DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Senior CPC leader arrives in Laos for official visit” plus 9 more

VIENTIANE, June 10 (Xinhua) -- He Guoqiang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), arrived here Sunday afternoon, starting his three-day official visit to Laos.

He Guoqiang, who is also head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, delivered a written speech at the airport, applauding the robust growth of China-Laos relations which have brought concrete profits to the two peoples and promoted the peace and stability in the region and the world.

"The development of a comprehensive, strategic and cooperative partnership between China and Laos serves to the common aspirations of the two peoples," "He Guoqiang said, noting that the profound transition that is shaping the world has offered opportunities as well as challenges for the both two nations' socialist construction and the development of the bilateral relations.

During the visit, He Guoqiang is expected to meet Laotian leaders and attend a series of public activities aimed at strengthening bilateral strategic communication, expanding strategic mutual trust and boosting mutually beneficial cooperation to a higher level.

Laos is the first leg of He Guoqiang's four-nation tour which will also bring him to Cambodia, Malaysia and Russia.

BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua) -- He Guoqiang, a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), left Beijing on Sunday for official goodwill visits to Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Russia.

As a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, He is invited by Lao People's Revolutionary Party, Cambodian People's Party, Cambodia's Funcinpec Party, United Malays National Organization and United Russia party.

On behalf of the Chinese government, He will also attend the 16th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

He's entourage include several ministerial-level and vice-ministerial-level officials of the CPC and the Chinese government.

PHNOM PENH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The newly-designated U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia William E. Todd on Friday presented his credentials to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, officially starting his diplomatic mission in the kingdom, the U.S. embassy said in a press release.

During the credentials presentation ceremony, ambassador Todd told King Sihamoni that the United States looks forward to creating a more effective relationship with Cambodia and to strengthening the friendship and cooperation between the two countries, said the press release.

Todd was nominated by U.S. President Barack Obama last December and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March as the new U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia to succeed Carol A.Rodley, said U.S. embassy spokesperson Michelle Bennett.

Before Cambodia, Todd served as U.S. ambassador to Brunei Darussalam from 2008 to 2010, according to his biography provided by the U.S. embassy.

PHNOM PENH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue, on behalf the Chinese government, handed over million-yuan worth donation to Cambodian Senate Friday, further cementing the two countries' friendly relations.

Cambodian Senate will receive three minibuses, five printers, nine scanners, 30 desktops, 30 laptops and one telephone extension system worth some 158,000 U.S. dollars.

At the handover ceremony, Pan spoke highly of Cambodia's firm and constant stance on one-China policy and appreciated Phnom Penh's support on regional and international issues concerning China' s core interests. "China sees Cambodia as a good friend, a good neighbor, a good partner and a brother. Chinese people treat Cambodian people's hardship as their own and will continue assisting Cambodia's social and economic development,"he said.

Tep Ngorn, the 2nd vice president of the Cambodian Senate, conveyed Senate President Chea Sim's gratitude to the Chinese donation to Pan, saying the office supplies will effectively improve Cambodian senators'working condition and help cement the two countries' relations.

According to Tep Ngorn, since established in 1999, Cambodian Senate had received over 14 million dollar worth assistance from China.

He expressed the hope for more cooperation in the fields of investment and tourism. "I hope that more and more Chinese investors will know more about Cambodia and pour their money into this country, and more Chinese tourists can choose Cambodia as their travel destination," he said.

JAKARTA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu said that it was needed to change the international perceptions on Indonesia that were tainted terrorism and tsunamis, and Bali as the main tourism point of reference for most, the Jakarta globe reported here on Friday.

"We need to change these perspectives by pushing more positive news about Indonesia and promoting tourism," the minister on Thursday.

A poor global perception of Indonesia coupled with a lack of infrastructure and connectivity are hampering foreign tourism growth, she said. "If you Google image [search] Indonesia, you will see the national flag, the Garuda [national symbol], and only one picture related to tourism: the Borobudur Temple," Minister Mari said.

"But if you Google image Cambodia, you will see a lot of Angkor Wat images," she added, referring to that country's renowned Hindu temple complex.

The ministry is targeting the number of foreign tourists to reach 10 million in 2014, but a lack of infrastructure and connectivity is hampering tourism growth.

Mari said the ministry is aiming at average annual growth in foreign tourism of 1 million people per year. Last year, there were 7.6 million foreign tourists and this year the ministry is targeting about 8 million.

"Hopefully in 2014, the number of foreign tourists can reach 10 million. This is still half of Malaysia's foreign tourists though," she said.

"What's more important than numbers is the quality of the tourists. We want tourists to stay longer, spend more and return to Indonesia," the former trade minister added.

The tourism sector generated a foreign exchange income of 8.6 billion U.S. dollar in 2011, a 13 percent increase from the previous year.

Mari said foreign exchange income from the tourism sector was expected to reach 9.5 billion U.S. dollar this year and 11 billion U.S. dollar by 2014.

The minister added that domestic tourism is still fueling growth in the sector, with 125 million domestic tourists generating revenues of 15 trillion rupiah (some 1.6 billion U.S. dollar) for the sector last year.

"We will continue to promote tourism destinations. There are approximately 200 points of tourism in 80 destinations in Indonesia. Indonesia is more than just Bali," she said.

Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Bunaken Island in North Sulawesi and Komodo Island in East Nusa Tenggara are among the tourism gems, Mari said.

"Our branding, 'Wonderful Indonesia,' is not quite working. But I think the problem is not the message. It is the lack of infrastructure and connectivity," she said.

She said that the number of direct flights to tourism destinations was still lacking and airports and seaports were overcapacity.

"To solve this, we need cooperation with the Public Works Ministry, State Enterprises Ministry and the Transportation Ministry. I can see that improvements have been done," she said.

The ministry has divided the tourism destinations into seven categories: Sports tourism (diving, golf); eco tourism; cruise ship tourism; spa and medical tourism; culture and heritage tourism; culinary and shopping tourism; and MICE (meeting, incentives, conferences and events) tourism.

PHNOM PENH, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's ministry of women' s affairs and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Wednesday jointly organized a forum on women's entrepreneurship promotion to discuss challenges women are facing in business management.

The one-day forum was attended by some 80 high-level government representatives, international experts, leaders of women's business associations, women's producers groups, entrepreneurs and economic experts, Ing Kantha Phavi, minister of women's affairs, said in her opening address.

"The event is aimed at creating a platform of exchange and a network among the key players in the government of Cambodia, development partners, and private sector to identify the specific challenges that women entrepreneurs usually experience and explore some of the good practices on how to overcome these constraints," she said.

In Cambodia, more than 60 percent of micro, small- and medium- sized enterprises are owned by women, but those enterprises are very small and informal ones with only a few employees, she said, adding that those women business owners still face a different kind of challenges compared to their male fellow-entrepreneurs.

Those challenges include limited access to adequate skills training, land ownership, access to advanced education, more importantly access to markets, business information or financial resources, she added.

"I believe that the forum will identify some of the key priorities for improving the economic status of Cambodian women," said the minister.

The UNDP deputy country director Sophie Baranes said at the forum that the economic empowerment of women is a key strategy to promote gender equality and poverty reduction in Cambodia and it is clearly articulated in specific targets under the Cambodian Millennium Development Goal 3 to be achieved by 2015.

PHNOM PENH, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The preliminary result of Cambodia's commune council election on Sunday showed that the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen won a landslide victory over other involved parties.

Given the fact of that, some political analysts forecast that the CPP will take a dominant victory again in next year's parliamentary election without any doubt.

In the Sunday's commune council elections, the CPP won 1,592 commune chief positions out of the country's 1,633 communes, one more commune chief over they gained in 2007. Sam Rainsy Party, the main opposition party, gained about 22 commune chief seats, a decrease of 6 seats over its results in 2007.

The Human Rights Party, which is the first time in the campaign, won surprisingly 18 commune chief seats, according to the party's leader Kim Sokha.

The royalist parties remained the downward trend. Neither Funcinpec Party nor Norodom Ranariddh Party won a single seat of commune chief position. But notice that, the Funcinpec took 2 chiefs five years ago.

In an interview with Xinhua, Chheang Vannarith, executive director of Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said there is "no doubt" that no party can challenge the dominant position of the incumbent CPP in the next year's general elections, let alone replacing it. But the other parties can still maintain similar amount of seats at the national assembly.

He attributed the CPP's victory and overwhelming popularity to the party's strong financial back-up during the election campaign and its satisfactory performance in improving infrastructure development and socio-economic development.

The sitting Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power for 27 years.

Vannarith analyzed that the opposition parties, by contrast, all have limited financial resources to gain their exposure among voters, increasingly losing their leadership at local commune levels.

"The lack of capacity and financial resources of the representatives at the commune level reduces to some extent of the popularity for the opposition party," he said.

Besides, Asian Human Rights Commission senior researcher Lao Mong Hay, a prominent political analyst, said that the results of the Sunday's election clearly presented that the CPP has a pervasive and firm grasp on the Cambodian society.

"The results demonstrated that the ruling party controls all aspects in the country, including civil servants, the military forces, the police, the monks and judicial officers as party activists to carry out activities to support the party throughout the years," he wrote in an e-mail interview with Xinhua. "The CPP controls and almost exclusively utilize the media."

In addition, he said, business community also supports for the CPP, especially the rich and powerful tycoons and companies, and their financial contributions to the party's funds.

He said that the weaker presence of the opposition party is due to the absence of its leader in the country and its continued lack of resources.

Sam Rainsy, President of Sam Rainsy Party, fled the country after being sentenced to 11-years in jails for two counts-- publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam and accusing the foreign minister Hor Namhong of being a member of the Democratic Kampuchea, or known as Khmer Rouge regime.

For the next year's general elections, Lao Mong Hay foresees that "it is very difficult for any party to compete with the CPP."

ROYALIST PARTIES STILL WEAK

On May 24, the royalist Funcinpec party and the Norodom Ranariddh party announced the merger towards a stronger presence in the next year's polls.

Lao Mong Hay, however, casts his own doubt towards this move, saying the new Funcinpec can increase its popularity to some extent, but still at a limited level since the voters for this party has been divided and confused.

He reasoned that the limitation of both parties lays in their past failures and past bad performances, scarce resources, and the subordinate image to the ruling party.

"The royalist party may get fewer seats at the national assembly in the next year's polls," he predicts.

Funcinpec Party and Norodom Ranariddh Party won only 2 seats each out of the 123 parliamentary seats in the elections in July 2008.

Vannarith foresees that the Sam Rainsy Party will remain the key opposition party in Cambodia due to the fact the foundation is quite strong and its name will more well known nationally and internationally.