Public transport in Cambodia

A public transportation system for Phnom Penh is still years from becoming a reality, according to a presentation during a meeting on urban transit on Friday at City Hall, but the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will begin a survey at the end of May to identify key traffic problems that clog the city’s streets.

Plans for a public transport system have been discussed between JICA and City Hall for more than a decade and the discussions will likely continues on until 2035—the target year of the project’s completion—said Masato Koto, JICA’s urban transport planning team leader.

In 2001, JICA and City Hall attempted a two-month public bus service that was discontinued because Phnom Penh residents were not ready to give up their motorbikes for public buses, deputy Meanchey district governor By Saphoan said in the meeting.

Since then, the city’s population has climbed, while the area of the city has increase from 376 sqare km to about 678 square km, prompting JICA and the city to conduct a new study to come up with a comprehensive urban transport plan for Phnom Penh.

The study is slated to wrap up in early 2014, by which time JICA hopes to have a master plan for public transport in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Koto said JICA, with the cooperation of the city, will begin by conducting a survey of more than 9,000 household at the end of May to analyze the daily routes of city residents and identify the most suitable forms of public transport to meet their needs.

“We have to interview all the household members about where they are going, how they are traveling, said Mr. Koto.

Public transport in Cambodia

Data collection on the city’s traffic problems, such as congested intersection or bottlenecks, will also need to be done before JICA can forecast future transport demands.

Mr. Koto declined to put a date on the project’s end or what form the transport system would take, as plans are likely to change depending on what the study shows.

“I don’t want to say what transport—bus or light rail—it is. Finding what is the most suitable public transport is the point of our study,” he said.

“If it just a small improvement that our study recommends, like for road intersection improvement, it might be three months. If it’s a large-scale project, it will be at least 10 years,” added Mr. Koto.

“This project is very important in order to solve the traffic conditions in Phnom Penh,” said Chreang Sophan, a deputy municipal governor.

“If we don’t have any countermeasures to solve the traffic conditions in Phnom Penh, we would have many challenges in the future.”

While the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s (PPWSA) share price continue to fall yesterday, a second state firm came a step closer to joining it on Cambodia’s nascent stock exchange by announcing plan to register by the end of July.

At a ceremony marking the first day of trading in the PPWSA on the Cambodian Securities Exchange last week, Finance Minister Keat Chhon urged two other public firms—Telecom Cambodia and the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port—to get on with their own long-delayed plans to list.

Yesterday, Lou Kimchhun, the port’s director general, said the firm expected to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) some time in July.

“We’ve finished about 60 or 70 percent of the required tasks. Based on discussions at a meeting at the Ministry of Finance, we will register in July,” he said.

“We still need to finish another year of auditing, which is nearly done. We will not get stuck with this job.”

To list on the bourse, firms have turn in three years worth of clean financial records.

After registering, the port would then carry out a book-building exercise in which the number and price of shares is set on the strength of investor interest.

After its own book building in March, the PPWSA put up 13 million shares—worth a total 15 percent stake in the firm—at 6,300 riel ($1.57) a share and generated more than $20 million with its initial public offering.

Mr. Kimchhun said he had no idea how much of the port would go public or how many shares it might issue. But he said the money would go toward boosting the port’s capacity for loading and unloading containers.

SBI Royal Securities in underwriting the Port’s planned listing.

As for the PPWSA, its share price dropped for the second straight day yesterday to 9,250 riel ($2.31) after hitting a high of 10,200 riel ($2.55) on Friday.

Trading volumes also took a dramatic tumble from nearly 543,000 shares on Monday to just 35,453 on yesterday.

SECC and securities firm officials attributed the downturn to a snowballing of investor sentiment after a modest jump in sellers.

“I think it’s mainly investor sentiment,” and not a reflection of the firm’s business fundamentals, said Han Kyung-tae, managing director of Tong Yang Securities, which prepared the PPWSA’s listing.

The dramatic drop in trading likely followed from the falling share price, added Larry Ng Shuen Fai, CEO of Cana Securities.

SECC Deputy Director-General Sok Dara sought to downplay minor technical problems affecting trading yesterday and Tuesday, but refused to explain what they were or what stage of the process they hit. “Now the system operates smoothly,” he said.

Mr. Han said trading on the first day was hampered by problems moving money from a client’s personal account to a riel-denominated trading account, but attributed it to the client’s own oversight.

Cambodia has made real progress in decreasing cases of malaria—already surpassing the Millennium Development Goal for malaria four years ahead of the 2015 target—but certain communities still face major challenges in combating the disease, officials said on World Malaria Day.

Although cases of malaria nationwide decrease by 20 percent during the first three months of 2012—with 19,049 cases recorded compared to 23,730 in the same period last year—Battambang and Pailin provinces had seen a 60 percent increase in infections, said Char Meng Chuor, director of the Ministry of Health’s National Center of Malaria Control.

“When you look at the trend, malaria in the whole country decreased 20 percent in the first three months of this year,” said Mr. Meng Chuor. “But Battambang and Pailin increased 60 percent because of mobile migrants,” he said, explaining that when people from malaria-free zones migrate to work in other areas, they do not know how to adequately protect themselves from the diseas.

And while malaria cases had decreased overall, deaths were up, with 25 people succumbing to the disease in the first three months of this year compared to 23 deaths in the same period last year. Kratie province has the highest death rate.

“In Kratie, seven cases died and most of them are from non-endemic areas so they do not have enough immunity,” Mr. Meng Chour said, adding that another problem was they many of the victims were cassava farmers who worked at night, when malaria-carrying mosquitoes are most active.

“The processing of cassava they do at night. They have mosquito nets but they don’t sleep,” he said.

The government is now attempting to educate this vulnerable group about malaria through television campaigns and community outreach programs, as well as by distributing mosquito nets to farms where lots of migrant laborers are known to work, he added.

Chum Rain, 43, a Kratie cassava farmer from Sambor district’s O’Krieng communie, said his son was treated for the disease at the local hospital recently.

“All we can do when we work at night is wear long sleeves and pants to protect ourselves,” Mr. Rain said. “I wasn’t afraid of malaria before, but now I always put up mosquito nets for our children before going to work. I never did that before.”

Cashew nut grew in Cambodia

As the end of this year’s cashew harvest nears, the yield in two major producing provinces has fallen compared with last year, officials and farmers said, while traders said that the price of the nuts had also dropped since last year.

In Kompong Cham province, this year’s harvest, which is nearly complete, is expected to yield 20 percent less than the province’s 2011 harvest, U Tainghy, an agronomy officer at the Kompong Cham provincial agriculture department, said.

Cashew nut fruit

He said that, based on the yield so far, the province’s 21,893 hectares of cashew land will produce 23,192 tons, compared with last year’s haul of 28,990 tons. “It has decreased because when the cashews were starting to flower in November and December, it rained a lot and destroyed the cashew flowers. Then in January and February it became dry and too hot, which also damage the crop.”

Taing Henghuor, 50, a farmer in Kompong Cham, said that his 5 hectares of land had only yielded 5 tons of cashews this year compared with 7 tons last year. “Last year, we were able to harvest until the end of May, but this year, we are nearly finished in April,” he added.

Cashew nut pie

In Ratanakkiri provinces, which has 15,000 hectares of land growing cashews, the crop was also expected to be lower, according to Soy Sona, director of the provincial agriculture department. He said that the harvest in the province would only be 6,250 tons, compared with 8,000 tons last year, and also attributed the drop to the unseasonal rains.

But Andrew McNaughton, chair of the Cambodia Organic Agriculture Association, said it was too early to tell whether the nationwide harvest would be lower this year, as different varieties of the nut flower are harvested at different times.

Peng Sroy, a cashew trader in Kompong Cham, said that the price that he gets for cashews from Vietnamese traders had fallen from 7,300 riel, or about $1.80, per kg to 4,300 riel, or $1.06, per kg.

Mr. McNaughton said that the fall in the price of cashews was only an adjustment after global prices for the nut rose dramatically last year.

Farmers are collecting their cashew nuts to sale to vender

Vender buy cashew nut from farmer

Tourists are on the top of Bak Kheng Temple - Mountain top

The number of tourist to Cambodia increase by 27.8 percent to almost a million people in the first three months of 2012, compared to the same period last year, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said.

“According to our new report, there were 990,000 tourist arrivals. We have received almost one million people for the first three month of this year,” said Mr. Khon on the sidelines of a tourism seminar at the Phnom Penh hotel.

In an attempt to increase the number of tourists, Mr. Khon said that the private sector should tap into the massive Chinese market.

“Hotels and restaurants in Cambodia need to have information in Chinese language… so that the Chinese will be able to understand it,” said Mr. Khon.

According to Kong Sopheareak, director of the Tourism Ministry’s statistics department, visitors from Vietnam increase by 36.8 percent in the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year.

Visitors from South Korea increased by 40.7 percent; and Chinese visitors increased by 32.9 percent over the same period, said Mr. Sopheareak, who did not have exact numbers on hand.

Aerial view of Angkor Wat temple - Siem Reap (Cambodia)

Tourists are looking down from the top of Bokor mountain (Kapot, Cambodia)

About 1.8 million Cambodian traveled to the coastal and northeastern provinces to celebrate Khmer New Year, a 50 percent increase compared with last year, Tourism Minister Thong Khon said.

Mr. Khon said Cambodians are starting to seek out other vacation spots besides the coastal provinces of Kho Kong, Kampot, Kep and Preah Sihanouk. Sites in the northeastern provinces of Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakkira and Mondolkiri appear to be a big draw for Cambodians, he said.

“This year, it increase to 1.8 million people over three days compared to just 1.2 million last year. They went to visit new tourism sites, while old destinations remained attractive. They went to beaches, Bokor Mountain, Chiphat ecotourism site in Koh Kng, Kratie and Stugn Treng,” said Mr. Khon.

Kep natural beach (Cambodia)

Kong Sopheareak, director of the ministry’s statistic department, said he had not received the official figures from the various provinces yet, but could confirm a general increase.

“The the coastal areas, we are still calculating the numbers, but I think it has increased more than any other area in Cambodia, by about 30 percent,” said Mr. Sopheareak. “The northeastern provinces went up by about 20 percent.

Nget Vitou, director of Ratanakkiri province’s tourism department, said the number of local tourist arrivals over the three-day holiday increased by 15 percent to 50,000 visitors, compared to last year’s 45,000 visitors, due to the improvement of road infrastructure.

“The people can come to the province because of the improvement and development of the road infrastructure,” said Mr. Vitou, adding that the construction of the 121 km tarmac road between Ratanakkiri and Stung Treng is about 60 percent complete, which would open the provinces up for more tourists.

Natural waterfall in Ratanakkiri (Cambodia)

Alex Khoo, resident manager of Bokor Mountain Resort in Kamport, also credited new roads up mountain for an increase in visitors over Khmer New Year, though he said there were no recorded numbers before this year.

“For the three days [Friday, Saturday, Sunday] in total, about 10,000 vehicles came up, including motorcycles. I would believe it’s more people than last year because this year, the road conditions have improved tremendously,” he said.

Giant lake Yak Lorm in Ratanakkiri (Cambodia)

Vattanac Tower - The world of difference is under construction

Slow demand for office space in Phnom Penh is leaving the owners of high-rise buildings constructed in recent years struggling to find clients, according to real estate experts. But construction of the Vattanac Capital Tower, $150 million, 36-story building slated to open its first 10 floors in June, cold spur more demand due to its superior quality, they said.

Canadia Bank Tower (32-story)

Sunny Soo, country head of global realtor Knight Frank, said that the Vattanak tower was a stand-out building when compared to existing towers in Phnom Penh that are struggling to fill space. “It’s a grade A building. It is one of a kind, it is a landmark, good design and has got a lot of international attention,” he said.

But he said the Vattanac building would have to remain competitive in terms of price. “The marketability is good, but how welcome the market is going to be is about the price—if it is above $25, it is going to be slow.” He said. “It is the medium and lower end spaces that get their return on investment, so they are becoming more and more important.”

The 32-story Canadia Tower, which opened in 2010 is still not full and has rented out 85 percent of its office space.

Thap Rehty, Canadia Tower’s general manager, said that though demand for high-grade space was slow, Vattanac could still do well if it provided good ample parking space and high security. “It depends on the market…they can take tenants from other building but the customers are limited,” he said.

Phnom Penh Tower (22-story)

David George, country head of the global realtor CB Richard Ellis, the firm managing the Vattanac property, said that demand of the building was high ahead of its preliminary opening in June.

“We expect that six months after completing construction in summer 2013, we wll fill half of that, so within a year and a half, we expect to fill 80 to 90 percent of the building,” Mr. George said. “I think that as the economy grows and companies become more wealthy and the Phnom Penh market becomes bigger and stronger, there will be a shift from lower grade villas into multipurpose offices.”

Mr. George said while the 22-story, 32,000-square-meter Phnom Penh Tower, which open last May, had reach only 55 percent occupancy, it was unrealistic to expect the building to fill overnight.

“These are young building; they take time to fill up.”

Vattanac Tower - The world of difference (after finish the construction)

Kinderagarten class in Cambodia rural area

The government must improve early childhood education, as schooling at a kindergarten level is vital in order for children to develop academically in later life, representatives of the Cambodian Independent Teacher’s Association (CITA) said.

A belief that early childhood education is not as important as schooling in later years is one reason that Cambodia lags behind many of its Asian counterparts in early childhood education, which is defined as ages 0 to 8, said CITA President Rong Chhun.

Cambodian alphabet for kindergarten class

Mr. Chhun was speaking at the launch in Phnom Penh of the Global Campaign for education’s 2012 Global Action Week, an international education network that every year works with unions and NGOs in more than 100 countries to organize a campaign to keep governments accountable on education.

“The objective of the campaign is to call on the state and the Ministry of Education to focus on early childhood,” said Mr. Chhun.

“If from the start of childhood, the child can’t get quality education, how can the child do well later at primary school or university?” he asked.

Between 2009 and 2010, only 15 percent of 3- to 4-year old and 38.9 percent of 5-year-olds in Cambodia were enrolled in early childhood education, according to data from the Education Ministry that was presented at the event.

The data also showed that a higher percentage of children are enrolled in urban than the rural areas.

Kindergarten student smiling through the class window

“There is a very interesting link between higher education and what’s happening at the lower grades. It is critical thinking—and where does that begin—at early childhood.” said John Friend-Pereira, CITA advocacy adviser.

“The first three years are the building blocks,” Mr. Friend-Pereira said.

The government could improve early childhood education by updating the curriculum, paying teacher better salaries and improving school resources, said Mr. Chhun, who added that kindergarten teacher currently earn about $18 a month.

The Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) of Cambodia announced plans to go public on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSC) as shares in the only firm yet to list—the state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSSA)—continue to rally on the bourse’s second day.

In a memorandum of understanding signed with Tong Yang Securities , which prepare the Water Supply Authority’s initial public offering (IPO), the  FTB gives the securities firm the first right to refuse the preparation of its own IPO—whenever that is ready.

“It will be in the future, but it is not at this time,” FTB General Manager Gui Anvanith said, refusing to be pinned down on a date.

Tong Yang Managing Director Han Kyung-tae said the FTB had engouh years of company data to meet the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia’s requirements, and that his own firm would take the bank up on its offer whenever it was ready to list.

“We will provide support or service when FTB is prepared or willing to go public,” he said. “But at this moment, there is no specific plan.”

While not the biggest bank in the country, observers said that the FTB’s reputation was good and getting better, and would likely make a popular bet among investors.

“The bank is pretty well managed and it is doing quite well,” said Dominque Catry, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia. But being less well know than the award-winning PPWSA would probably see it draw less investor interest as well, he added.

A securities firm official not authorized to speak to the media said getting a bank partly owned by the government listed on the bourse would help holster the government credentials, particularly when it comes to transparency and good governance.

“FTB is partly state-owned bank would show that the government is trying to be more transparent,” the official said.

Whenever FTB does decide to list, it may not be the only bank on the bourse. Acleda Bank has also signaled its intentions to issue an IPO but, like the FTB, remains noncommittal on a date.

Two other state-owned firms Telecom Cambodia and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, are expected to list by the end of the year.

But even they are unlike to prove as popular with investors as PPWSA—whose shares closed at 9,750 riels (about USD2.44) nearly 5 percent up from the day before and more than 50 percent up from the first day of trading on Wednesday.

Some have pointed to the country’s low connectivity  rate as a potential boon for future Telecom Cambodia stock. But Mr. Catry said the high number of players in the telecoms market and subsequent volatility could make it a risky bet.

Telecom Cambodia also saw its revenues fall 3 percent last year to $31 million.

Telcom Cambodia Director General Lao Saroeun attributed to drop to the year’s devastating earthquake off the coast of Japan, which damaged an undersea cable that brought overseas calls into Cambodia.

Cambodia stock Exchange

The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority will launch its initial public offering (IPO) today on Cambodia’s bourse, and investors and securities officials said that they expected the company to make a strong start to trading.

“Ordinary people, sate institutions and the private sector have been waiting for this day for a long time. Most people are still reluctant to join the market, but they will pay much attention,” said Hong Sok Hour, CEO of the Cambodia Securities Exchange, in an interview with Cambodian Television Network.

The Water Supply Authority is issuing 13 million shares, which accounts for a 15 percent share of the company. At $1.57 a share, the sale will generate more than $20 million.

Han Kyung-tae, managing director of Tong Yang Securities, the firm underwriting the Water Authority’s IPO, said the share price would only e allowed to rise 50 percent above its initial price and no more than 10 percent below in order to prevent wild swings in the company’s value.

“I expect the market demand will be very high,” he said.

A book-building exercise last month to set the initial share price saw investors ask for 17 times the amount of available stock.

Cambodia stock exchange

As was the case in Laos when the EDC Generation Public Company went public, investor said that they expected initial interest in the Water Authority to be strong.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see the stock close with a gain of at least 10 to 20 percent on the first day,” said Douglas Clayton, CEO of Leopard Capital, a private equity firm. “Leopard Cambodian Fund bought some shares in the IPO. At the right price, we could be tempted to buy more. The water Supply Authority is a good company.

Mr. Han said the share price could rally over the coming weeks, or even months, while investors rush to top up.

In Laos, which opened its own stock exchange last year, shares in the first two companies to list roughly tripled before settling down.

When Cambodia’s bourse launched in July, the exchange encountered technical difficulties during a dummy trade. Officials are hoping for better luck today, with Prime Minister Keat Chhon schedule to attend.

Two other state-owned firms, Telecom Cambodia and the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, are expected to start trading on the exchange by the end of the year, though no date have been set.

ACLEDA Bank head office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Cambodia’s largest bank, Acleda, is looking to get in early on Burma’s economic reawakening, with plans to open three microfinance branches in the country as soon as January, the bank’s CEO said.

In Channy said he discussed the plan on Monday with a visiting Burmese delegation headed by Nay Aye, the deputy governor of Burma’s national bank, who came to learn about how Cambodia’s banking sector had developed.

The visit follows the decision by Burma’s central bank earlier this month to float its national currency , the kyat, against the dollar. By-elections were also held in the country on April 1, during which Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party won parliamentary seats.

ACLEDA Bank Logo

Since President Their Sein was elected last year, Burma has been vigoriously pursuing foreign investors. Acleda is the first large company in Cambodia to announce its entry into the country.

“The market in Myanma is four times bigger than here and microfinance institutions are few; most of them are run by NGOs,” said Mr. Channy of the reasoning behind Acleda’s desire to enter Burma.

Still, Mr. Channy said the country had a lot of legislation to pass before foreign investors interested in commercial banking could start to do business.

“Current laws in Myanmar do not allow commercial banking yet; microfinance, yes,” he said.

Acleda Bnak has ample experience with building up operations inside a country slowly emerging from years of political instability. In 1993, Acleda started handing out microloans in Cambodia as an NGO before becoming a full commercial bank in 2003.

In Burma, Acleda’s three microfinance branches are planned for the cities of Mandalay and Rangoon and the southern Irrawaddy region.

Western Union service is availabe at ACLEDA Bank

Mr. Channy said the bank’s shareholders could approve the plan as soon as its next board meeting on Tuesday, paving the way for a formal application to Burma’s central bank and the first branch to open in January.

“We do not see a problem with human resources,” he said. “We can recruit there and train them in Cambodia.”

Mr. Channy said the expected successful recruits to spend up to three months in Cambodia training in skills such as doing background searches for borrowers.

As for commercial banking, Acleda and other foreign banks will have to wait until Burma passes new laws that lift restrictions on their entry into the country.

ACLEDA Bank Unity service

“If they allow joint ventures, there will be a lot of banks who will want to open there. The demand is high,” Mr. Channy said.

Ngoun Sokha, director general of the National Bank of Cambodia, said the Burmese delegation also paid a visit to the bank Monday. She did not meet with them personally but welcome their interest in taking any lessons from Cambodia.

“They want to learn from us and we are very pleased to provide any information and share any experiences,” she said. “I cannot say that we are more developed, but we are market oriented, so maybe we can share about that.”

At an European Union-Asean Business Summit in Phnom Penh last week, Winston Set Aung, and economic adviser to Burmese President Thein Sein, said new regulations for governing the country’s central bank were already being drafted.

The Ministry of Commerce is setting up a National Confederation for Rice Exporters to achieve Prime Minister Hun Sen’s target of exporting 1 million tons of milled rice by 2015.

The confederation will serve as an umbrella group to bring together various rice growers, millers and exporters’ associations in Cambodia to make the production and export of milled rice more efficient, according to a statement from the ministry dated Friday.

“The ministry will establish a confederation for rice export at a national level, aiming to encourage producer communities, transport service providers, bankers and rice exporters to discuss together to find a mechanism to push up Cambodia’s paddy rice production and exports to the world market,” the statement says.

Mao Thora, secretary of state at the Ministry of Commerce, said the confederation would like the milled rice industry to bankers who are looking for investments.

“If we don’t do this, our plan to export 1 million tons of milled rice will not be achieved,” he said.

He could not confirm the number of associations that would be brought together under the confederation.

A bilingual version of “Breaking the Silence,” a critically acclaimed play about the legacy of Cambodia’s genocide, will be stage for the first time in Rwanda this Saturday to mark the 18^th anniversary of the start of the 1994 genocide in the African nation.

The play written and directed by Annermarie Prins in 2009 and produce by Cambodia’s Amrita Performing Arts which has been widely shown in Cambodia’s provinces, will be performed in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, and two other cities.

In additional to the seven regular Cambodian cast members, two Rwandan actors will be joining the tour and will help to bridge the language gap by speaking in the local language, Kinyarwanda, according to a statement by the producers.

“It is an opportunity for two communities still coming to terms with the aftermath of genocide to explore the arts as a means of reconciliation,” said Fred Frumberg, executive director of Amrita Performing Arts.

“The artists have the opportunity to share in their crafts and tap into their parallel tools as theater makers who can make a difference in their communities, while the audience will hopefully be provoke and move to greater dialogue as they examine and experience the parallels in their recent histories.”

The play focuses on the stories of four women who survive the Khmer Rouge regime and three representatives of a younger generation, as well as themes of guilt reconciliation. There will be an audience discussion after each performance.

Radio La Benevolencija—a Dutch NGO that works in Rwanda, Congo and Burundi, producing educational television will broadcast the performance, which is being funded by the Dutch Embassy, the Open Society Foundation, and the Goethe-Institut.

“Despite the enormous differences in duration and type of genocide in Rwanda and Cambodia, the effects are similar. Just to name some: feelings of survivor’s guilt of loneliness, shame and isolation,” said the producers’ statement.

Elelction observer helps an old woman to vote the election

The Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel) has put out a call for 5,000 volunteers to sign up as observers for the June 3 commune elections.

A statement issued by Comfrel Executive Director Koul Panha called for “participant from diverse non-government organizations/associations/unions and university students to take part in the election processes, especially during the election and counting days.”

Kim Chhorn, senior program coordinator from Comfrel, said the organization was splitting observers into two groups: volunteers from Comfrel’s won network, which he said would hopefully reach 2,000 and the NGO Short Term Observers (NTSO) that  were called from in statement. He said the group is aiming for 5,000 NTSO participants.

Election monitoring groups have a monumental takes ahead of them with just three months to go until several million people flock to 18,107 polling stations across the country to cast their votes.

Comfrel is to oversee the training of the NTSOs, who have until May 14 to sign.

“We have many ways of training these observers,” Mr. Chhorn said. “We have e-planning, which is training using YouTube videos and CDs, and we will organize special classes for the training of trainers,” he said.

Hang Puthea, director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free Elections in Cambodia, aid budget constraints meant his organization would not be dispatching as many observers as hoped.

“We planned to have 7,000 observers, but we have the budget for only 3,000,” he said.

The National Election Committee (NEC) on Monday announced that it has spent $20,000 printing leaflets to be distributed among the 9.2 million registered voters.

NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha said the leaflets would explain how voters can find their names of on the  voter lists, along with other election-related information.

“Commune Election Committee officers will hand out this information to village chiefs, who will distribute them directly to voters at meetings, Mr. Nytha said.

NGO activities

Approximately 65 percent of the country’s 3,492 registered international and local NGOs are inactive, leaving only about 1,350 active NGOs in the country, according to a report issued by NGO network Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC).

The report, “CSO Contributions to the Development of Cambodia 2011,” also sates that an estimated $550 million is dispersed into the country by active NGOs, which employ an estimated 52,000 Cambodians.

“Since the mid-1990s, the number of CSOs [Civil Society Organizations] in Cambodia has grown exponentially, the report states. “Currently, there are 3,492 local and international organizations registered, leading some observers to say that there are too many of them and that the sector is unwieldy.”

However, the report goes on to say that the government’s figures on the number of NGOs are not kept up to date.

According to the report, 70 percent of local NGOs registered with the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are inactive, or no longer carry our any activities.” About 37 percent of registered international NGOs are also inactive.

“We are not disputing the government figures, said CCC Executive Director Lun Borithy during the report’s launch in Phnom Penh. “What we are saying is we want to facturalize the number of active NGOs in Cambodia that are serving Cambodia’s development.”

Mr. Borithy added that it is important that groups independent of the government keep tract of the NGO sector.

“It shows we do care about our sector and we do have documents to justify what we have done,” said Mr. Borithy.

“Now, to only have a single point of reference of the registered number of NGOs compared to the active NGOs and the activities that we are doing, it is an unfair assumptions on us,” he said.

Keo Phalla, member service coordinator at CCC, said that this revised number of active NGOs in the country could help the NGO community’s cause in opposing the implementation of a controversial draft law that seeks to regulate the country’s NGOs.

“Now, if we compare the number of NGOs that endorse our statement opposing the NGO law last year, it seems like it is now more than 50 percent,” said Mr. Phall, who said the statement had more than 700 NOGs listed as signatories.

Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGOs Forum, said the report was good overall, but lacked details on the source of NGOs’ funding.

“It is very important to show to the government that civil society organizations play a very important role to contribute to the Cambodia government. We exist to support the Cambodian government through various sectors,” said Mr. Sam Ath.

Phay Sipha, spokesman at the Council of Ministers, said that although he had not read the report, its information should be verified before its figures are trusted.

Mr. Siphan specifically took issue with the number of NGOs that the report claims are operating in Cambodia.