DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia's rice exports up 126 pct in 5 months” plus 4 more |
- Cambodia's rice exports up 126 pct in 5 months
- U.S., Cambodian Air Forces jointly host regional military airlift exercise
- Greater Mekong Sub-region media exchange visits launched in SW China
- Hypothesis of AIDS transmission from monkeys to man
- World Economic Forum on East Asia begins in Myanmar capital
| Cambodia's rice exports up 126 pct in 5 months Posted: 05 Jun 2013 11:40 PM PDT PHNOM PENH, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's exports of milled rice have sharply increased in the first five months of this year thanks to rising international market demand and country's rice promotion strategy, an official said Thursday. The country had exported 146,800 tons of milled rice during January-May period this year, up 126 percent from 64,900 tons over the same period last year, showed the report of the single window secretariat for facilitating milled rice exports. Five main countries purchased Cambodian rice are France, Poland, Thailand, Malaysia and China, the report said. Hean Vanhorn, chief of the single window secretariat for facilitating milled rice exports, attributed the increase to rising demand on international markets and Cambodia's efforts in promoting rice exports. "The growth is also due to more investment by private sector in building sophisticated rice processing plants," he said. Based on the export figures in the first five months, he believed that the country would be able to achieve the target of one-million-ton milled rice exports by 2015. Cambodia is an agrarian country. More than 80 percent of the population is farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture announced in January that the country produced 9.31 million tons of paddy rice last year. Of this amount, besides local consumption, the nation had around 3 million tons of milled rice left over for exports this year. The whole year of 2012, the country exported 205,717 tons of milled rice, up only 2 percent year-on-year. | ||
| U.S., Cambodian Air Forces jointly host regional military airlift exercise Posted: 05 Jun 2013 11:40 PM PDT KAMPONG SPEU, Cambodia, June 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. and Cambodian Air Forces on Thursday highlighted Pacific Airlift Rally 2013 at Pochentong Air Base with a humanitarian assistance and air drop simulation, said a media statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia. Pacific Airlift Rally, a biennial, military airlift symposium involving over 100 personnel from 20 nations in the Indo-Pacific region, started on Monday and would conclude on Friday, the statement said, adding that it focused on enhancing airlift coordination among regional air forces and providing multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. During the exercise on Thursday at the Pochentong Air Base situated about 35 kilometers west of capital Phnom Penh, four C- 130 aircraft belonging to the United States, Thailand and Malaysia simulated air drops in order to provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief in the event of an emergency or disaster such as flooding, tsunami, or earthquake. Lieutenant General Suon Samnang, chief of the Royal Cambodian Air Force, and Major General Russell Handy, director of operations, plans, and policy for the U.S. Pacific Air Force, led the exercise by flying together in one of the C-130s. U.S. ambassador to Cambodia William E. Todd said at the air drop event that the exercise showcased the strengthening of the U. S.-Cambodia military relationship and demonstrated U.S. assistance to the Cambodian people in times of need. "The exercise is yet another example of America's commitment to developing the capacity of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces as a means to promote peace, prosperity, and security in Cambodia and throughout the Asia-Pacific region," he said. "Military exercises like Pacific Airlift Rally are concrete examples of the U.S. rebalance towards Asia to deepen relations with our network of Asian allies and broaden cooperation with our partners." He said building capacity for Air Forces was critical in helping all participating countries to respond to regional crises-- regardless of the disaster or location. Pacific Airlift Rally provides a venue to exchange humanitarian airlift, air-land, and air delivery techniques, the U.S. Embassy' s statement said. During the five-day exercise, in addition to the air drops, there was also a "command post exercise", a tabletop simulation for staff officers to assemble, design a plan, and execute based on a given scenario that tests the group's skills in coordinating logistics with other organizations. Pacific Airlift Rally's participants represented Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Laos, Maldives, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United States and Vietnam. Last month, the U.S. and Cambodian forces also jointly conducted a military exercise dubbed "Angkor Sentinel" in order to build up capacity for Cambodian forces in peacekeeping and stability operations. | ||
| Greater Mekong Sub-region media exchange visits launched in SW China Posted: 05 Jun 2013 11:39 PM PDT KUNMING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Regular exchange visits between media organizations from China and the other five countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) were launched in southwest China on Wednesday. Press officers and journalists with the media organizations of the GMS countries took part in the launch ceremony in Kunming, provincial capital of Yunnan. While addressing the ceremony, Wang Guoqing, deputy director of China's State Council Information Office, said the news media organizations of the GMS countries have played an irreplaceable and important role and made positive contributions in enhancing mutual knowledge and understanding between sub-regional countries and peoples, as well as in promoting cooperation between regions and countries. It is necessary to further strengthen sub-regional cooperation and the role of news media of GMS countries, Wang said. The exchanges are aimed at establishing regular visits among the media organizations of China and the other five GMS countries -- Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. Through regular exchanges of reporters, the fixed mechanism is expected to create a favorable public opinion environment for the promotion of sub-regional cooperation, according to Wang. Zhao Jin, a senior publicity official of Yunnan, said at the ceremony that exchanges and cooperation between China and other GMS countries have developed rapidly and scored remarkable achievements in various fields since the GMS economic mechanism was established in 1992. Under the GMS cooperation mechanism, the regular exchange visits between China and other GMS countries will establish a new platform for media communication, Zhao said. U Peik Htway, deputy minister of the Ministry of Information, Myanmar, said the media exchanges will strengthen the goodwill, mutual understanding and friendship among GMS countries. "The Legendary Music," a TV series co-produced by the Yunnan TV Station and the Ministry of Information, Myanmar, which was based on a historical story dating back to the Tang Dynasty in China and the Pyu Era in Myanmar, will debut in both countries soon, he added. The GMS is a natural economic area bound together by the Mekong River. It covers 2.6 million square kilometers and is home to around 326 million people. | ||
| Hypothesis of AIDS transmission from monkeys to man Posted: 05 Jun 2013 11:39 PM PDT YAOUNDE, June 5 (Xinhua) -- To test the hypothesis of the transmission of HIV/AIDS from young monkeys to human beings, researchers have intensified research on HIV-1, the AIDS virus that is widely spread in the world as opposed to HIV-2 which is common in West Africa. The issue formed the basis of discussion during the 5th Scientific Days for the National Research Agency on AIDS and Hepatitis (ANRS, a French organization with a branch in Cameroon), that was held in the capital Yaounde on June 3-4. The meeting was meant to reflect on the "genetic diversity" and the rate of infections among non-human primates in sub-Saharan Africa. The main objective of the forum was to evaluate the research that was initiated in the mid-1990s in Cameroon, then spread recently to Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), on the possibility of transmission of the virus from young monkeys to man. An initiative of a team of French and African researchers led by Prof. Eric Laporte of Montpellier University, the studies are interested in identifying the viral load among the wild non-human primates to determine the risks of inter-species transmissions and it will also examine more details on the presence of HIV-1 virus among the older monkeys in the Central African region, especially in Cameroon and Gabon. Laporte reiterated the need to be certain and do away with all doubts. "It's true that all monkeys are carriers of a virus that is close to the AIDS virus, but not the same. But how did the contamination take place?" he asked. It could have happened during preparation of bush meat, meaning that one was cut. Therefore there was contact of blood to blood, he told Xinhua. Research on HIV-1 virus which is widespread across the world took place on several groups. The bigger group is always identified by letter M and according to Prof. Laporte, "within this group, the members had numerous relations and they spread the virus." According to researchers, 98 percent of the members of this group are in Cameroon, a Central African country with a 4.3 percent prevalence rate out of a population of over 20 million people and 122,783 people surviving on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) out of 267,075 eligible people and a total of over 570,000 infected people. As for other groups like O and N, they are considered to be more rare and less widespread. Laporte also insisted on the big difference between the origin of the virus, the very first case before it started spreading- and the origin of the epidemic. "From time to time, there has been contact between man and monkeys, but there has not been any transmission," he said. "The disease is transmitted through sexual intercourse, meaning that there's blood transfusion. Therefore it is not the monkeys," he said, ruling out the possibility of the transmission of the virus from young monkeys to man. "These were hypotheses to help in the understanding and prevention of the disease. But we must reassure the population that there is no transmission of the virus from young monkeys to human beings," he added. There is no doubt regarding the origin of the AIDS virus, because it has been established that certain species of chimpanzees or gorillas in Central Africa are carriers of a similar virus, but its transmission to man remains a matter of great concern to researchers. African researchers, especially Cameroonians, have not spared any effort in their bid to understand the transmission of HIV among human beings. It's this fundamental research issue that brought together researchers from various countries during the ANRS's Scientific Days. The researchers from France, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, South Africa, Egypt, Cambodia, Vietnam and Brazil met in Yaounde to share their experiences and skills. According to Cameroon's Public Health Minister Andre Mama Fouda, such meetings are meant to guarantee progress in the improvement of the population's health. "The conclusions from such meetings will help us to understand better how to take care of our people who are suffering from HIV and hepatitis," he said when he spoke during the opening of the seminar on Monday. Although Cameroon has an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 4.3 percent, the country's prevalence rate of hepatitis B and C ranges between 10 to 12 percent. | ||
| World Economic Forum on East Asia begins in Myanmar capital Posted: 05 Jun 2013 11:38 PM PDT
NAY PYI TAW, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The 22nd World Economic Forum on East Asia, hosted by Myanmar for the first time, began its sessions Wednesday at Myanmar International Convention Center ( MICC) in Nay Pyi Taw, the capital of Myanmar. The three-day session will run until Friday. On the first day session featuring travel and tourist, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines agreed to work on ASEAN Common Smart Visa and signed the Statement of Intent on SMART Visa. At the session, tourist officials of the four countries expressed their intention to collaborate with relevant government agencies and other stakeholders to facilitate travel in the region by developing a common smart visa system. On the occasion, U Htay Aung, Myanmar minister of Hotels and Tourism, vowed to cooperate with other countries, while welcoming foreign investment for the development of tourist industry. According to the press release, the statement of intent forms a part of joint efforts to improve growth of the national and regional travel and tourist sectors along with social integration. On Wednesday, the forum ran sessions of travel and tourist high- level meetings on accelerating ASEAN's Integration and dialogue with Myanmar businesses and energy development. The main theme of the forum is Courageous Transformation for Inclusion and Integration and the forum brings over 900 participants including over 500 business leaders from 55 countries. |
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