DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “ASEAN senior officials meet ahead of 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting” plus 4 more

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- ASEAN senior officials on energy gathered here on Monday to discuss and prepare documents for the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting and related meetings to be held on Sept. 12.

The two-day preparatory meeting, under the theme "ASEAN Green Connectivity", was chaired by Tun Lean, director general of energy department at Cambodia's Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy ( MIME).

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting, Victor Jona, deputy director general of the MIME's energy department, said the discussions were focused on ASEAN Power Grid Connectivity, ASEAN Green Energy Connectivity and efficiency of energy consumption in the bloc.

"We discussed directions and targets of key energy matters crucial to the realization of both the ASEAN Connectivity and eventually the aspiration of an ASEAN Community by 2015," he said.

The meeting was also a chance to further strengthen energy cooperation within ASEAN and with dialogue partners, and international organizations, he added.

The 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting, the 9th Meeting of Energy Ministers of the ASEAN Plus Three countries (ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea), and the 6th East Asian Summit Energy Ministers Meeting will be held here on Sept. 12, according to an official schedule.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Construction sector had attracted the investment of 1.38 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of 2012, a 85 percent rise from 747 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, a report from the ministry of land management, urban planning and construction showed on Monday.

During the January-July period this year, the ministry had issued licenses to 1,083 construction projects, down 15 percent from 1,279 projects at the same period last year.

"There is a sharp increase in investment value this year, but a decrease in construction projects because projects this year are bigger in size than those of last year," said Lao Tip Seiha, deputy director-general of the ministry's construction general- department.

The projects include residential units, commercial buildings, apartments, hotels, casinos, agricultural product processing plants and garment factories, he said.

Besides local ones, foreign investors involved in the projects are mostly from South Korea, China, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Construction sector is one of the four pillars supporting the economy. The sector attracted 2,129 projects with a total investment of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars last year.

BALI, Indonesia, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen governments from East Asia and the Pacific kicked off the 3rd East Ministerial Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene in Bali on Monday in a bid to achieve the ultimate goal of universal sanitation access in the region.

Over 250 participants will take part in the conference, from government ministers and officials, partner organizations to media and academia from China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Timor Leste and Vietnam.

Indonesian Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi opened the conference at the Nusa Dua tourist resort hotel in Bali.

Quoting the Unicef/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme report that the region as a whole has reached the sanitation Millennium Development Goal (MDG) as of 2012, World Bank Water and Sanitation Program principal regional team leader Almud Weitz said in her opening remarks that reaching the MDG is a very important stepping stone towards the ultimate goal of universal sanitation access.

However, large disparities remain across the region as more than 670 million people still lack improved sanitation facilities and over 100 million people still practice open defecation.

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least 124 Cambodian children were killed by dengue fever in the first eight months of this year, a 158 percent rise from only 48 deaths in the same period last year, according to the report of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control on Saturday.

Some 30,760 dengue fever cases were reported during the January- August period this year, an increase of 179 percent compared with 11,020 cases in the same period last year, the report said.

The province with the highest death toll is Banteay Meanchey with 20 deaths, followed by Siem Reap with 18 deaths and Kampong Cham with 16.

Dr. Char Meng Chuor, director of the center, said that among the fatal cases, 70 percent of the patients died of gastrointestinal bleeding.

"There were more deaths this year because parents had sent their sick children to private clinics first. When the treatment was ineffective and the disease became more severe, they continued to send them to public hospitals, but it was too late for them to be cured," he said.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. The disease of sudden onset usually follows symptoms such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands, vomiting and rash.

In Cambodia, the outbreak of dengue fever usually begins at the onset of the rainy season in May and lasts until October.

Char Meng Chuor said that to prevent the outbreak, the center has distributed some 270 tons of Abate (a chemical substance used to kill larva in water pots) to households this year.

Last year, the country reported 15,980 dengue fever cases, killing 73 children.