DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Britain life insurer Prudential officially launches operations in Cambodia” plus 9 more

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia is preparing to conserve the capital's disappearing cyclos or rickshaws, which used to be a popular means of transport during the French colonial rule about 80 years ago.

Cyclo is a three-wheeled bicycle with the driver perched on high above the rear wheel, and the passengers in a bucket seat slung between the two front wheels.

"If we look back to the old time when Cambodia was ruled by French, there were thousands of cyclos in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, but now there are only about 500 cyclos," Tourism Minister Thong Khon said Wednesday at a meeting with the Phnom Penh municipal officials and representatives of the Cyclo Conservation and Careers Association.

He said the gradual disappearance of cyclos was due to the rise in taxi and motorized rickshaws.

"As the economy is growing, and people's living conditions are better, people choose to travel by a modern and faster means of transport, rather than cyclos," he said.

However, the minister said it was very important to conserve the means of transport in old times.

"We have to conserve cyclos, it will be a way to attract foreign tourists," he said, adding that tourists can ride cyclos for sightseeing tours in the city.

Thong Khon said that through the conservation plan, the ministry will help the Cyclo Conservation and Careers Association as much as possible, especially through providing English training for cyclo drivers.

Im Sambath, heads of the association, said that the decline in cyclos was because drivers cannot earn enough money to support themselves as people prefer modern transports to cyclos.

Generally, a cyclo operator earns between 2 and 5 U.S. dollars a day.

The conservation plan is made after Prime Minister Hun Sen voiced concerns over the decline in cyclo number last month.

"Right now, we are concerned about losing the cyclos," he said. "When means of transport becomes modern, nobody pays attention to cyclos."

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia will hold the second time of a week-long mourning for the most revered King Father Norodom Sihanouk from Feb. 1-7 during which the King Father's body will be cremated, according to a government's circular released to the media on Wednesday.

Sihanouk died of illness at the age of 90 in Beijing on Oct. 15, last year and his body was returned to Phnom Penh by Air China jumbo jet on Oct. 17. The country announced the first 7-day period of mourning from Oct. 17-23; then, his body is lying in state at Cambodian capital's Royal Palace for the public to pay their last respects.

According to the circular signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday, Sihanouk's body will be moved from the Royal Palace to a cremation site, built at the Meru field next to the Palace, on Feb. 1 and kept it for another three days at the site before it is cremated on Feb. 4.

"During the 2nd mourning period, all radios and TV stations as well as entertainment places must suspend broadcasting joyful spectacles, performances, and concerts," it said. "Flags must be all flying at half-mast."

The circular also instructed all Cambodian people to pin black ribbons to their shirts as a sign of mourning.

It added that all civil servants will be allowed to take a two- day holiday on Feb. 1 and 4.

The procession of moving the King's body from the Royal Palace to the cremation site on Feb. 1 and the cremation ceremony on Feb. 4 will be live broadcast through all radios and TV channels in the country.

Born on Oct. 31, 1922, Sihanouk ruled Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his voluntary abdication on Oct. 7, 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni.

He suffered from various forms of cancer, diabetes and hypertension and had been treated by Chinese doctors in Beijing for years before his death.

Sihanouk wrote in a royal letter in January, 2012 that he requested his body to be cremated instead of being buried and his ashes to be put in an urn, preferably made of gold, and placed in a stupa at the Royal Palace.

JAKARTA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The complicated issue in the South China Sea remains a challenge in the process of building the ASEAN community, ASEAN's new Secretary General Le Luong Minh said here Wednesday.

Minh made the remarks when addressing at the office transfer ceremony held here at the ASEAN headquarters attended by around 200 foreign ambassadors and diplomats.

Minh, the 61-year-old veteran Vietnamese diplomat, officially assumed his position as ASEAN secretary-general for a non- renewable term of five years Wednesday. He was approved by the leaders of ASEAN member countries at their 21st summit in Cambodia last November to succeed Surin Pitsuwan.

"The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should speed up efforts towards an early start of negotiations with China with a view to achieving an early conclusion of a Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea," Minh said.

He said the conclusion of the COC is important for ensuring effective and timely implementation of the ASEAN Political and Security Community Blueprints.

ASEAN's 10 members in 2008 adopted a charter committing to form by 2015 a "community" based on three main pillars - ASEAN Political-Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.

Minh said the conclusion of the COC should be built on the progress reflected in the agreement between ASEAN and China on the guidelines for Implementing the Declaration on Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the South China Sea, in ASEAN's 6-point principles on the South China Sea and in the adoption of the ASEAN-China Joint Statement on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the DOC.

China and the ASEAN countries in 2002 signed the DOC, which states that sovereign states should resolve territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means and through friendly consultations and negotiations.

As to the economic pillar, Minh said creating conditions for more open flow of investments, capital, labor, goods and services will pose great challenges for ASEAN member states.

"Providing our young people with good education is one of the most effective ways out of the poverty trap," Minh said, citing the work to be done in establishing the social and cultural pillar.

"The ASEAN secretariat will continue to play active roles in supporting and coordinating with member states to help facilitate and drive the establishment of the ASEAN community, Minh added.

TOKYO, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Consulate General in Fukuoka confirmed Wednesday that a Cambodian ship with 13 Chinese sailors aboard anchored in the waters off Fukuoka the day morning as it lost power on Tuesday.

The vessel registered in Cambodia left Shanghai on Jan. 5 for Japan's Osaka for transporting steel. Crew members found the ship' s propeller was out of work on Jan. 8 and the ship has flew into waters near Fukuoka Wednesday morning.

All 14 crew members, including 13 Chinese and a Myanmar national, are in good conditions, the consulate said.

Now, the ship has anchored in the waters and is waiting for rescue from Japanese side.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia is expected to register an economic growth rate of more than 6.5 percent this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday.

Despite the global slowdown, Cambodia's economic performance has been holding up driven by resilient exports, robust tourism and construction, the Washington-based global lender said in its 2012 Article IV staff report on the Asian economy released Tuesday.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to expand around 6.7 percent in 2013, the IMF said.

"A fragile global economic outlook, rapid credit growth, and potentially extreme weather conditions continue to pose significant risks," the IMF cautioned in the annual checkup of Cambodia's economic and financial conditions.

"Given the robust economic expansion, the recent increase in the reserve requirement constitutes a critical step toward safeguarding financial stability, although further increases and additional measures may be needed to guard against excessive risk taking by banks," the report noted.

Improvements in macroeconomic management can enable a virtuous cycle of more self-sustaining and inclusive growth if they are supported by steadfast structural reforms to facilitate private sector-led economic diversification, improve public finance management, and ensure greater efficiency of public spending and budget transparency, suggested the IMF.

YANGON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Standard Chartered bank will reopen a representative office in Myanmar's Yangon after 50 years' absence, local media reported Tuesday.

It has gained a license from the Central Bank of Myanmar but the date for the reopening has not been confirmed yet, said the Yangon Times News.

Started in 1862, the Standard Chartered bank operated in Myanmar as the first foreign bank but was nationalized in 1963 during the Ne Win military government.

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

Meanwhile, VISA and Master cards have been granted to be used with three private banks, followed by China Union Pay (CUP).

Japan Credit Bureau (JCB) Card will be introduced at 17 private banks in March this year.

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

BANGKOK, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The anti-government, nationalist " Yellow Shirt" on Tuesday petitioned the government, calling them to defy the pending ruling of the International Court of Justice ( ICJ) on the contested land surrounding the ancient Hindu Preah Vihear temple over Thai and Cambodian ownership.

Panthep Puapongpan, the spokesperson of the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), said that the PAD urged the government to display its stance against the ICJ judgement and jurisdiction, and refuse to sign any agreement as a result of the court's order.

About a hundred of PAD activists show up at the government house to show its support for the PAD's demand.

Thailand and Cambodia are scheduled to give their oral statements on the dispute to the ICJ at The Hague, Netherlands, on April 15-19.

"It is not necessary to follow the ICJ's injunction," the PAD spokesperson said. He added that the PAD is now to wait and see before taking any action further.

In 2010 and 2011, the PAD held months-long demonstrations related to the disputed area both in Bangkok and near the disputed border area.

"If the government follows the ICJ's order, it is tantamount to intentionally let go of the Thai territory," Thai News Agency quoted the spokesperson as saying.

The petition comprises seven demands. Some of them are that the Thai government should state that the ICJ has no legitimacy to rule over the dispute, the government should stop using its press team, assigned to publicize news on the issue from government's views, and allow public and private media to publicize the issue from their views and the government should help the two PAD activists who were jailed in Cambodia for illegally entering Cambodian border while they were on a trip to explore the undemacrated area in 2010.

Last week, Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said that it is possible that the ICJ's ruling may not end in Thailand' s favor.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Phongthep Thepkanchana said the Thai legal team will meet with foreign legal consultants in London next month to prepare the oral statement for presentation to the Court on April 19.

The legal consultants have been given full authority in fighting the case for Thailand's ultimate interests, said Phongthep, appointed by the premier to supervise the case. He is also education minister.

The government welcomes suggestions from the Thai people and any organizations concerning the case but final decision depends on the judges, he said, warning against creating negative attitudes towards Thailand, the minister said.

"Judges are human beings. Their negative attitudes will be unfavorable to Thailand," Thai News Agency quoted Phongthep as saying.

In its 1962 verdict, the ICJ only ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia but there was no judgement on the 4.6 square kilometers of the land surrounding the temple.

The dispute between the two countries erupted again shortly after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved Cambodia's bid to have the temple named a World Heritage Site in 2008.