Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, September 8, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
FACE OFF: Call it a bad week for conservationists. The Kuy people put a hex on environmental officials for violating sacred land, and Wildlife Alliance denied accusations it was torching homes.
FILLING IN: There’s so little land left in Kep, the government is selling off parcels of ocean. A private firm was awarded 1,200 hectares of sea, which will be filled with sand and developed.
FAR APART: It was another fight to raise the $200 monthly wage for garment workers. The unions wanted $250 to $300, but came in with $215. The government scoffed, offering $201.
THE LEDE
Bad Look
The stench of Cambodia’s notorious cyber scam mills has wafted across the region.
The much-reported slave compounds were both news and geopolitical leverage at this week’s ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, where Prime Minister Hun Manet made his global debut. It was a rough welcome.
President Joko Widodo explained that his embassy in Phnom Penh spends most of its time rescuing citizens — more than 500 this year — and he urged the Kingdom to get serious about the problem.
The country’s reputation as a safe haven for brazen Chinese criminal gangs is hurting the economy, experts say, and shutting the mills is among the most urgent tasks of the new administration.
"Without addressing these challenges,” a rights expert said, “Cambodia's reputation at the international stage will be very difficult to repair.”
Forest Fracas
The indigenous Kuy people of Preah Vihear province are literally praying for the deaths of environmental officials — a last-gasp ancestral curse to stop plans for turning their traditional lands into national parks. In Siem Reap, officials from the Environment Ministry — backed by armed soldiers — uprooted mango trees and accused locals of farming on state land.
The clashes, activists say, highlight the Kingdom’s combustible land rights problems, and they expect the situation to intensify as the government expands protected forests by nearly a million hectares.
Experts predict a surge in conflicts as national authorities exert control over newly protected areas and force out communities with nowhere to go and little to lose.
Reality Bites
Topline figures from the Tourism Ministry paint a picture far rosier than reality, according to industry operators, who continue to count large numbers of empty hotels, closed restaurants and out-of-work guides.
More than 3 million international travelers visited the Kingdom during the first seven months of 2023, down from 3.8 million in 2019. Thailand and Vietnam topped the list, with China a distant third at around 300,000 visitors, followed by Laos.
The numbers are misleading: of the 3 million arrivals only 498,513 visited Angkor Wat, according to industry figures. The assumption being that most of the arrivals identify as tourists at the border, but are really coming for work or a border casino.
As one travel agent described the situation: “I have yet to see busloads of Laotian tourists checking in at Siem Reap hotels.”
TALKING POINTS
Splash Town
The government awarded more than 1,200 hectares of ocean in Kep province to a private company, which plans to develop the area — after it’s filled with sand — into residential homes and a “special tourism zone.” The deal is the latest in a long string of opaque reclamation projects along the southern coast.
Field Report
A scathing local media report accused Wildlife Alliance, the well-known international NGO, of seizing motorbikes, slashing tractor tires and torching homes, citing dozens of families in the Cardamom Mountains. Wildlife Alliance, which conducts ranger patrols in the area, denied the allegations, saying it was only helping to enforce Cambodian law.
Money Drop
The National Bank will buy $50 million in riel over the next week in an effort to shore up the ailing currency, which is trading near 13-years lows against the U.S. dollar. The purchase is aimed at reversing the currency's 4% plunge from March highs.
Low Ball
Employers offered unions represented by The Cambodian Labor Federation a $1 per month increase to next year’s minimum wage for garment workers — from $200 to $201. Workers want $215. Negotiations continue Sept. 11, with a decision expected by early Oct.
Hot Water
Fish farmers are blaming high temperatures and low water levels for large-scale die-offs in Kampong Chhnang. Since Sunday, about 70 families have each lost between 100kg and 200kg of fish, representing $500 to $1,000 in income.
Hope Seed
Using a drone to plant rice greatly reduces the amount of seed required, from 200kg per hectare to less than 30kg, according to researchers who harvested the Kingdom’s first test crop in Prey Veng province. There’s just one catch — the imported seeds may not be suited for the local environment. Growers are still testing and remain optimistic.
Blue Note
Phnom Penh’s child beggars and disabled street-corner crooners are victims of an unscrupulous network of brokers, according to the director of the Department of Social Affairs, who has asked police to investigate. The department aims to address the needs of the capital's homeless and at-risk populations.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Can Cambodia’s Garment Industry Survive?
September 6, 2003
On Jan 1, 1999, Cambodia and the US signed a bilateral textile agreement that set a quota on textile and apparel exports to the US and reduced tariffs on imports from the US.
Trial Opens for Suspects in Anti-Thai Riots
September 3, 2003
A screwdriver, a television remote control, bunches of fresh vegetables, a liter of gasoline and a cooking pot were among the incriminating items found in the possession of some of the 21 suspects who stood trial Tuesday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for the Jan 29 anti-Thai riots in the capital.
Leaflets Threaten Teachers Union Activist
September 3, 2003
Anonymous, threatening leaflets were distributed against a Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association activist in Kompong Cham province on Saturday, district officials said.
Photos: Pub Street, Thomas Wanhoff, Flickr. Kep, Nina R, Flickr.
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I actually like the news.
Reclamation?