Vietnamese tourists for 300,000 and the total tourist arrival amounts nearly 1.3 million while the country plans to harvest for over 2 million tourists for the end of this year.

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Economy and Finance and four private companies have announced a joint venture to establish the first life insurance firm in Cambodia.

The ministry and four firms had signed an agreement to establish Cambodia Life Insurance on Thursday, Mey Vann, director of the Ministry's Financial Industry Department, told Xinhua Saturday.

The four private firms are PT Asuransi from Indonesia, Asia Insurance from China's Hong Kong, Bangkok Life Assurance and Bangkok Insurance Public from Thailand.

"Under the deal, the Ministry holds 51 percent stake and the four firms own the remaining 49 percent," he said, adding that according to Cambodia's insurance law, it's required to have the minimum capital of 7 million U.S. dollars to open an insurance firm here.

Currently, Cambodia has six insurance companies and one domestic reinsurance company, all are general insurers, and none of them is life insurer.

"The Cambodia Life Insurance will be the first-ever life insurance company in Cambodia," he said. "It will help to develop the country's financial industry and also support the development of the newly formed securities market."

MANADO, Indonesia, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The ASEAN Trade Facilitation Forum opened on Saturday in Indonesia's North Sulawesi provincial capital of Manado to facilitate faster and cheaper goods flow. "Since a few years ago, we, as ASEAN economic ministers, have been trying very hard to have better engagement and more effective engagement with the business sector because we recognize that you are the one that can really implement it on the ground," said Indonesia's Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu in her opening remarks.

She said that what the ministers have been trying to do in the last few years is to have sessions on particular sectors and particular issues which are important for business sector. "So, I hope this time we have trade facilitation as the issue because we recognize that this is the issue behind the border barriers to cross border trade as well as procedures related to customs and paper work that are needed to be addressed," said Pangestu.

She said that costs associated with paper work and cross-border customs maybe greater than 10 percent of product values. "So if we begin to address those issues, then obviously we can work at making goods flow faster and cheaper across ASEAN as well as our dialog partners," she said.

She also said that because paper work and customs are fixed cost, it tends to create bigger burden for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and add more cost in doing business.

"It makes SMEs of having less capacity to deal with uncertainty, " she said.

According to Pangestu, this priority will make sure that the region has more equitable ASEAN which means broader sharing of economic integration's benefit, especially with SMEs that become important tools to address trade facilitation.

Pangestu said that the ASEAN governments need input from business sector to make the goal achieved.

"What we do in the G-to-G level doesn't mean anything if we don 't get inputs from all of you, the business sector, because you are the ones who make it happened," she said.

BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- China should continue to tighten liquidity in the second half of 2011 against the rising possibility that the U.S. may adopt another set of loose monetary policies following its current debt struggles, an expert said in an article published in the China Securities Journal on Saturday.

China may hike the interest rates and required reserve ratios one or two more times by the end of the year to tackle the stubbornly high inflation, said Lu Zhengwei, chief economist of financial markets at the China Industrial Bank.

However, the recent U.S. debt crisis, which has unnerved the global economy, makes it more difficult to predict the timing of these moves, Lu added.

The U.S. is very likely to launch another round of quantitative easing to boost its sluggish economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve may simply be waiting for the proper time to announce it, Lu said.

China should modify its own monetary policy based on its own conditions, regardless of whether or not the U.S. will initiate a new round of quantitative easing, Lu said.

"Figuring out how to rein in excessive speculation without hurting the real economy is the biggest challenge for China," Lu said.

He also said there is still room for interest rate hikes, given the fact that the benchmark rate is still lower than it was before the global financial crisis broke out.

In addition, many enterprises saw their profits rebound in June, signaling that they can endure a further increase in interest rates, according to Lu.

China's inflation accelerated to a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July, putting the government in a tough position as it faces the daunting task of taming prices and ensuring growth amid a faltering global economy.

The rating agency Standard & Poor's, in a historic move, downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ last week due to concerns over the country's debt problems.