The grilled cow for sale on the street

In Cambodia, people eat many kinds of meats as food, for example beef, bacon, duck, chicken,..etc. The beef and the bacon are the most popular food for Cambodian people since the price of the fish is getting more and more expensive. The price of the beef is also expensive right now. If you walk out in the evening you will see there are lots grilled cow and grilled chicken for sale to serve to people as food.

A government directive has taken aim at Phnom Penh’s popular late-night Khmer barbecue restaurants, but it is not public drunkenness or the frequent firing of weapons at the establishments that has authorities worried—it’s the spit-roasted cow outside.

The Council of Ministers signed a directive on January 10^th telling all restaurants in Phnom Penh to move displays of spit-roasted cow away from the public yes after the Supreme Council of the Mohanikaya Buddhist order called a meeting at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall in December to discuss the issue.

The grilled cow on the street after the flesh has been sold leaving the bone frame

“Grilling cows in front of the restaurants is a show of support violence in a country that believes in the Buddhist religion,” said Chhoeung Bunchhea, a member of the Supreme Coucnil. “It can instill the ideas of a massacre to a child and push them to commit violence in society.”

He said that during the meeting in December, it was decided that displaying the roasted carcasses of cow glorifies the killing of animals and is bad for the image of Cambodia. They then passed the request for a ban to the Council of Ministers.

The roasted chicken for sale on the street in Phnom Penh

“We want a nonviolent culture and happiness in society,” Mr. Bunchhea said, adding that similar vendors displaying roasted whole chicken, ducks and deepfried fish do have to conform to such rules because they were small size animals.

Only restaurants that display spit-roasted cow had heard of the directive.

On Street 13 in Daun Penh district’s Phsa Kandal I commune, there is a strip of at least six barbecue restaurants in a row—directly accros the street from Wat Ounalom.

Huy Seir Ratanak, manager of the Chan Thol Arunras restaurant located on the strip, said that he did not obey the directive after receiving it last month, but his restaurant received a visit from the commune authorities soon thereafter.

The restaurants serve roasted chicken wings food

“The authorities came here and ordered me to move the grill closer to my restaurant and to make sure to clean the space,” he said.

Pen In, Phsa Kandal II commune chief, said that she would request that police remove the spites if the restaurants in her commune do not move them.

“I have explained to the restaurant owners not to grill cows like this because it looks very bad and especially because it is unsanitary,” she said.

People offering food and money to monks in the annual Meak Bochea ceremony held at the Oudong mountain

In vans and on trucks, thousands of monks, officials and members of the public made their way toward Odong mountain yesterday morning to commemorate the day that the Buddha announce to his followers he would die in three months.

While Meak Bochea day is little recognized among the public, for the most serious devotees of the religion it remains a key holiday in the Buddhist calendar.

Falling approximately three months before the widely celebrated Visaka Bochea, informally known as Buddha’s Birthday, Meak Bochea commemorates they day that the spiritual leader Gautam Buddha announced his future; the death and accompanying nirvana into which he would enter.

Sakyak Mony Chedi at Odong mountain where the buddha's bones are kept in there

Attendants at yesterday ceremony prayed an lit incense at the top of Odong mountain, where three bones—the relic of Buddha—were honored. They made offering of rice, noodles and money to the monks.

Police chief for Odong district, Khem Samon, said several thousand people, including Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng, turned out for the celebration.

“Meak Bochea is the special day when we Buddhists are reminded of Buddha telling that he will enter parinirvana in three months,” explained Yem thin, abbot of Wat Tonle Mean in Kampot province’s Angkor Chey district.

“Beside gathering at Odong, Buddhists are to gather at every pagoda where monks pray and preach about the Buddha and his teaching,” he added.

The gate to Odong Montain. Odong mountain is officially called Phnom Preah Reach Trop

Chhorn Eam, secretary of state for the Ministry of Culture and Religion, explained that the Meak Bochea also commemorates the day that Buddha met 1,225 monks without any schedule.

“All of the people who showed up were ordained by Buddha himself. And Buddha gave them principles of the Buddhism called “The Ovadhapatimoka.” Thos principles are to cease from all evil, to do what is good, and to cleanse one’s mind,” he said.

In order to help attain those principles, said Mr. Eam, Buddhists make merit offerings to monks and at pagodas. The main destination is the mountaintop Wat Odong, containing the shrine with the born relics that are said to belong to the Buddha, which is considered to be one of the holiest location in Cambodia.

The Odong mountain view from the ground

But though the holiday is a key one for many devotees, and is an official government holiday, it is celebrated relatively little among most of the general public.

“In town, you can see every few things: ritual performances by Buddhist monks, offerings at pagoda. But in three months, not just in town but across the countryside, you will see many people celebrating,” explained Ang Choulean, and ethnologist who has spent decades studying ceremonies in Cambodia.

“Meak Bochea and Visaka Bochea are purely religious holidays, so I think it is normal that the impact is not that visible.”

Driven mainly by an increase in fire and motor coverage, revenues generated by Cambodia’s six insurance companies in 2011 grew by 19 percent compared with the year before, to $29.7 million, according to data from the General Insurance Association of Cambodia.

Although premiums are rising, those in the insurance industry say that the rates for firms to reinsure their policies are also going up due to an increasing number of claims stemming from events such as the recent folding in Thailand and last year’s tsunami in Japan.

“The truth is that as far as reinsurers go, Cambodia gets lumped into a group with Thailand, so even though the country was not really affected by the floods, the rates will go up,” said David Carter, DEO of Infinity Insurance.

“Flood insurance is going to become harder and harder to get as properties become less insurable and reinsurers assume more risk,” he said.

FORTE the insurance company in Cambodia

Making matter more challenging, claims in Cambodia’s insurance market last year amounted to $33.5 million was paid out to two garment factories that burned down in Phnom Penh and Kandal provinces. The two cases have also sent rates on fire insurance upward, insurance companies say.

Despite the challenges, insurers also say that the notion of insurance for matters such as health and possessions is beginning to take hold in Cambodia.

“Insurance is gaining momentum as the government continues to publish information about picking up insurance, showing what exactly are the benefits,” said Ty Atith, a senior underwriter at Cambodian Reinsurance Company.

Proof of this can be seen in health insurance premiums, which grew by 31 percent last year compared to the year before.

“I think that is mostly because more NGOs, companies and embassies are buying group health insurance for their employees,” said Mr. Arith.

Data from the General Insurance Association of Cambodia show that fire insurance accounted for 26 percent of total revenues last year, followed by motor insurance, miscellaneous insurance and health insurance comprising 19, 17 and 15 percent respectively.

Insurance companies are hopeful that a draft law will be adopted soon because the legislation will make automobile insurance compulsory. In Meatra, head of the Finance Ministry’s insurance division, said that the law was still in draft form and that he was unsure when it would be debated.

DDD Celebrates 10 years of creating jobs. (source: http://www.digitaldividedata.org)

When Jeremy Hockenstein came to Cambodia for the first time more than 10 years ago to see Angkor Wat, he expected to be inspred by the temples. But he had no idea that the people he met here would inspired him to develop on of the most successful NGOs in the country.

The corporate consultanturned-CEO of Digital Divide Data (DDD), a digital content NGO, remembers how many schools and charities he encounter on his trip that taught computer skills to locals—but also how nobody he spoke to expected that the training might help them one day land a job.

‘“I met with an NGO for disable people to make crafts, and in the back I saw people using computers, so I said, ‘Oh great,’ he said. ‘They had pictures on the walls of all their graduates, and I asked, ‘what kind of jobs do you get when you graduate?’ And they replied, ‘we don’t get any jobs: It’s Cambodia.”’

DDD map - location in Phnom Penh

Just a month later, with the blessing of then-King Norodom Sihanouk, Mr. Hockenstein sought to build an NGO that would give disadvantaged workers an opportunity to find jobs by giving them entry-level technology training.

He arranged for a handful of Cambodian to fly to India for data entry management training, while setting up DDD’s first office in Chamkar Mon district on Steet 360.

Content process sourcing in Cambodia was born.

Starting with just 20 employees, Mr. Hockenstein was able to get a $50,000 contract with his alma mater, Harvard University, transcribing 10th-century paper issues of student newspaper The Crimson into digital content.

“When we first came in 10 years ago, there was a real hunger for young people to learn technology,” he said.

DDD specializes in data indexing, tagging, and developing optical character recognition, working on projects with international institutions such as Yale University, Readers Digest and Unicef, but also locally with MobiTel and ANZ Royal Bank.

His employees are largely high school graduates who upon hiring are given a four-year works program that includes a scholarship.

After that, they can either stay on at DDD or seek employment elsewhere, earning an average of four times the average national wage, according to Mr. Hockenstein.

DDD, which celebrate its 10-yeaw, has also managed to open three more branches in Kenya, Laos, and Battambang province. DDD now employs about 1,000 people and has 481 graduates, of who 471 now have management roles with other companies in information technology, finance or human resources.

In Phnom Penh, the NGO has moved out of its old villa on Street 360 into a seven-storey office building in Chamka Mon district.

“The need for digital content is booming: government and corporate records, especially now for iBooks, the Kindle and iPad,” Mr. Hockenstein said, adding that the NGO has generated $3.5 million in earned income.

New York / North AmericaDigital Divide Data
115 West 30th Street, Suite 400
New York, NY 10001
Phone: +1.212.461.3700
Fax: +1.212.813.3209

San FranciscoDigital Divide Data
972 Mission Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: +1.212.461.3700
Fax: +1.212.813.3209

Phnom Penh, CambodiaDigital Divide Data
No. 559, Street 271
Tuol Tom Pong II
Khan Chamkar Mon
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Phone: +855.23.220.843 (office)

Battambang, CambodiaDigital Divide Data
Group 02, Phum Prek Preahsdach
Sangkat Prek Preahsdach
Battambang City
Battambang, Cambodia
Phone: +855.53.730.155 (office)

Vientiane, LaosDigital Divide Data
PO Box 315
Unit 21, Dongpalep Village
Chanthabouly District
Vientiane, Lao PDR
Phone: +856.21.263.448 (Office)

Nairobi, Kenya Digital Divide Data Kenya Ltd
Paramount Plaza 7th Floor
off Globe Cinema Roundabout, Nairobi
P.O. BOX 4282-00506 [Mailing Address]
Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254. 772. 191. 795
Phone (Sales): +254.20.3601649
Phone (Sales): +254-704-803703

Cambodia Public Bank (Campu Bank) in Phnom Penh Branch

Cambodian Public Bank’s net profits last year increased 71.66 percent to $23.69 million compared with 2010, according to audited data obtained by the bank of Friday.

According to the data, the bank was able to reduce the amount of non-performing loans from $21.77 million to just $9.7 million over 2011, contradicting a statement issued by Moody’s Investor in September that increasing credit risks would lead to a probable downgrade of Campu Bank’s D grade in the following 10 to 18 months.

Phan Ying Tong, country head of the bank, said that growing profits last year stemmed from better asset quality gained from more rigorous new lending policies.

“We now have a very stringent requirement for approving new loans in an effort to increase recovery action so that we can tackle all the non-performing loans as soon as possible,” he said, adding that increased market activity caused by a growing economy has also driven the insurance of new loans.

Campu’s loan portfolio, issued mostly in the agriculture and retail sectors, grew last year between 10 and 15 percent to about $620 million compared with 2010, Mr. Tong Said.

The number of cases of infectious tuberculosis in the country dropped by about 30 percent between 2002 and 2010, according to preliminary result from a study conducted by the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control.

Data show that between 2002 and 2010, the prevalence rate of the infectious from of tuberculosis fell from 269 cases per 100,000 people to less than 200 per 100,000 people, Said Dr. Mao Tan Eang, director of the TB Center.

“We have had a big reduction of tuberculosis, but Cambodia is still among the 22 countries with the highest burden of TB,” Dr. Tan Eang said.

Out of the 22 countries identified in a World Health Organization (WHO) report last year, Cambodia had the second highest estimated prevalence of all infectious, and noninfectious, forms of the disease at rates of 660 per 100,000 people in 2010.

However, the country made large strides by managing to nearly halve the number of tuberculosis cases from more than 1,250 per 100,000 people estimated in 1990, said Dr. Tan Eang.

The decline resulted from a drive by the center to make sure that TB health service, including diagnosis and treatment, reached not only hospitals, but also local health facilities, he said. “Gradully, we expanded to all health centers,” he said, adding that the number of cases were so high in 1990 because the country was still recovering from civil war.

Dr. Rajendra Yadav, WHO medical officer for Stop TB, welcomed the finding in the preliminary data.

“It is an amazing achievement,” Dr. Yadva said.

Infectious TB patients display symptoms such as coughing, chest pains and fever and can pass on the infection through droplets from the throat and lungs.

Sambo is giving people a ride at Wat Phnom

Cambodia’s now-retired resident pachyderm Sambo, along with Louise Rogerson from Elephant Asia Rescue and Survival Foundation (EARS), a mahout, and the son of Sambo’s owner, made a four-hour journey on foot to the elephant’s new home in the city’s Sen Sok district.

Accomplished with the help of medication to ease the pain of wounds in the elephant’s feet, the journey was the last that Sambo will make for a long time, EARS said in a statement.

Rather than providing daily rides to tourists around Phnom Penh’s Wat Phnom, Sambo will receive medical care so that her feet—which were found to be inflamed and infected during a medical examination in November—can recover.

Related Stories:

The Elephant Named Sambo Retires After 30 Years At Wat Phnom

Sambo Can Work if Owner Promises No Rush Hour Jam

Dr. Paolo Martelli, who conducted the original examination of Sambo, will assist in her rehabilitation. The first bout of treatment will ast for one year, after which a review will be conducted to determine the next sate of recovery.

Dr. Martelli believes Sambo’s injuries could take up to two years to heal and that she will never fully recover because her injuries went untreated for too long.

EARS is funding the entirety of Sambo’s medical care and is also helping Sambo’s owner, Sin Sorn, with a remuneration package to assist with costs including the elephant’s food, water and electricity while in retirement.

Mr. Sorn said he paid $5,000 of his own money to build Sambo’s new shelter, which Ms. Rogerson confirmed.

Since Sambo has been working for about 30 years until date, it is now officially her time to take her retirement for the rest of her life.

Unseasonable rains have interrupted this year’s dry season, bringing a welcome boost to hundreds of thousands of dry season farmers around the country, an official and an agriculture expert said.

Oum Ryna, deputy director of the meteorology department at the Ministry of Water Resources and meteorology, said that provincial areas throughout the country have received sporadic rainfall. Some districts have had more rain, others less,” Mr. Ryna said, adding that more rain is expected over the coming weeks.

While they may be unexpected, Mr. Ryna noted that the unseasonable rain were a “normal” climatic event.

However, Yang Saing Koma, director of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), said the unseasonable rains were more frequent this year than usual. The rains would make a difference for farmers this dry season, which lasts roughly from October to March, he said.

“This year, I think, there is a lot of rain,” Mr. Saing Koma said.

About 200,000 families in part of Takeo, Kandal, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kampong Thom and Kompong Cham provinces grow dry season floodwaters and irrigation schemes. The dry season harvest contributes about 20 percent of the country’s total annual rice harvest.

“It is very good for the people who grow vegetable and crops in the dry season,” Mr. Saing Koma said, adding that because severe flooding last year destroyed much of the wet season crop, many rural communities had been forced to grow rice in the dry season.

“There are many farmers that grow dry season rice, especially after the floods,” he said, adding that the rains will be a boon for them.

Chum Sophy, director of Prey Veng province’s water resources and meteorology department, said the province had already benefited from the wet weather.

“There are shortages of water for irrigation and drinking, so it is good that rain fill the rice paddies,” he said. “It can also help raise the level of ground water so people can use their wells as usual.”

San Soeun, a farmer and chief of Prey Veng’s Boeng Daul commune, said, “it is good that it rained because the dry season rice needs this rain; we have been waiting for rainfall so that the crop can flourish.”

Phnom Penh’s longtime resident elephant, 52 years old, has retired after 30 years of strolling along the riverside and providing rides to tourist at Wat Phnom, according to a statement posted by City Hall on its website.

“The municipality sees that Sambo is now very old and sick. We decided that she should retire,” said Som Chanren, deputy director of the municipality’s tourism department. He added that the city is now looking for a replacement elephant.

Sambo’s owner Sin Sorn said that a City Hall official met with him last week to tell him that Sambo had to retire. He said that he spent $5,000 to build a shelter for Sambo in Sen Sok district, where he plan for her to spend her retirement.

Sambo has been absent from her usual route around Wat Phnom for the past two months, Mr. Sorn said. A medical examiniation initiated by the Elephant Asia Rescue and Survival Foundation in November found Sambo unfit to work due to bone inflammation and infections on one foot.

“Sambo used to make $30 to $60 a day. Since she is sick, I do not make any money at all from tourists… and I pay $10 every day for her food. I cannot find another job… I depend on her,” said Mr. Sor, who took Sambo out of the jungles of Kampong Speu 44 years ago.

Mr. Chanren said that the municipality wanted another elephant at Wat Phnom to replace Sambo but said he could not comment on the choice of a new elephant.

Mr. Sorn, however, said he has another, 30 years old female elephant name Chi-Yol that he bought from ethnic minority villagers  in Mondolkiri province nine years ago, which could replace Sambo. “If City Hall is looking for a new elephant, please let me bring my elephant to Wat Phnom, because my new elephant can make money to support Sambo and my family,” he said.

To all Sideth.com’s visitors. The objective of this post is to ask for support from all of you to help the healthcare system in Cambodia. Nowadays, there are lots of poor people in Cambodia that cannot access to a quality healthcare. The main reason is because they do not have enough money to afford it. Also, most of them are living in the remote area where the healthcare clinic is not available or unreachable. So how to make healthcare services available for them? Well, this is the question where there lots of possible answers, but I want to focus on one aspect is your donation to a charity hospital in order to help those poor people.

The Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE is a charity teaching hospital, one of the only hospitals of its kind serving disadvantaged adults in Cambodia free of charge. Its mission is to provide a center for further education and clinical training to Cambodia medical professionals, while providing 24-hour high-quality, free medical care for the poor and needy in Cambodia.

Since opening in 1996, the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE has provided more than 1,100,000 free patient consultations, trained more than 4,000 health care professionals, and educated more than 110,000 Cambodians about disease prevention and health promotion. Each year, tens of thousands of patients travel to the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE from around the country for the promise of free, high quality medical care. For these patients—who have often spent their last savings on failed treatments, lost their livelihoods due to ill-health, and exhausted all alternatives—the Center of HOPE represents a last hope.

Please help to support the health care system in Cambodia today with the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE. Your support will help build a bridge to Tomorrow!

The Sihanouk Hospital Corporation is a U.S. registered 501c3 entity.
to make a tax-deductible donation please visit:
WWW.CARE4CAMBODIA.ORG
or send checks to:
c/o HOPE worldwide 353 West Lancaster Avenue, Suite 200
Wayne, PA 19087
payable to “Sihanouk Hospital Corporation”

“A single Dollar You Donate Today Will Make Difference For
Tomorrow To The Lives Of Cambodian Poor And Needy!”

To learn more about the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE (SHCH):
-http://www.sihosp.org “the official website of the SHCH”
-http://www.care4cambodia.org“the SHCH’s Donate and Information site”
-http://www.hopeww.org “the management of the SHCH”

Follow the Sihanouk Hospital Center of HOPE (SHCH) at:
-Faceboook: http://www.facebook.com/care4cambodia
-Twitter:         http://www.twitter.com/care4cambodia

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. Facebook is free for all users and all users have to register before using it. The Facebook’s website is http://www.facebook.com. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.

If you ask people why do they use Facebook or why do they like using Facebook, their answer must always be the same “connected with friends”. More than that, there are many reasons why people using Facebook:

Staying connected with friends:

Most people use Facebook to connect with their friends. Users must register before using the site, once they registered with their names; they can create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Once they update their status, their friends in their list can see all that updates. For those people who lost contact with friends a long time, and if their friends have Facebook account too, they can find them easily by entering their friend’s name in the search box then Facebook will show the complete list of people with that name. If they found their friends, they just click “Add as friend”. Once their friends confirm, they can share information each other or any update will alert to them as soon as the new wall message is posted. They can communicate easily with Facebook. They can chat, email, and post in wall message. For example if they want to invite their friends to a party, they just post a message like “Wanna join my party?” so all friend in the list will see the message and they can respond back quickly. Talking about email, more and more people are now using Facebook to send emails. Sometime their friends change email address and they may not update each other, but they still have Facebook account, so just send them an email in Facebook is much more faster without knowing their email address. This is easy and quicker.

Sharing information:

Not only communicating with friends, but Facebook is also used to share information to each other. Users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as “People From Work” or “Close Friends”. If they have any hot news and want to share to their friends, they just post in the walls then their friends will see it at real time. That’s why when people have hot news they do not call or email to their friends, but they post in Facebook instead. This is the better way in communication. It save time, and more effective. As long as their friends login, they will immediately see the alerts about the updates.

Entertainment:

Besides sharing information, users can use Facebook for entertaining themselves as well. Since Facebook is built as a social network tool, it allows users can upload their pictures, music, videos, and fun clips to share to their friends in Facebook (I am not quite sure what is the space limit that Facebook allows users to store their files) or they can embed video from other site like YouTube to share in Facebook. If they set the permission to “Public” or “Friends” those stuff will be available for users and their friends respectively. So, their friends can enjoy looking at those stuffs. They can also share their comments below that photos or videos if they like it or want to share. It helps to make their friendship even better.

Boosting Business:

Now most people are starting to use Facebook for their business. As we know Facebook is a social networking website, so it means people sharing information with each other through this website. And every day there are millions of users login to Facebook. It is a good chance for businessmen to advertise their products in Facebook. More and more company now have Facebook account and add more people as friends. When they update their new product information, it will alert to their friends. So, it helps users to learn more about their products and their business is growing better and better. If you login to Facebook today and you will see the advertisement in it. You can also advertise through it and to learn more about the price just check more details in their page.

What do you use Facebook for? Share your ideas here.

Government officials and micro-insurance experts discussed how to apply micro-insurance, or low-premium insurance, to Cambodia’s most poor and vulnerable population in an effort to protect people who do not benefit from the country’s manager social safety net. Speaking to participants at a workshop in Phnom Penh, organized by the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), the Council for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) and the Ministry of Finance, UNDP Country Director Elena Tischenko said Cambodia is one of many countries considering micro-insurance as a supplement to existing social welfare programs.

“People, especially in developing countries, lack access to appropriate insurance and social protection services that would enable them to cope with risks more effectively,” Ms. Tischenko said. “Micro-insurance stand as an effective tool to deepen and expand social protection in Cambodia.” Micro-insurance, which is available to low-income people who pay premiums to protect against death, health problems, crop failure and livestock degradation, should be part of the government’s National Social Protection Strategy, she added.

Some 7,500 low-income people in Kandal and Takeo provinces currently pay $6 a year for accident and health coverage under a micro-finance partnership between local insurance companies Forte Insurance and the Prasac Microfinance Institution. Youk Chamroeunrith, general manager of Forte Insurance, said that an annual premium of $6 is affordable for low-income people.

But Bou Chanpirou, deputy director of Ministry of Finance’s financial industry department, said that the problem is awareness of insurance, which remains exptremely low inrural areas, w3here 83 percent of people had no access to insurance. Ministry of Finance Secretary of State our Bun Long urged officials first to educate eople on health and life insurance. “If they understand about this insurance, they will understand the rest of the insurance services,” Mr Bun Long said.

The Center for Study and Development of Agriculture is urgently calling on the government and microfinance firms to issue low interest loans for flood-striken farmers in order to save this year’s dry season rice harvest. Flooods have destroyed 10 percent of the rainy season rice crop and left farmers without any capital for the next round of planting, Cedac said in a statement issued.

“Cedac believes that the government in collaboration with microfinance institutions should create a special loan program for rice producers, especially farmers planting rice after the floodwater reced,” the statement said. Receding floods will leave behind an unusually large area suitable for growing dry season rice, it said. The center suggested four-month loans, with monthly interest rates under 1.5 percent, so farmers can replant crops.

Hout Ieng Tong, chief executive officer of Hattha Kakekar Limited, a microfinance institution that charges 2.2 ti 2.3 percent interest on average, said that the program would be possible, but only if Cedac funded it. “It’s no problem if Cedac gives us a grant,” Mr Ieng Tong said, citing Hattha Kaksekar’s own costs and limited funds.

Son Kuon Thor, president of the Rural Development Bank, support Cedac’s ida, But “we cannot force them to charge low interest because they are private microfinance institutions,” Mr Kuon Thor said. “We encourage them to compete with each other.” Many flood-affected farmers working with Cedac in Prey Veng province lack capital for dry season planting beginning in about a month, said Him Khortieth, Cedac communications officer. “At least 50 percent face very big trouble with dry season farming,” he said.

Oum Kros, a fermer in Prevy Veng proince’s Preah Sdetch district, said that he is more than 2 million riel, or $500, in dept after using the money to plant on hectare of rice crops, which were destroyed by floods. “right now, I have a problem with capital to plant dry rice,” he said. “I hesitate over borrowing money from some businesspeople because I have not repaid old debt.” “I support Cedac’s program,” he added. “If there was this program, then I would borrow from it.”

Sandbags lined the entrances to most of the hotels and souvenir shops here is the protective barrier against floods that have left the country’s main tourist destination waterlogged from more than a week. Guesthouse and shop owners said the floods had forced them to shut their businesses a week ago, and thoug most are now starting to reopen, tractors still plowed through streets that looked more like streams on Friday.

“Most of the bars here on Pub Street closed when folding was at it’s worst. We stayed open, but business is not so good,” saod Chan Tha, manager of the Red Piano café, which only had one table occupied. “Business is down 90 percent,” he said. Dan Maini, a British tourist, said he had been unaware that Cambodia had been experiencing some of its worst floods in a decade before the flew into Siem Reap City on Friday morning. He said that the road from the airport had been unaffected, but when he got into Siem Reap City, the level of the flooding was a shock.

“I feel really bad for the small business,” Mr Maini said. Siem Reap’s normally bustling Old Market was bereft of shoppers, and one souvenir stall owner said business had been so bad that she had closed her shop for several days. “The water flooded my shop, so I closed. Normally I make about $50 a day, but during the flood, I make nothing,” said Bel La, 50, whose stall sells tourists trinkets and handicrafts.

Travel agents said the floods had made it difficult for tourists to travel around the town and to the temples, and the heavy rain had kept many confined to their hotel rooms. Bun Tharith, deputy provincial governor, said nobody in the province had been evacuated, but more than 200 families in two districts were stranded in their villages. The Cambodian Red Cross will deliver food packages to those districts today, Mr. Tharith said, adding that the Neak Poan, Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei temples were closed to the public because of the floods.

Just outside Siem Reap’s central tourist zone, families living along the Siem Reap River said they worried their homes could collapse. “During the night, I feel afraid that my house will sink into the water if there is a flood water surge,” said Sok Thy, 48, whose home is already covered in stagnant ankle-deep water.

Agriculture Minister officials said that they would soon complete a new  law to regulate and support the creation of farmers’ cooperatives. They said the law would allow farmers to organize themselves in legally recognized cooperatives, which could improve their market position and allow access to financial and technical support.

Chea Saintdona, chief of the farmers’ organization office at the department of agricultural extension at the Ministry of Agriculture, sad the draft law would be sent to the Council of Ministers after a final discussion of its contents this week. The law, he said, would provide big advantages to farmers that joined a cooperative. “They could get technical and financial support from the government partners,” Mr. Saintdona said.

He added that farmers unified in a cooperative would be in a stronger position to sell their produce. He noted that after the law is adopted, the government would find financial institution that could offer farmers credit through the cooperative, allowing farmers to get loans without collateral, he said, as the cooperative would guarantee the loans of its members. Many farmers currently struggle  to get credit and can only register the land as collateral. The 134-article draft law sets out a legal framework for farming cooperatives, stipulating cooperative membership, organization statutes and management, as well as capital and solvency issues.

A cooperative can be formed by at least 25 persons working in farming and agricultural business, all of whom have to buy in to raise capital for the organization, according to the draft. It also details government policy in support of cooperatives, specifying the creation of National Board for Agriculture Cooperatives, as well as a training center and a development fund for cooperatives. Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said in speech last month that 243 farmers’ group had been formed so far. Given Cambodian’s traumatic experiences with Khmer Rouge forced labor cooperatives, he stressed that the new cooperatives would be “absolutely voluntary” and would “protect farmers’ interest.”

Yang Saing Koma, director of the Cambodian Center of Study and Development in Agriculture, said the law was a step forward for the agriculture sector, as recognition of cooperatives as business organizations could help those working in the sector. “It’s important for small farmers to get organized in order to get access to the market and additional resources,” he said, adding that it would be vital for farmers to choose good leaders for their cooperatives.