The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Only one crime” plus 9 more

There were lots of Cambodian people travelling to celebrate the New Year, but only one crime.… This shows that Cambodian people's knowledge has improved and progressed now.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is the independent agency of the Japanese government that coordinates Official Development Assistance (ODA) for economic and infrastructure improvement in developing countries. JICA offers technical cooperation, ODA loans and grants, all paid by Japanese taxpayers.

JICA project formulation advisor Uchida Togo sat down and spoke with the Post about the current state of infrastructure in Phnom Penh and the provinces and the projects that JICA is involved with in the Kingdom.

Post: What do think about the situation of infrastructure in Phnom Penh?
Uchida: Overall, as you will know, Phnom Penh has been growing very quickly, with lot of activity in the private and public sectors. We want to help promote development, but on the other hand, development without a good plan can lead to difficulty in managing urban growth in the future.The way we see development in Phnom Penh is that it is beginning to need to cope with the issues that arise when a city experiences rapid growth, such as traffic congestion, garbage management, wastewater treatment and rising demand for both water and electricity. The objective of our assistance is to address these needs in the proper way.

What has JICA been working on with the Phnom Penh municipal government?
We have been engaged in many areas. We view development of infrastructure comprehensively and realise that it's more important to have many different infrastructure projects that work together rather than focusing on individual projects to address individual issues. In Phnom Penh, we've provided assistance in the areas of transportation, energy, flood protection, drainage and water.

What kinds of funding does JICA use?
It varies. We are involved in quite a bit of grant assistance in Phnom Penh, but we also often use loan financing.

Why does JICA provide this kind of assistance?
Very simply put, Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and is its most important city in terms of economy and culture. If Phnom Penh develops soundly, we believe there will be substantial benefits for the rest of the Kingdom. With this in mind we've been actively assisting the government in the key sectors I mentioned before as well as energy, health and education. We do this through careful planning with the Cambodian government in order to identify key projects and sectors for cooperation. This is how we identified traffic congestion and environmental degradation as increasingly important issues, which we are now working on to address.

All told, how much funding has Japan provided Cambodia?
The total disbursement from Japan to Cambodia between 1992 and 2012 was $2.2 billion, which includes technical cooperation, ODA loans and grant aid. We are still calculating financial data for 2013, which we will release in March 2014.

What are some of the recent projects in which JICA has been involved?
In terms of water projects, we recently completed a water treatment facility in Phnom Penh – the Niroth water treatment plant. It is already operational. We are involved in a lot of drainage projects in Phnom Penh, as it is still a major issue for the city. We're involved in one phase-two project and a phase-three project in drainage in the capital.

We are currently putting drainage pipes underground, which is disrupting traffic. We are trying to minimize the traffic jams we cause by the work to be on the side of the road rather than block the entire road, to whatever degree is possible. This drainage project began in 2012 and it will be completed in 2015.We are also working on a transportation master plan. This requires us to analyse current traffic volumes and pinpoint existing and potential bottlenecks. We are working with the city government on that.

Additionally we are putting an electricity master plan for the city together, as well as plans for drainage and sewage. With so many people living in Phnom Penh, wastewater is a major issue to address.

What other projects is JICA involved with in Cambodia?
We're working on replacement and expansion of water supply infrastructure for provincial capitals, which also involves capacity building. This is all done through a mix of technical cooperation, grant aid and loans.

What message do you have for the general public?
The end user of this new infrastructure is the people. We would like to emphasize that this infrastructure can improve living conditions, but if you don't take care of it, then it will not last long. If you do take care of it, you will be able to use it for a long, long time. We are assisting in drainage improvements in Phnom Penh with the goal of reducing the impact of flooding caused by rain on the city. For this to be most effective, people will need to stop littering and keep the streets clean so that the drainage systems can function properly. We know this kind of change takes some time, but we have to promote these ideas along with assisting with physical infrastructure so that living conditions in the capital can further improve in the future. We are also doing this in the provincial cities through Cambodian counterparts who have accumulated knowledge and experience working with us in Phnom Penh.

The number of foreign and local tourists who spent time in Cambodia's coastal destinations increased in 2013, according to provincial officials in Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong provinces.

"Visitors come here for the beach and seafood," said Seng Kha, director of tourism in Preah Sihanouk.

The total number of tourists travelling to the area in 2013 reached more than one million, according to Kha.

Foreign visits swelled to 302,325, a 42 per cent rise compared with the same period in 2012.

Domestic tourist figures rose 12 per cent to 731,604.

Chinese tourists ranked number one, followed by Russians and Vietnamese.

Bun Beang, the director of tourism in Koh Kong, said foreign tourism has increasing noticeably.

Thai tourists frequent the beaches and resorts, while locals head to eco-tourism destinations like Ta Tai, Chi Phat and Trapang Rong.

According to Bun Beang, foreign visitors in Koh Kong province reached 47,446, a 514 per cent rise of foreign visitors in comparison to the number in 2012.

The total number of local visitors shot up to 96,080, a 16 per cent rise from a year earlier.

Kampot and Kep also saw a rise in tourism.

Mok Sekano, deputy chief of tourism in Kampot, said the casino on Bokor mountain is becoming a main attraction for the province.

"Vietnamese visitors rank number one," he said.

Famous for its crab market, Kep province is a 25-kilometre drive from Kampot.

Som Chenda, a provincial tourism official, said Kep is riding the coastal tourism wave.

"More hotels and restaurants are being built. It's a reflection that more tourists are coming to this province."

Villagers patrolling a protected community forest in Mondulkiri province yesterday morning found more than 100 logs of luxury timber, believed to be headed for Vietnam.

The timber, discovered just outside the Trapaing Ka Eu community in Pech Chreada district's Pou Chrei commune, was logged inside the protected forest, but patrollers found no one logging or transporting the wood, said patroller Chreung Pro, 30.

"[Luxury wood] is gathered and placed outside the community before it is taken to Vietnam for sale," Pro said yesterday. "Our forest is under the threat of deforestation, so we patrol every day."

Since the logs were found outside the protected area, community members did not confiscate the wood, Pro said.

From August to December, patrollers confiscated six chainsaws and more than 15 cubic metres of luxury timber.

Commune police chief Trang Thoeurn yesterday said he was unaware of the discovery.

Farmers from Kampong Thom province's Baray district filed a complaint to the authorities yesterday accusing a village chief of signing off on the sale of their land to a local businesswoman.

Deap On, 50, a spokesman for the villagers, said in 2008 they were given 339 hectares of farmland to cultivate rice, but they later discovered that about 60 hectares had been sold to the businesswoman.

"We were shocked when we saw that some of the villagers' land was sold by the village chief, Real Ron," he said.

Attempts to reach Ron for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

Another resident, Ngek Real, 48, said villagers received the land from the authorities to live on and farm.

"Why did [Ron] sell some parts of the land?" Real said.

Mak Mong Hoat, Baray district hall governor, said he had received the complaint and the authorities were examining the dispute's history, which he said was complicated by a change in village chief since 2008.

"We are examining the local administration's affairs to find a solution to this issue," he said.

New Year's Eve, often associated with rowdy revellers in Western countries, was practically devoid of crime in Cambodia due to Cambodians' desire for "peace and progress", police maintained yesterday.

Despite the fact that officials' tabulations left out a drug-raid shootout that left one suspect wounded, National Police spokesman Lieutenant General Kirth Chantharith and others maintained yesterday that throughout the entire country, only one crime – the theft of a foreigner's wallet – had been reported on New Year's Eve.

"I would like to say that this New Year's Eve was a good year.… There were lots of Cambodian people travelling to celebrate the New Year, but only one crime happened in Cambodia," Chantharith said. "This shows that Cambodian people's knowledge has improved and progressed now," he continued. "They want their society and their country to have peace and progress."

Acting Phnom Penh police chief Lieutenant General Mok Chito seconded Chantharith's assessment, saying there had been only one theft in the city this year, compared to last year's three, though he attributed the lack of crime to other factors.

"We noted that the reason why no more crimes happened this New Year's Eve was because we have been deploying many police and military police as civil forces everywhere in the city," he said.

Cheth Vanny, deputy chief of Battambang Provincial Police, also said that his jurisdiction had been totally quiet.

However, authorities weren't so lucky on the traffic front, with both road accidents and fatalities up from last year, said Major General Him Yann, chief of the Traffic Police Department at the Ministry of Interior.

"According to our traffic accident report, there were a total of 20 cases of traffic accidents in which eight people died this New Year's Eve, while there were 10 cases of traffic accidents in which six people died last year across the Kingdom," he said.

"The reason why it increased was because there were more people travelling to meet with their families in the cities or provinces, and they were driving fast," he added.

A New Year's Eve shootout between police and drug dealers has led to the arrest of two men allegedly in possession of $1,000 worth of methamphetamines in Kampong Cham.

Captain Sem Kheng, chief of the provincial anti-drug military police unit in Kampong Cham, said the police descended on the residence of the known drug smugglers on Tuesday evening.

"They were old targets of ours. They were arrested for smuggling drugs from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham Province with intention to sell," he said.

The two men captured have been identified as 23-year-old Huoth Thai and 27-year-old Tin Zary.

During the raid, the men attempted to flee and began driving away before shots were fired.

"The ringleader, who was carrying a pistol, jumped from the car after we had shot at it to stop them from driving away and we arrested two of them, one escaped," the chief said.

One of the suspects was shot in the hip by police and is in a stable condition in the provincial hospital.

Police seized 24 grams of meth from the men, which has a street value of $1,000.

"The men were initially accused by our military police with possession of drugs and trafficking drugs. They will face the provincial court on Thursday," Captain Sem Kheng said.

The police are now looking for the third man, who fled the scene.

In an attempt to crack down on rampant cheating on nationwide testing, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) has announced that primary and high school teachers will begin individually authoring and writing final exams on the white board for the 2014 academic term, MoEYS officials said yesterday.

Educators are seeking ways to stamp out cheating, which in recent years has affected the integrity of the exams, as widespread collusion between exam proctors and teachers have resulted in answers being leaked to students ahead of the test.

Eliminating paper copies of nationwide tests traditionally distributed to teachers by the MoEYS will stanch the sale of cheat sheets, placing more responsibility on teachers to ensure the answers won't be sold as easily, said Lim Sotharith, a director at the MoEYS's department of textbook supply and curriculum development.

"Doing so is to make the teachers responsible in case the test sheets are leaked. We will do as we did in the 1980s," Sotharith said yesterday.

Even though the process of writing final examinations out on a board may be time consuming for teachers, according to Sotharith, it will pose a powerful way to hold teachers and test proctors accountable.

"If we can do it, I believe we can reduce and prevent copying or posting [final exam test sheets] on Facebook for other people to answer and use," he said, adding that the ministry's official timetable for implementing the procedure would be announced in the near future pending further discussions with Minister of Education Hang Chuon Narong.

San Chey, coordinator for the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP), lauded the reform efforts, while highlighting that any mandated changes required an examination of the ensuing effects on teachers.

"The ministry should discuss how to train the proctors and teachers administering the tests, especially if the subject they are proctoring is not their specialty," Chey said.

Last week, a report by the Khmer Institute for National Development and ANSA EAP found that school textbooks paid for by the Asian Development Bank have been routed to district education offices, some of which have been charging schools for books that are supposed to be free.

Environment officers captured three men on Monday after a long pursuit through the Phnom Sankos Wildlife Sanctuary in Pursat.

The Pursat provincial court yesterday charged 20-year-olds Korng Puth and Bork Oem and 31-year-old Rien Rob for illegally clearing more than a hectare of trees in the sanctuary.

Environment officers, acting on a tip, inspected the land on Monday and found 15 men chopping down protected trees, Thai Chantha said, director of the provincial Environment Department.

"The men immediately ran into the jungle when they saw our officers, however we chased them and managed to catch three men with permission from the court," he said.

"It took many hours to find the suspects in the jungle. They were employed to clear the forest so we are now searching for that employer."

If found guilty the three men could face up to 10 years in prison under Article 97 of the Cambodian forestry law.

As garment union groups resume their strike today, thousands of workers plan on returning to work, largely citing financial necessity rather than ideological disagreement with the unions.

The Ministry of Labour on Monday ordered union leaders to cease a nationwide strike that began nine days ago, after the ministry's Labour Advisory Committee set this year's minimum monthly wage for workers in the garment sector at $95 – $65 less than unions demanded. The ministry this week tacked another $5 onto the minimum wage, which will now rise to $100 next month.

"If we do not return to work, the factory will not pay us," said Noun Bunthoeun, a worker representative at Chu Hsing Garments (Cambodia) Co Ltd in Phnom Penh, who added that more than 7,000 workers – about 80 per cent – at the Russey Keo district factory's three branches will return today. "This does not mean we are abandoning our demand for [a minimum wage of] $160."

Lacking financial resources is the primary motive for workers at 30 factories in Svay Rieng province, who will come back to work today, said Sok Na, a representative for the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) at the Best Way garment factory in Bavet town.

Na yesterday pointed out that after overtime pay, transportation bonuses and other benefits, workers at his factory typically take home more than $160 each month.

"We do not want to lose our work," Na said in an interview yesterday. "If the workers in Phnom Penh get the Labour Ministry to increase the minimum wage, we will get the same here."

Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers' Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) vice president Kong Athit yesterday said he is not worried about too many strikers returning to work, because enough people are willing to remain on strike to make a serious impact. It stands to reason that workers in an industry where employees live paycheque to paycheque cannot bear the financial burden of a prolonged strike, he added.

"These are working poor people," Athit said. "Nobody forced them to go on strike.… We will support any decision that is taken by the workers."

Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour yesterday said ministry officials will closely watch union leaders who continue striking despite an order to stop.

"The Labour Ministry and authorities will keep an eye on union leaders who are leading the strike, and their activities," Sour said.

The six unions on strike – C.CAWDU, CUMW, the Free Trade Union, the Coalition of Cambodian Unions, the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions and the Worker Friendship Union Federation – will hold a press conference this morning to respond to public statements made by the Labour Ministry and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said Athit.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SEAN TEEHAN