The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Whatever they want” plus 9 more

There's the demonstration law and there's the ruling party deciding whatever they want. That's a recipe for disaster.

Sreng Mao; ACE/IDP

Cambodian students are increasingly looking overseas for opportunities to further their education and the US remains one of the most popular destinations. However, many students remain unsure about the English language requirements for gaining entry to US education institutions. Some also have problems with ensuring they have certifiably proven their English language ability before they begin their application process which can lead to delays in enrolling and departing to their new study destination.

IELTS, the International English Language Testing System, is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who want to study or work where English is the language of communication. It is the world's most popular high stakes English language proficiency test with two million tests taken in the last year. Over 8,000 organisations trust and accept IELTS as a secure, valid and reliable indicator of true to life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration and professional accreditation.

Of the more than 8,000 institutions that accept IELTS, more than 3,000 of them are higher educational institutions and programs in the US. According the Times University World Rankings 2013-2014, 15 of the world's best universities are located in the US.

IELTS tests are administered at centres throughout the world - there are currently more than 800 test locations in over 135 countries. The test is conducted at IDP Education in Cambodia every two weeks, usually on a Saturday, compared to other test systems which are sat only twice a year. Additional test dates can be set for groups of 10 or more candidates. The current cost of the test is US$180.

So if you dream of studying at one of the very best universities in the world, need proof of your English language ability and want to start studying as soon as possible, then IELTS is the gateway to make your study abroad in the US dreams become a reality. You can also visit an IDP Study Abroad Resource Centre to get free advice from trained counselors on what are the best course and institutions for you.

For more information about IELTS in Cambodia, visit: http://www.cambodia.idp.com or pop in to any ACE campus in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap.

Taiwa Seiki (Cambodia) Corporation is a big Japanese post-harvest machinery maker in Cambodia and the first company in the country that imports materials from Japan to produce rice mills in Cambodia.

The machinery making company in Cambodia, worth several hundred thousands of US dollars, is an achievement of a Cambodian youth who has struggled studying until he become successful as he is today.

Sitting in a cafeteria in front of a famous Institute of Foreign Languages in Phnom Penh, Vuthy Monyrath is talking about his life struggles in his childhood, "I heard my mother said that a few days after I was born, my father was killed by the Pol Pot regime. So, I've been living with my mother alone since I was a kid."

In spite of life without warmth from a father, Monyrath still has his beloved mother who always worked hard for her son. Like what the other parents do to their children, Monyrath's mother tried her best to support Monyrath's study and made this son become an outstanding student when he was studying at a primary school in Prey Veng province.

Monyrath says, "At that time, there were only eight grades in the village I lived, and I got number one or two every month."

[img]

Remembering how he studied at that time he says: "My teacher took a wooden board and used mud to write on it. When she wanted to erase the letters, she used leafs of a plant called Ton Trean Khaet to wipe the board."

Noticing the efforts of her son, Monyrath's mother decided to move to Phnom Penh in 1991 so that Monyrath could study in high school.

When mother and son came to Phnom Penh, they used the little money Monyrath's mother had saved to buy a small house. Monyrath's mother then had to work harder to pay for Monyrath's study.

He says, "At the time, my mother was a bicycle-and-motorbike watcher for a market to earn some money to support my study."

Because he is an outstanding student, and thanks to his high ability, Vuthy Monyrath passed three scholarships at the same time in 1996 to study three majors: History, Commerce and Fishery. However, he chose to study only fishery.

In 1998, Monyrath passed another scholarship to study English at Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL) during his third year in fishery. That was the time he worked as a part-time teacher to earn some money for his study.

Talking about that time, he says, "I taught English at Borey 100 Khnong School, and I got US$30 a month. I was very happy with the money I could earn."

When Monyrath graduated in his fishery major, he was in the third year at IFL. Besides his part-time job, he involved himself in some other environment-related projects with the U.S. Embassy and NGOs.

[img]

His experience in protecting the environment helped Monyrath to gain an international scholarship to study the Japanese environment. Japan is the place where he graduated his Master's Degree and Ph.D's Degree in Underwater Management.

Having lived in Japan for more than eight years, Monyrath, had built good connections and trust with many people there including high-ranking officials.

He says, "Everyone liked me. I had a good relationship with the Cambodian ambassador to Japan because I was the president of the Cambodian Youth Association in Japan at that time."

Good communication skills with others made Monyrath know many potential Japanese investors.

One of the investors he has met is a head of Taiwa Seiki Company in Japan. Because of immaculate conduct and honesty, Vuthy Monyrath was promoted to the CEOI of the company in Cambodia in 2010.

Now, 37-year-old Vuthy Monyrath explains the goal of the company and the investor of the company, "In the future, the company is going to be Cambodian-owned under technical surveillance from Japanese. We need Cambodian students majoring in mechanical technology to work in production, and the students can also seek the right place to practice their knowledge after graduation."

Besides being CEO of Taiwa Seiki, Vuthy Monyrath is also working voluntarily as president of the Association of Cambodian Graduates from Japan in Cambodia.

To Cambodian youths who want to become CEO Monyrath gives this piece of advice: "Be strongly committed to learn whether you really have the strong passion necessary to lead people! Have a clear goal of what you want to be."

Because of his success and to be grateful to his mother, Mr. Monyrath bought a new house for her in 2008.

He said "my mother is really proud of me."

More than 10 years after ancient jars were discovered deep in the Cardamom mountains, more of the relics, believed to be used for burial, are still emerging.

"There are stories of many jar sites now," said archaeologist Nancy Beavan, days after returning from the latest, an unusual series found perched on rock ledges in the Koh Kong forest.

Eleven sites have been documented so far, and each new discovery leads archaeologists to delve deeper into the question of where the jars came from, what they were used for and why.

The latest site, known as Cedi, was discovered after Hang Bunthean, a local villager, went into the forest to collect resin from trees and stumbled upon a towering stupa-like stone, at an elevation of more than 300 metres, with two ridges on which were balanced two sets of jars.

He informed the authorities and, early this month, Beavan and her team of nine spent more than a week at the site.

They photographed, repaired broken jars and geo-located the area, about a two-hour motorbike ride from Chi Phat.

"We've never had a site like that before," said Beavan, speaking in Phnom Penh.

"Usually it's the sheer side of sandstone ridge, and there are fissures in the rock, natural rock ledges. This was a standalone natural stone tower. It was amazing."

Inside were storage jars believed to have been made in Thai kilns, including three which contained human bones.

Many were badly weathered and some of them showed signs of looting. It's the first evidence of human interference with any of the sites, according to ceramics expert Tep Sokha, who works on the jars with Beavan.

"Most of jars on the rock ledge were broken, so we reconstructed them and placed them in the same position," he added.

Usually when the team find jars in poor condition, there are at least a few flakes of bone, to indicate there was once something more substantial inside, like a body or two.

But this time, one jar contained only an assortment of loose teeth.

"I don't know, just a bunch of teeth in one jar – that was creepy!" said Beavan, laughing.

"Not even a jaw bone left? Not quite sure. Not quite sure about that."

There were other unusual discoveries.

In every other site but one, which Beavan believes may not have been used for burial, there have been wooden coffins, none of which were found at Cedi.

While it's too early to make any concrete conclusions, Beavan believes this could indicate changing patterns of behaviour in the people who lived in the Cardamom mountains at around the time of the decline of the Angkorian civilisation in the north of the country.

"There is a question of, 'did they first use coffins and then switch to jars, or do both types of burial practices overlap?'"

"I'm very interested to see what the age of this particular site is."

The other finding is that the new site fits directly into a line of jar burials spread through the Cardamoms, on higher and lower ground.

The idea is that the people who lived there may have hunted in the forest but also had seasonal settlements on lower ridges, said Beavan.

"You would plant tuberous vegetables or highland dry rice, and so for the season that you're growing that, you remain in this place, but in another season you move into hunting and gathering in the forest," she said.

Many questions remain, Beavan said. She will return to Cedi in the autumn.

In the meantime, she will mull over the new findings, all recorded in a lined notebook in neat blue and black script, and hope for a 'eureka!' moment.

"When we experience these oddities compared to other sites, you can't make an immediate judgement," she said.

"You just make copious notes, and then, about three months after, in the middle of the night you wake up and go 'Oh my god'."

Cambodia has exceeded the Millennium Development Goal poverty target. It is also one of the best performers in poverty reduction worldwide in recent years.

Between 2004 and 2011, in only seven years, the share of people who live in absolute poverty, on less than US$1.15 per day, fell by more than half in Cambodia, from 53.0 per cent to 20.5 per cent. That means that only two out of 10 Cambodians are poor, compared with five back in 2004.

There have been many reasons behind the impressive reduction of poverty. The two most important factors have been increased rice prices and increased rice production, which raised farmers' revenues and farm workers' wages and together accounted for almost half of the poverty reduction.

Increased rice production was driven in part by a positive external environment, and also by greater road access by farmers to markets, better access to market information through mobile phones, improved irrigation and a liberal undistorted agricultural market.

These factors created an environment conducive for farmers to respond quickly to the increased prices.

With this impressive poverty reduction, where have all the previously poor gone? The answer to this question is: out of poverty, but not very far.

A majority of families remain disturbingly close to the poverty line. The number of those "near-poor" people who live on less than US$2.30 per day per person grew to 8.1 million in 2011 from 4.6 million in 2004.

Being "near-poor", they are still at high risk of falling back into poverty at the slightest income shock. For example, the impact of losing income of 1,200 riel per day (about US$0.30) would throw an estimated three million Cambodians back into poverty. This would double the poverty rate to 40 per cent.

While they are benefiting from the country's rapid economic growth, Cambodians say they are hoping for a more prosperous future which isn't only based on cheap labour.

They are aspiring to attain better jobs and equal opportunities, regardless of status and wealth. Better jobs, in both rural and urban areas, become even more important, as commodity prices may not continue rising as rapidly in the future as in the recent past.

How can Cambodia reduce poverty further, helping the remaining 20 per cent of its people who are poor escape out of poverty, but also prevent the near-poor from slipping back into poverty at the slightest economic shock?

With this double goal in mind, Cambodia's new development strategy places emphasis on both growth and equity.

Some actions and programs can help lift more people out of poverty:

• Improving access to and upgrading the quality of basic rural infrastructure, such as roads, irrigation schemes, electricity supplies and water and sanitation. After all, 90 per cent of the poor live in rural areas.

• Supporting children in rural areas to start school at a younger age and broadening access to education among minority communities is key to reducing poverty. Scholarship, school feeding, targeted cash transfer and similar programs have been shown to help reduce drop-out rates later in secondary schools.

• An integrated program to reduce child malnutrition, with systematic monitoring of child growth by health facilities, will be a priority in reducing poverty. Community-based programs can reduce open defecation and improve feeding habits, food fortification and micronutrients.

An increase in the coverage of the Health Equity Fund – a scheme that provides free health access to the poorest –and broadened outreach to spread awareness of the health benefits of the fund can also contribute to reducing child malnutrition.

• Tighter controls imposed on private providers and suppliers of medicine outside the public health system to combat counterfeit drugs can help improve health care quality.

• Programs to enhance the profitability of rice production through supply of improved seeds and more effective rural extension services can help farmers shift from subsistence to commercial farming.

There are also policies and programs that help prevent the near-poor from slipping back into poverty. Promoting crop diversification beyond rice will be important.

Rural families will also benefit from more opportunities for off-farm jobs and from increased efforts to promote industries and service sectors in both urban and rural areas.

Further efforts to implement a National Social Protection Strategy could especially support the non-poor.

Continued progress in poverty reduction is possible. Helping families who just escaped poverty stay out of poverty is possible.

With strong policies and programs to reduce poverty, both goals are within reach. Indeed, such policies and programs are vital if the new hope and expectations of Cambodians that have been encouraged by the past decade of rapid economic growth are to be met.

The government of Cambodia and the World Bank Group are jointly organising a workshop to disseminate a poverty assessment report in the afternoon of February 20, 2014, at Phnom Penh Hotel, which will provide an opportunity to discuss challenges and actions to reduce poverty further.

Ulrich Zachau is country director of the World Bank for Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand.

Cambodia's bike exports rose last year, reaching $300 million in value, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday.

Speaking at a trade conference in Phnom Penh, the prime minister was confident that Cambodia could maintain its current export rates in traditional markets while expanding into other industries.

"In 2013, the value of exports of garment products was more than $5 billion. Besides this, exports of footwear, bicycles, electronic equipment, rice and rubber are all among the new products that are strongly on the rise," he said.

According to trade publication Bike Europe, Cambodia, helped by trade preferences, stood out in the first half of 2013 as one of the few nations to increase bicycle exports to the EU. While most bike-supplying countries to Europe saw a drop, Cambodia exported close to 800,000 units in the first six months of last year, up from 520,000 in the first half of 2012, Bike Europe reported.

About a year after offering the country's sole agriculture policy, Forte Insurance is struggling to sell coverage.

"We still need time to get farmers to understand the benefits of agricultural insurance," said Youk Chamroenrith, director and general manager of Forte. "We have four clients signed up with us now. I can say for now it is not going smoothly yet."

Chamroenrith expects that the new policy will find more clients in the next few years as awareness catches on among farmers.

"Agricultural insurance helps secure their financial situation when their crops in the plantations are destroyed by either fire or natural disaster," he said.

Farmers across the country were powerless to stop their fields from being damaged by flooding during last year's rainy season. As a result, many went into debt.

The company calculates prices based largely on the size and age of the land under cultivation. So far, Forte covers rubber, cassava and maize crops.

Though the Insurance Association of Cambodia says companies are seeking the necessary licenses to follow Forte, no one has taken the leap, mainly because customers aren't interested.

"Farmers often view insurance as an unnecessary expense rather than an investment to curtail future risk, especially with small-scale farming operations," said Michael Girling, acting CEO of Infinity Insurance.

Girling also said that while Infinity doesn't offer the coverage, it has potential to grow in Cambodia.

Ty Atith, deputy general director of the insurance association, said the product will catch on as the sector expands.

"It's a good sign for insurance when a new product is introduced to the market. We have never had this agricultural insurance before," he said.

A man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for the April 2013 murder of Singaporean pastor Wendy Ng, Kampong Speu provincial court officials told the Post yesterday.

The 55-year-old, who served as principal at the New Hope International School, was murdered by Tong Sophal, 24, a workman, on April 30, the court ruled on December 21.

Sophal's case was sent to the Court of Appeal on January 24, Buninh Bunary, Kampong Speu provincial court investigating judge, said yesterday.

In addition to the 27-year sentence, the court ruled that Sophal must pay the victim's family compensation.

Sophal was arrested along with Chhen Laleu, 27, Ou Milihoung, 20, and Koe Savuth, 32, who were hired to build Ng's house. The three other suspects were released after a police investigation found they were not involved in the murder, Bunary added.

Ng was found dead in her room on April 30 at 7pm. The next day, police arrested four construction workers who were engaged to fix her premises.

Whilst searching for valuables, the group startled her and she screamed, Sam Sak, deputy chief of the provincial crime office, told the Post after the men's arrests.

Sophal smashed Ng's head on the door, stabbed her three times in the neck during the ensuing struggle, the court was told.

More than 100 families occupying grounds outside Pursat's provincial courthouse in protest at forced evictions were dispersed by authorities yesterday, villagers and a rights monitor said.

Mit Samoun, a Pursat provincial monitor for rights group Licadho, said local police and military officials were non-violent as they disbanded the encampment of squatting families, who had been sleeping outside the courthouse since Thursday.

"The authorities accused the residents of living illegally in protected state forest area and in Phnom Samkok, a wildlife sanctuary," Samoun said.

He added that villagers were also protesting against the arrest of Sin Sean, 47, a village leader who was arrested during the community's eviction on Wednesday.

Families living in Pursat's Krapoeu Pi commune were instructed by authorities to vacate their homes in early February, according to Samoun.

The warning was followed in short order by the appearance of authorities, who swooped in and began burning more than 70 homes last Wednesday, according to villager Chhai Leng, 47.

"[We] came to sleep … in front of the court because we had nowhere to stay after the authorities demolished and burned our houses," Leng said, adding that the families had been living on the
land in question since 2000.

"We demand that authorities release [Sean] and stop destroying our homes," he said.

According to a statement released by the Pursat provincial court, Sean is preliminarily charged with illegally clearing state-protected forest. No court date has been announced.

Pursat town governor Chhay Matinal told the Post yesterday that villagers were moved for the sake of maintaining public order.

Police in Siem Reap province are looking for veteran Canadian journalist and screenwriter Dave Walker, 58, who went missing from his guesthouse under mysterious circumstances on the afternoon of February 14, police and colleagues said yesterday.

Siem Reap provincial Immigration Police officer Yut Sinin said that Walker had left his room at the Green Village Angkor guesthouse on the afternoon of the 14th, leaving behind his phone, laptop, passport and belongings – and little indication of where he might have gone.

"We are worried about his safety now. Previously, he would usually leave Siem Reap for Thailand for about three or four days, but this time we found that his passport, phone and clothes are still in his guesthouse," said Sinin, adding that he had posted a notice seeking information on a Siem Reap expat Facebook group.

"The Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh [which handles consular affairs for Canadians] just contacted us [on Tuesday] morning about him going missing, but we will try our best to find him," Sinin said.

A representative working on Canadian consular affairs at the embassy confirmed yesterday that they had received a missing persons report, and were investigating the matter.

Sonny Chhuon, with whom Walker co-founded the film production company Animist Farm Films, said that staff told him Walker ducked out of his room at about 2pm on February 14 to allow a housekeeper to clean it, carrying just a bottle of water.

"Dave told them, 'Go ahead, clean the room; I'll be back in a while,' then we never saw him again," Chhoun said, noting that Walker didn't drink alcohol and had a well-established daily routine.

Chhoun, who typically saw Walker on a daily basis, said he had checked with police, local clinics and restaurants that Walker frequented, but no one had seen him since he left the hotel.

"I just want to say, I don't think he went anywhere by himself. I think something is wrong. I don't think he would just leave, with his phone on the charger, and go somewhere," Chhoun added. "This is very unnatural for Dave. I know him very well."