DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia sees slight decrease in rice export in 7 months due to price competition” plus 4 more

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had exported 89,800 tons of milled rice in the first seven months of this year, a 2.6 percent drop from 92,200 tons at the same period in a year ago, showed the statistics from the Ministry of Commerce's Camcontrol Department on Thursday.

However, the revenues from the export had increased by 23 percent to 63.4 million U.S. dollars during the January-July period this year thanks to rising rice prices in the international market.

Officials said that the decline in export quantity was due to tough competition in prices with other countries.

"The decline in export is due to tough price competition in the global market," said Khuon Savuth, chief of the Camcontrol Department's statistics division. "More importantly, we notice that the prices of Vietnamese and Indian rice are cheaper than us. "

Nonetheless, he expressed optimism that rice export would see growth again this year thanks to a newly signed rice agreement between Cambodia and Indonesia.

Indonesia signed last week to buy at least 100,000 tons of rice a year from Cambodia.

Lim Bunheng, president of Loran Import-Export Company and Rice Exporter Association, said that the market for Cambodian rice this year is not very good because India has sold off about 4 million tons of its rice stocks.

Cambodia's milled rice has been exported mainly to European markets and the United States, South Korea, Japan and China.

The Southeast Asian nation produced some 8.25 million tons of paddy rice last year. With the amount, it's estimated that there is around 2.5 million tons of milled rice left over for export this year.

In August, 2010, the government launched the rice export promotion strategy, aiming at exporting one million tons of milled rice by 2015.

Last year, the country exported some 170,000 tons of milled rice, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Government of Cambodia and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Thursday signed an agreement on safeguarding of the Angkor Wat Temple, one of the World Heritage sites.

The deal was inked between Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of the Council of Ministers, and Anne Lemaistre, UNESCO Representative to Cambodia.

The two-year phase II project will be focused on the restoration of an extension span of the moat embankment at the Angkor Wat Temple, said Rome University's Professor Valter Maria Santoro, head of the Italian technical mission for stone consolidation in the temple.

Speaking after the signing ceremony, Sok An said that the second phase project will cost 250,000 U.S. dollars including 200, 000 U.S. dollars granted by Italian government and 50,000 U.S. dollars by Cambodian government.

He said that Italian government, through UNESCO, has involved in helping safeguard the Angkor Wat Temple since 1994.

"The continuous support signifies a further cooperation among Cambodia, UNESCO and Italy," he said.

Sok An said currently, Cambodia has been collaborating with 14 countries and 28 international teams in implementing over 60 different projects to preserve, safeguard and develop the temple.

Anne Lemaistre said, "UNESCO is proud to help Cambodia in the preservation and conservation of the World Heritage site of Angkor. "

Angkor archeological park was inscribed in the World Heritage list on Dec. 14, 1992.

It is the country's largest cultural tourism destination; it is located in Siem Reap province, some 315 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

The site had attracted 1.06 million foreign tourists in the first six months of this year, up 35 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Tourism Ministry.

VLADIVOSTOK, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) are striving to forge a regional free trade facility to be known as FTAAP (Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific).

The following is operating and negotiating FTA agreements with APEC member economies.

Operating FTA agreements:

NAFTA - signed in December of 1992 and known in full as the North American Free Trade Agreement, it has removed taxes on products traded between Canada, Mexico and the United States; it also protects copyright, patents and trademarks; it was updated with the North American Agreement on Environment Cooperation.

APTA (Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement) - signed in 1975 as the longest standing preferential trade agreement among developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, it is aimed at promoting economic development and cooperation through the adoption of mutually beneficial trade liberalization measures; the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement bloc includes Bangladesh, China, India, South Korea, Laos, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines; the accord opens to all developing members of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific.

AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) - signed in January of 1992, it covers all 10 ASEAN members of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam and is aimed at increasing ASEAN's competitiveness as a production base through elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers.

TPP - signed in 2005, it is known in full as the Trans-Pacific Partnership which is a multilateral free trade accord that strives to liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region; it originally included Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. Now negotiations have been underway to include more countries from the region.

Negotiating FTA agreements:

AEC - fully known as the ASEAN Economic Community, it is aimed at achieving a single market for free movement of goods, services, capital and skilled laborers among the ASEAN members.

EAFTA - or East Asia Free Trade Agreement or ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea), it is aimed at forging a free trade area among these economies.

CEPEA - or Comprehensive Economic Partnership for East Asia or ASEAN+6 (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea), it is aimed at forming a free trade area.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- A timely and decisive response is vital in the face of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, top United Nations officials said here Wednesday, highlighting the need to act when a State fails to protect its own people.

"This is the ultimate test of the responsibility to protect," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said during an informal interactive dialogue at the UN General Assembly on the " Responsibility to Protect", a principle agreed at a summit of world leaders in 2005.

Also known as "R2P", the principle holds States responsible for shielding their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and related crimes against humanity and requires the international community to step in if this obligation is not met.

Presenting his latest report on the responsibility to protect, the secretary-general noted that the concept arose out of the brutal legacy of the 20th century, including the Holocaust, the killing fields of Cambodia, the genocide in Rwanda and Srebrenica, and other large-scale tragedies that underlined the failure of individual States to live up to their protection responsibilities.

"The responsibility to protect is a concept whose time has come, " he said. "For too many millions of victims, it should have come much earlier."

Wednesday's informal dialogue is the fourth since 2009 and focuses on timely and decisive responses -- the third pillar of the responsibility to protect.

"We all agree that sovereignty must not be a shield behind which States commit grave crimes against their people. But achieving prevention and protection can be difficult," Ban said. " In recent years, we have shown how good offices, preventive diplomacy, mediation, commissions of inquiry and other peaceful means can help pull countries back from the brink of mass violence. "

"However, when non-coercive measures fail or are considered inadequate, enforcement under Chapter VII will need to be considered by the appropriate intergovernmental bodies," the secretary-general said. "This includes carefully crafted sanctions and, in extreme circumstances, the use of force."

Chapter VII of the UN Charter allows the UN Security Council to use force in the face of a threat to peace or aggression, taking " such action as by air, sea, or land forces may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security," including blockades and other operations by the forces of member states.

The secretary-general also touched upon the immense human cost of failing to protect the population of Syria, where more than 18, 000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 18 months ago.

He commended the General Assembly for its proactive response to the Syrian crisis. "It has shown that, while moments of unity in the Security Council have been few and far between, the rest of the world body need not be silent," Ban said.

"Let us by all means continue to talk through the responsibility to protect in all its aspects. Each year we achieve greater precision and common understanding," he said. "But let us recognize that we face an urgent test here and now. Words must become deeds. Promise must become practice."

Addressing the gathering, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 193-member General Assembly, noted that through implementation of the responsibility to protect, the role of the UN is not to supplant or replace the State in meeting its legal obligation to protect.

"The responsibility to protect is rather intended, as a modality for assisting a government that is unable to deliver on its protection obligations. The international community can only act, in the event that a State 'manifestly fails' to protect its citizens," he said. "So the international response is intended to reinforce, not undermine, national sovereignty. This should help governments to ensure full protection to populations."

Also present at Wednesday's day-long dialogue are Adama Dieng, the newly appointed special adviser of the secretary-general on the prevention of genocide, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson and Ivan Simonovic, UN assistant secretary-general for human rights.