The Kingdom of Cambodia has just opened its Honorary Consulate General in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony, which was held in Long Beach on February 17, marked the official opening of the consulate, which will perform consular services on the West Coast. Representative Stephen Horn, Long Beach Mayor Beverly O' Neill, many American, foreign officials, guests and numerous Cambodians joined me in celebrating this remarkable event. Mr. Bunneang Khem has been appointed as Honorary Consul General.
The establishment of the consular post had been judged by the Royal Government of Cambodia as necessary and appropriate due to the steadily increasing economic ties between the two countries, especially in trade activities, the flow of investment, and the stream of visitors to Cambodia. Thus far, there are about 110 U.S. companies, or companies representing U.S. products, in Cambodia. The U.S. is eighth in investment rank in Cambodia with over $32 million. The Honorary Consulate General will help the Embassy to further the development of commercial, economic, and cultural relations between Cambodia and the United States. It will help promote trade activities, tourism and investment. The entry into force, as of October 25, 1996, of most- favored-nation trading status has provided significant opportunities for American businessmen to invest in Cambodia and has broadened access for Cambodian products to the United States. Early this year, ten companies, by means of MFN trading status, have started to export Cambodian products to the US market. Exports are expected to double in the near future. Because of MFN and the recent ratification by the Cambodian National Assembly of the Investment Incentive Agreement between Cambodia and the U.S., the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) can now assist U.S. investors through insurance of investment against certain political risks and the financing of enterprises through direct loans or loan guarantees. More and more investors have expressed their interest in investment opportunities in Cambodia.
The Consulate will also perform consular services within the limits permitted by international and local laws. One important function will be to issue entry visas to Cambodia, which is expected to continue to increase. The Embassy issued over 500 visas in the second half of 1995, 2,000 visas in 1996 and over 300 visas in January of 1997 alone. The figures do not include the remarkable number of visitors who were provided with entry visas upon their arrival at the international airport in Phnom Penh. The Consulate will also assist Cambodian-American residents on the West Coast. Long Beach, which is well known as "Little Cambodia" or "Khmer City," is reported to have more than 40,000 Cambodians.
The opening of the Honorary Consulate General signals another step of progress in Cambodian-United States relations.
Var Huoth
At the invitation of His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, H.E. President Soeharto of the Republic of Indonesia, accompanied by Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and more than 100 government officials, businessmen and journalists, paid a three-day State Visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia from February 17-19, 1997.
President Soeharto was welcomed by His Majesty the King at the airport and was received in Royal Audience by Their Majesties the King and the Queen. The President was also honored at a State Banquet followed by Royal Ballet performance hosted by Their Majesties the King and the Queen of Cambodia.
President Soeharto held extended talks with H.R.H Samdech Krom Preah Norodom Ranariddh and H.E. Samdech Hun Sen, First and Second Prime Ministers of Cambodia. The discussion focused mainly on bilateral, regional, and international issues of common concern to both countries.
During the visit, the two nations further strengthened ties by signing an Agreement on Trade, a Memorandum of Understanding on Oil and Gas Exploration Development and Protection and exchanging official notes on the establishment of a Joint Commission for the implementation of the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation between the two countries which was signed on June 21, 1994.
President Soeharto and the late Madame Tien Soeharto paid a State Visit to Cambodia in April 1968. Their Majesties Norodom Sihanouk and Samdech Preah Reach Akka Mohesey Norodom Monineath Sihanouk visited Indonesia from August 30 to September 2, 1995.
Indonesia, as Co-chairman of the Paris Peace Agreement with France, actively contributed to the restoration of peace in Cambodia leading to the formation of the current Royal Government of Cambodia.
At the invitation of German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, Cambodian Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Ung Huot paid an official visit to the Federal Republic of Germany from January 26-29. During the visit, a Memorandum of Understanding on Aviation Cooperation was signed and an Agreement on Protection and Promotion of Investment was initialed.
In a meeting on January 27 with German Secretary of State for Economy Lorenz Schomerus, Minister Ung Huot informed the Secretary of the policy of pluralism in Cambodia and the continued cooperation between the two main political parties. The discussion focused on Cambodia's membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), bilateral economic relations, the establishment of air links between the two countries, and the protection and promotion of investment in Cambodia. Secretary Schomerus expressed his strong satisfaction at the general situation in Cambodia and the settlement of the Khmer Rouge issue that is bringing about full security in the whole country. He also informed Minister Ung Huot that Germany will send a fact-finding mission to Cambodia to study the protection and promotion of investment in the country.
In a meeting with German Company of Development and Investment Vice President Wolf Dieter Melzer, the two sides focused on the general situation, political and economic stability, and investment opportunities in Cambodia. Minister Ung Huot was also informed that German financial aid to Cambodia will start in early 1998.
After a meeting held with German Secretary of State for Transport Manfred Carstens, Minister Ung Huot witnessed the signing by Mr. Carstens and Cambodian Under Secretary of State for Civil Aviation Pok Sam El of a Memorandum of Understanding on Aviation Cooperation between Germany and Cambodia.
On January 28, after being a witness to the initialing of an Agreement on Protection and Promotion of Investment by the Cambodian Ambassador to Germany and the Representative of the German Foreign Ministry, Minister Ung Huot had a meeting with his German counterpart Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. The two Foreign Ministers agreed to have an exchange of ownership between the Embassies of the two countries. Minister Kinkel affirmed that Germany will grant aid for the preparation of the elections and for mine clearing in Cambodia. He also expressed his gratitude to the Cambodian government for its support to Germany's membership in the United Nations, and he promised his country's support to the Cambodian candidacy as United Nations Security Council member in 1999.
Germany has provided Cambodia with more than 290 million DM (Deutsch Mark) in official development aid between 1993 and 1996, including the $17 million telephone project to link the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to Thailand via cables.
Under the terms of an agreement signed in Phnom Penh on January 23, 1997, the German government will provide Cambodia with 5 million DM for a "Credit Scheme for the support of small scale enterprises" and another 5 million DM for "Sector Related Project Health III"
In a statement released to international donor representatives at a meeting of the Consultative Group in Phnom Penh in mid-January this year, Cambodia's Agriculture Minister Tao Seng Huor said that the two Prime Ministers had given rapid approval to an initiative to find an alternative foreign company to fill the gap left by the departure of the Swiss-based firm Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS). Minister Tao Seng Huor said SGS had informed him that due to "technical reasons," the firm would no longer be pursuing the monitoring contract.
"The Royal Government of Cambodia remains strongly committed to put in place, as soon as possible, an effective control and monitoring system for forest exploitation and trade of processed wood products over the whole country," the statement said.
As far as the enforcement of the December 31 timber export deadline is concerned, the Cambodia Daily reported on January 17 that after a recent trip along the Thai-Cambodian border, the London-based environmental group Global Witness reported that Cambodian efforts to enforce a December 31 timber export ban appear to be effective.
"We fully expected to see logs coming across, and we were a bit shocked when we didn't," the Cambodia Daily quoted Global Witness Director Patrick Alley as having said.
In response to the environmentalists' concerns that illegal cross-border timber export would resume once international attention waned, Cambodian Finance Ministry Secretary of State Sun Chanthol affirmed that the border would remain closed to loggers until timber concessions could be properly reviewed and a forestry management system is put in place.
In a long article "New in Cambodia: Justice Without Torture" published in the New York Times of February 10, journalist Seth Mydans reported some headway in the Cambodian legal system following the joint efforts by the Cambodian authorities and the international organizations.
The report began by touching on the destruction of the country's justice system, including the mass killings of lawyers, committed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, and its status at the beginning of the recovery process that was described by Mydans as "without equipment, without training, without an education in legal procedures or human rights," and " when the United Nations helped to set up a democratic Government here in 1993, there were only about five lawyers left in this country of seven million."
"Like so much in this broken and struggling country, the justice system is only beginning to recover from the mass killings of lawyers, doctors, teachers, monks and other educated people and the destruction of Government institutions, including the courts, carried out by the radical Communist Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979," said the article.
Mr. Mydans also mentioned several positive aspects marking the progress in the legal system, and the assistance provided by the international organization staffs in helping Cambodia to put the rule of law into operation.
"With the help of several international organizations, Cambodia is now beginning to develop a small corps of lawyers and judges, to train its police officers in proper procedures and to revive the rudiments of a working legal system," the report said.
"They had to start a legal system literally from scratch," said Francis J. James, an American lawyer who helped to found a local nonprofit group called Legal Aid of Cambodia, and was quoted by journalist Mydans, "No more beating, no more cigarette burns, no more hitting with a rifle butt."
The report cited the progress made in "the innovative Kandal Provincial Court, where prisoners are now assured of receiving a basic defense", and the joint efforts made by the Chief Prosecutor, the Chief Judge, the prison warden and Ms. Karen Tse, a lawyer from Los Angeles, who works in a program run by the UN Center for Human Rights that trains lawyers, judges, prosecutors and police officers.
"Progress here has been measured in small steps: first, a bulletin board where court dates are posted for the public, then file cabinets for keeping court records, then permission for public defenders to attend the questioning of defendants and now, occasionally, the guilty looks that Ms. Tse observes from police officers when they deliver a defendant bearing the signs of a beating," the report said.
"The crowning achievements in Kandal are the recent opening of a small, whitewashed room where defendants can speak with a public defender and the inauguration, scheduled for next week, of the country's first arraignment court, where a defendant can hear the charges against him, be advised of his rights and enter his plea," the report added.
Three agreements on the use of $8.65 million funds pledged by the European Commission (EC) were signed in Phnom Penh on January 14 and 15 by EC's delegate to Cambodia Michel Caillouet with the Cambodian Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Education, and Environment.
The funds are targeted for three main projects :
-$1.7 million to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The grant will be used for training civil servants as Cambodia becomes more closely tied to the international community, especially ASEAN. Officials from the Ministries of Commerce and Finance will also receive training.
-$3.25 million to the EC's two year program to support primary education in Cambodia, known as Pasec, to continue its work until the end of 1997. The program, which focused mainly on the training of new teachers, providing teaching materials and supporting educational planning, had already been pledged $4 million.
-$3.7 million for environmental assistance. The funds will be used for laboratories to gauge air and water pollution, as well as the EC's first environmental project in Cambodia, which focusses primarily on solid waste disposal, sewage treatment, and the sustainable management of Kandal province's Bokor National Park and the Tonle Sap lake.
Apart from this aid package, the EC also announced it will donate about $2.7 million to provide relief to areas hit by last year floods.
The aid package is the result of the Agreement "Convention de Financement entre la Communauté Européenne et le Gouvernement Royal du Cambodge" signed in Phnom Penh on December 5, 1996.
The European Union (EU) is one of Cambodia's largest aid donors, and their relationship, including economic ties, has been remarkably boosted.
During a visit to Cambodia from June 24-27, 1996 by a fourteen member delegation of the EU's Ambassadors, the delegation praised Cambodia for the great progress and appealed for unconditional aid to the country. An agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the EC on the Complementary Plan of the European Program of Rehabilitation of Cambodia (PERC) was then signed. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the EC grants aid of $13.75 million for rural development, human rights, democracy, and environmental protection in Cambodia.
On November 7, 1996, in Brussels, Belgium, Cambodia and the EU signed a broad agreement on trade and economic cooperation. The agreement is expected to help Cambodia's rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts and covers the country's most-favored-nation trading status, as well as, cooperation in forestry, rural development, and environmental protection.
On February 10, the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Republic of Korea signed at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation two agreements aimed at fostering closer cooperation between the two countries.
An investment protection and promotion agreement would protect Korean companies against any possible nationalization of industry and establish most-favored-nation trade status between the two nations.
An economic, scientific, and technical agreement would promote the exchange of experts, information, and equipment from various fields.
The signing of the two agreements is regarded as another milestone in the chapter of Cambodian-South Korean relations.
On May 15, 1996, the governments of the two countries signed at the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Mission of the Republic of Korea and Mission of the Kingdom of Cambodia in the capitals of both countries.
On September 16, 1996, South Korea opened its Mission in Phnom Penh.
Cambodian Co-Ministers of Interior and National Security Sar Kheng and You Hockry, together with several Cambodian police and interior officials, were cited on January 24 by the US Secret Service for their efforts in cracking a major counterfeiting operation. The ceremony was held in the US Ambassador's residence in Phnom Penh and attended by US Secret Service Assistant Director Paul Hackenbury.
The Cambodian Ministers and officials were honored for actively contributing to the arrest of Japanese fugitive, Hoshimi Tanaka, wanted in Japan for his suspected role in hijacking an aircraft to North Korea in 1970, and for running a multi-million dollar counterfeiting ring in Thailand.
During the ceremony, US Ambassador Kenneth Quinn praised the activities taken by the Cambodian government in responding to the US request for help. He also said Tanaka was the most important person in the biggest case the US Secret Service has ever pursued.
Tanaka was arrested by the Cambodian authorities in March 1996, while trying to drive across the Cambodian border into Vietnam.
The course, attended by 100 Cambodian immigration officials, enhanced the ability of the Cambodian authorities to detect false travel documents used by smugglers or illegal aliens, drug traffickers and others involved in organized crime.
The United States also provided 50 ultraviolet lights to the Cambodian Ministry of Interior to help identify fake or altered passports.
The appeal, which was issued in Phnom Penh on February 4, reads as follows:
As you may all be aware, President Clinton and the US Congress have demonstrated great statesmanship, magnanimity, and compassion in granting to Cambodia, Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) treatment in October 1996. This is indeed a significant milestone. There is perhaps vision, in the belief, that help in this form will enhance the abilities of my fellow Cambodians to help ourselves make a meaningful comeback to the mainstream of the international community.
I would like to make a personal appeal to the American business community to emulate the leadership shown, by coming out with equivalent support for Cambodia, even if such support comes in the form of providing us with the same opportunities and access as the rest of the countries around the globe. We seek your understanding in appreciating that depriving us of such support will make it that much more difficult for us to rejuvenate, and to reconstruct the economy. Additionally, it may retard the current urgent and important task of social engineering and improvement to the welfare and livelihood of the people of Cambodia. The burden on the present leadership of Cambodia is heavy after decades of civil strife. We are indeed counting on your help.
I can understand and appreciate the concerns you may have of Cambodia, in relation to human rights, labor rights, intellectual property rights and the like. You have my assurances that the full dimensions and importance of these areas are given the highest priority of attention. No effort is being spared to ensure that suitable and implementable laws are either drawn up or have been put in place. Abuse shall not be tolerated. The Royal Government of Cambodia remained resolved to act firmly and responsibly to ensure the progressive development of an economic environment congenial for businesses to thrive and to prosper.
I urge the American Business Community to consider favorably and to partake in the opportunities that are abounded in this, our new Cambodia.
Ambassador Var Huoth and his wife were met on their arrival at Salt Lake International Airport by officials from the Centennial Commission and the City, and representatives of the Cambodian community.
Ambassador Var Huoth met later with Governor Michael Leavitt at the Governor's Residence. The talks focused mainly on the promotion of economic and educational ties between Utah-Cambodia.
In a luncheon hosted by the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce and attended by about 40 officials and businessmen, Ambassador Var Huoth spoke about economic development and investment opportunities in Cambodia. He also answered several questions on the political and economic situation in Cambodia, and made an appeal to the participants and to the American businessmen in general to invest in Cambodia.
Ambassador Var Huoth also met with State Legislators in a breakfast sponsored by US West Communications and Exchange Carriers of Utah. Present at breakfast were Senator David Street, Senator Blake Chard and Representative Beverly Evens. The democratic journey in Cambodia is the central topic of the talks.
In a meeting with First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson and James E. Faust, Ambassador Var Huoth expressed his profound thanks to the Church for its humanitarian activities in Cambodia. He also expressed wishes for the continuation of this noble gesture.
Ambassador Var Huoth attended a luncheon at Weber State University and later addressed a meeting of teachers of Asian studies on "Education in Cambodia: Progress and Challenges". He also talked about possibility of student exchanges between Utah-Cambodia.
In a luncheon with Church officials, Huntsman Chemical Corporation President Peter Huntsman expressed to Ambassador Var Huoth his deep interest in Cambodia's investment opportunities and his wishes to visit Cambodia.
During the visit Ambassador Var Huoth and his wife also participated in two meetings organized by the Cambodian Community. The Ambassador informed his compatriots of the achievements made by the Royal Government of Cambodia in the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction of the country.
The inaugural ceremony, held at the consular office in Long Beach on February 17, was honored by the presence of Representative Stephen Horn (R-Long Beach), Long Beach Mayor Beverly O' Neill, representatives from the city of Los Angeles, and counties of Los Angeles and Orange, and many representatives from foreign consular posts in California, including Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Norway, Latvia, Armenia, Turkey, Slovania, People Republic of China, Liberia and France. About 200 American and Cambodia guests attended this remarkable event.
After the blessing ceremony by Cambodian Buddhist monks, H.E. Ambassador Var Huoth spoke in his address about the general situation in Cambodia with the stress on the political and economic fields, and the progress in economic relations between Cambodia and the United States. He expressed hope to see further increase in trade activities between the two countries and to see Cambodian products pass through the Port of Long Beach. He also talked about the functions to be performed by the Honorary Consulate General, including renewing Cambodian passports, issuing visas, and promoting trade, investment and tourism. After presenting Mr. Bunneang Khem who has been appointed Honorary Consul General, Ambassador Var Huoth handed the Honorary Consulate General's seal over to Mr. Bunneang Khem.
In her remarks, Long Beach Mayor Beverly O' Neill expressed a warm and enthusiastic welcome to the establishment of the Cambodian consular post in the city. She also touched on the significance and importance of the presence of the Cambodian consular post in the area and the increasing presence of the Cambodian people which she said "becomes more forceful."
Representative Stephen Horn also congratulated the opening of the Consulate and expressed hope that the consular post will contribute in promoting the economic ties between the two countries.
The address of the Honorary Consulate General is 306 Pacific Coast Highway #205, Long Beach, California 90806. Phone (310) 218-2296, Fax (310) 218-2926.