DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “EXPANSION OF CAMBODIA’S EXPORT INDUSTRY HINDERED BY TRADE CONSTRAINTS” plus 4 more

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will lead a high delegation to attend the 7th CLV (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) Summit on the Development Triangle Area on Oct. 19-20 in Ho Chi Minh City, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.

The CLV Development Triangle Area is aimed at accelerating of economic growth, poverty reduction, social and cultural progress in 13 provinces of the three countries, including four in Cambodia, four in Laos, and five in Vietnam.

The prime ministers of the three countries will sign a joint declaration at the end of the summit, according to the release.

YANGON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has not yet allowed foreign banks to open branches in the country, however multinational bankers are seeking to set up such banks in the country, an official of the Central Bank of Myanmar told Xinhua Thursday.

He denied the report about the recent opening of a foreign- invested bank in the country which appeared on some websites in the internet.

In line with its economic reforms which also cover the banking sector, the government allows foreign banks to open representative offices of foreign banks in the country as the first phase.

If foreign banks want to do banking business in the country, they are required to undertake as a joint-venture with Myanmar counterparts in the future as the second phase in the banking system reforms, he said.

In the third phase, the banks can be operated in the form of wholly foreign-owned ones.

So far, there are 23 representative offices of foreign banks set up in Myanmar. They are mainly from Brunei, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

There is a total of 22 banks in Myanmar of which three are state-owned.

Meanwhile, starting July 11, authorized private banks in Myanmar started to admit opening of foreign currency accounts with the public in U.S. dollar, Euro and Singapore dollar as well as foreign exchange certificate.

Aimed at stabilizing the exchange rate of foreign currency and ensure emergence of foreign exchange market in the country, the Central Bank of Myanmar granted 11 Myanmar private banks to trade the three foreign hard currencies.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is currently helping the efforts to strengthen the rule of law in more than 150 member states in their campaigns to improve post- conflict reconstruction, spur overall development and enforce fundamental rights, a senior official said here Wednesday.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson made the statement at the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with international legal matters.

UN assistance helped Somalia's constitution-making process, which culminated in the presentation of a draft constitution to the National Constituent Assembly in July. In Timor-Leste, the UN supported the establishment of the first land registry system.

"Newly-constituted governments are looking to the United Nations for advice and assistance in constitution-making processes, reforming justice and security institutions and dealing with legacies of atrocities," Eliasson said.

The Sixth Committee is following up on the General Assembly's High-Level Meeting on the Rule of Law that was held last month, when world leaders stressed the universality of humanitarian law and the importance of the system of international courts in enforcing fundamental human rights.

Eliasson highlighted the crucial role played by the network of international tribunals such as the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal UN judicial organ set up in 1945 to settle legal disputes submitted by States, and the more recent Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), an independent international body that is not part of the UN and tries those accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Other UN-backed country-specific international courts deal or have dealt with such crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Cambodia. Eliasson reiterated the call Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made at last month's meeting for all states to accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ.

"The International Court of Justice plays a particularly important role," he said. "It is the only judicial forum to which Member States can bring virtually any legal dispute concerning international law. No other forum's jurisdiction is as far- reaching. Yet the court is only competent to hear a case if the States concerned have accepted its jurisdiction."

Only 67 of the UN's 193 member states, or 34 percent, including only one permanent member of the UN Security Council, currently accept the ICJ's compulsory jurisdiction. That compares with 59 percent in 1948, when 34 of the then 58 UN member states, including four of the five permanent members of the Security Council, recognized its jurisdiction.

Eliasson also spoke highly of the crucial role played by the UN- backed international criminal tribunals, noting that the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) last year sentenced former Liberian President Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for planning and abetting crimes committed by Sierra Leonean rebel forces during the civil war if the West African country, finding him guilty of acts of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery and enlisting child soldiers.

The ICC earlier this year found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty of conscripting child soldiers under the age of 15 into his militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC) and jailed him for 14 years.