Cambodia's art revolution reaches global market

Feb 29, 2012

By Ellie Dyer

DPA

Phnom Penh - From the artworks of the capital's burgeoning galleries to the distinct school of design evolving in the north-western town of Battambang, Cambodian art is increasingly reaching a global market.

Cambodia's home-grown artists are showing in major Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore. A season of Cambodian art is also planned for New York in 2013 while auction house Christie's is holding its first sale in the Kingdom in March.

Central to the buzz that artists are beginning to attract are the diverse influences that have shaped their lives and work.

'Artists have two obvious wells of inspiration: first, Cambodia's glorious history of highly detailed and ornamented temples and murals, and secondly, the naive, emotionally charged, post-Khmer Rouge, art-by-accessibility,' said Matthew Tito Cuenca, who is helping to organize Christie's charity sale on March 11.

The changes brought by rapid economic growth and development are also influencing creative minds.

'You are seeing artists responding to socio-political implications with a great deal of urgency,' said Kate O'Hara, manager of Romeet Gallery in Phnom Penh, who has seen increasing numbers of international collectors enter the country.

'The energy and motivation of these artists combine the traditional Cambodian visual linage with new aesthetics to reflect on contemporary issues that are local, but have global resonance.'

One such artist is Hour Seyha whose recent series Waiting for Sunrise explored his experience of child labour. In his early teens he worked in Thailand, at times illegally, to support his impoverished family. He returned to Cambodia alone at 15.

Hour, who is now in his early 20s, lived in an orphanage before eventually starting art classes at Battambang-based charity Phare Ponleu Selpak. The organization, which began in 1986 in a refugee camp, has helped develop a generation of raw talent.

Hour's highly emotive paintings - in muted yellows, reds and blues - are full of symbols of his time abroad. Footprints represent wounds; flip-flops illustrate slavery; red is a symbol of fear. 'I want to explain and make people understand about the issues in society,' he said at a recent public talk.

Fellow Phare Ponleu Selpak alumni Nov Cheanick, whose work is currently on display at the Four Rising Talents from South-East Asia exhibition at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong, is also exploring the nature of modern society, using images of US President Barack Obama in his Freedom series.

Christie's auction is to also focus on contemporary artwork with sale proceeds set to be donated to the non-governmental organization Cambodian Living Arts. It helps support Cambodian art forms from traditional dancing to puppetry, many of which were nearly wiped out under the cultural nihilism of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.

With paintings and sculptures from some of Cambodia's best-known artists up for grabs, auction organizers said international buyers are finding proxy bidders to snap up lots. Pieces set to be sold include work by contemporary sculptor Pich Sopheap and mask maker Sam Chanmonyroth.

In 2011, Christie's saw record sales of Asian art at 890.1 million US dollars, a 17-per-cent increase on 2010.

Christie's auctioneer Lionel Gosset is to travel to Phnom Penh to hold the sale. He said he believes that as Cambodia opens up, its 'rich artistic movement' will be seen.

'Young artists are already beginning to be recognized both in Europe and the United States,' he said.

'With quality work, recognition follows,' O'Hara said.

Cambodia's debt a concern

Construction work continues on a new Chinese-funded bridge spanning the Tonle Sap river yesterday in Phnom Penh. (Heng Chivoan)

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Don Weinland

The Phnom Penh Post

“And there have been a couple of examples where the work hasn’t been up to the quality it should be”

An International Monetary Fund and World Bank report has questioned Cambodia’s ability to deal with future financial crises if government borrowing increases.

While the report indicated that Cambodia was at low risk for severe debt problems, it highlighted the need for effective management of new debt and rapidly growing build-operate-transfer, or BOT, projects, which include the hydropower dams and road reconstruction conducted by Chinese companies.

This month alone, the Kingdom courted more than US$800 million in Chinese loans for infrastructure projects.

In two different speeches in February, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia would borrow $302 million from China for roads and irrigation systems, and would apply for an additional $500 million for similar construction.

The joint report estimated Cambodia’s debt to countries at about 28 per cent of gross domestic product for both 2011 and 2012.

Although debt levels were projected to increase from about $4 billion to $5.6 billion over the next four years, its share of GDP will decrease by about a percentage point to near 27 per cent.

Threatening to increase this otherwise sustainable share of GDP were the potential liabilities of BOT projects, should investment in the large-scale works be lost.

An additional 5 per cent of GDP would be added to the debt stock if investments in 10 per cent of the projects were lost, according to the report.

“It comes down to the quality of the infrastructure. If Cambodia gets a loan to build a road, and substandard materials are used, it then has to be rebuilt in a year’s time,” former ANZ Royal CEO Stephen Higgins told the Post this month.

The result is outstanding debt and further building costs.

“And there have been a couple of examples where the work hasn’t been up to the quality it should be,” he said, although he declined to name the parties responsible.

Liabilities posed by BOT projects do not always surface in the standard measures of an economy’s health, Olaf Unteroberdoerster, deputy division chief of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, told reporters during a press conference in December.

Unlike public debt, the projects are most often contracted to private companies and are not reflected in the national budget, he said.

“The issue here is, because these projects are undertaken by private-sector partners, these projects don’t directly go through the budget and affect the fiscal indicators … We do not necessarily have the full picture,” Unteroberdoerster said at the time.

Few statistics or studies have been conducted on China’s BOT work in Cambodia, Chheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said yesterday.

The lack of information has left the public in the dark on the costs and liabilities of the projects.

“Transparency is the key issue here,” he said.

China holds the largest bilateral loans to Cambodia, at 66 per cent at the end of 2010, the joint report showed.

In October, Cambodia owed more than $730 million to China at interest rates substantially higher than that owed to other sovereign creditors, according to information compiled by the NGO Forum on Cambodia.

Cambodia has proven its ability to weather financial crises, and the country can expect continued growth for the next few years, National Bank of Cambodia director general and spokeswoman Nguon Sokha said yesterday.

Ongoing diversification of the country’s economy has lessened its susceptibility to external shock, she said, adding that the risks mentioned in the report were all contingent on a future financial crisis.

“We are confident we will continue to grow in the short term,” Nguon Sokha said.

Trade with Malaysia up as exporters looks East

Bilateral trade between Cambodia and ASEAN member state Malaysia rose by 34 per cent year on year in 2011 to US$319.5 million compared to the year before, according to data from the Embassy of Malaysia in Phnom Penh released yesterday.

Experts noted the nearly 100 per cent increase in Cambodian exports to Malaysia signified a shift from dependence on Western markets.

The Kingdom shipped $65 million in crude rubber, cereal and garments, among other items, to Malaysia in 2011.

The exports represented a 95 per cent increase on the year before, statistics showed.

Recent boosts in inter-government relations accounted for an increase in confidence among businessmen and traders, director general of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce Ngoun Meng Tech said.

“I noticed that the two governments have a very good relationship. That’s a key point for increasing trade exchanges and investment from Malaysia to Cambodia in the recent years,” he said. “It also proves that we can have more markets in the region,” he added.

Malaysia’s main exports to Cambodia last year were textiles and clothing, metal products, processed food, chemical and beverages, data showed.

After Vietnam, Malaysia is the second biggest investor in Cambodia among ASEAN countries.

Malaysia invested $235 million in Cambodia last year, a jump of 41 per cent.

Most of the investments were in garment manufacturing, real estate and rice-milling sectors.

Economists yesterday noted the increase in trade of value-added goods as a positive sign that Cambodia was beginning to look into markets in its own backyard.

“That’s a good sign for the diversification of our exports. We have mainly exported unprocessed agricultural products into many countries in the region,” Chan Sophal, president of the Cambodian Economic Association, said yesterday.

Levi's, Gap garment workers on strike in Cambodia

By SOPHENG CHEANG
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

Workers at a large Cambodian garment factory that makes clothes for Levi's, Gap and other well-known international brands are striking for more pay and better working conditions.

More than 5,000 workers from the Singaporean-owned SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. failed to reach an agreement with their employers Tuesday to end an 11-day strike.

Ath Thon, director of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers, said workers are demanding an increase in their base pay of $61 a month for eight-hour days, six days a week.

He said they want a $5 salary hike and an extra $25 a month for transportation and housing.

SL Garment's website says it makes clothes for more than two dozen international labels that include J. Crew, Old Navy, Banana Republic, H&M and Levi's, whose website in turn lists the company as a supplier.

Cambodia's garment industry is the main foreign exchange earner for the poor Southeast Asian country. Its garment exports in 2011 were worth about $4.3 billion.

"We will not stop our strike until our problems are solved," said Teng Ry, 24, one of thousands picketing the factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

He said workers were regularly required to work on their one day off a week or denied sick days and ordered to work up to 16-hour shifts.

Long shifts are compensated with overtime pay but factory owners are not respecting Cambodian labor law by requiring employees to work against their will, he said.

Eah Chip Eang, the personnel manager for SL Garment Processing, said he regretted that a bargaining session with worker representatives, union officials and social affairs ministry officials failed to reach an agreement.

He accused the union representative of refusing to negotiate, and said the workers' demands were too much for the company to accept, even though the demand for $25 for transportation and housing had been reduced to $10.

He also denied that his company forces workers to work against their will and up to 16 hours per day, while acknowledging that some do work overtime.

Cambodian PM halts land sales to private firms

Cambodia has temporarily stopped granting land rights to privateers following protests by evicted residents and the killing of a prominent activist investigating illegal logging.

Prime Minister Hun Sen made the announcement on Monday during a UN envoy visit that wanted to look at the "impact on the human rights of local communities" of selling land to private firms.

The decision also comes less than two weeks after Natural Resource Protection Group director Chun Wutty was shot dead by military police - widely believed to have been in the pay of Timbergreen logging firm.

Mr Sen has not said how long the suspension would last but added that licences will be revoked from companies that use their land improperly, such as selling on the land and illegal logging.

Allegations of land-grabbing by big businessmen tied to corrupt officials have plagued land sales and triggered violent clashes when residents were forcefully evicted.

Cambodian human rights organisation Licadho released a report in March which said that Cambodian, Vietnamese and Australian private logging and agricultural firms now control nearly 10 million acres of land in Cambodia - about 22 per cent of the country's total land area.

It said that granting land to privateers was at the centre of chronic land disputes.

In one case earlier this year, private guards shot and wounded at least four people when group of 100 villagers who were trying to stop bulldozers from destroying their cassava plantation.

Licadho president Pung Chhiv Kek called for the government to ensure equity, transparency and fairness in land rights.

He said: "At the moment, it is largely the rural poor who are feeling the brunt of land grabs.

"But it can only be pushed so far before it consumes the society as a whole, which is bad not only for ordinary Cambodians, but also for investors and others who are ostensibly benefiting from land redistribution."

Cambodia suspends land grants

Cambodia's government has suspended the granting of land to domestic and foreign companies in a bid to curb forced evictions and illegal logging.

The authorities have faced mounting criticism from rights groups and the United Nations over forced evictions that have sparked protests around the country.

The recent police killing of well-known environmental activist Chut Wutty has added to the controversy.

Prime Minister Hun Sen says the government will take back land from any firms that breach their lease by grabbing villagers' property and illegal logging.

The move comes as UN special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia Surya Subedi is in the country to examine the impact of land concessions on local communities.

Vietcong investment in the Se San Hydroelectric project in Cambodia: $806 million

Firms invest $2 billion in foreign projects 


January, 30 2012
VNS (Hanoi)

HCM CITY — Vietnamese companies are investing in more overseas projects, with total registered capital amounting to US$2.12 billion last year, according to figures from the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The investments were for 75 new overseas projects licensed in 2011, and 33 other projects already operating abroad.

The biggest of the overseas projects were in the energy and telecommunications sectors, an MPI report said.

Major projects licensed in 2011 include the Se San Hydro-Power No. 2 Project in Cambodia with total registered capital of $806 million from the Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN); a $408 million telecommunication project invested by the Vietnamese Military Telecommunications Group (Viettel) in Peru; and the $275.2 million Se Kong 3 Hydro-power Project invested by Song Da (Black River) Corp in Laos.

Most of these overseas projects are progressing smoothly. These include a project to cultivate 10,000 ha of rubber trees invested by Dak Lak Rubber Co; a project to cultivate 5,000 ha of rubber trees to be exploited by Hoang Anh – Gia Lai later this year; and a $273 million Senkaman Hydro-power project No. 3 invested in by Song Da Corp. in Laos.

By the end of 2011, Vietnamese firms had invested in 627 projects abroad, with total registered capital up to $10.8 billion.

Disbursements of these overseas projects are estimated at $2.7 billion.

The largest disbursements for overseas investment projects were made by Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) with some $347 million remitted, followed by Viettel with $185 million; Song Da Corp. with $161 million; Viet Nam Rubber Corp. with $134.6 million; Hoang Anh – Gia Lai Group with $39 million, and Indochina Green JSC with $23.7 million.

Vietnamese companies have been licensed for overseas projects in 55 countries and territories.

In addition to major investments for projects in neighbouring countries such as Laos and Cambodia, investments from Vietnamese companies are also in Venezuela, Russia, Peru and Mozambique.

Ways to ease Cambodia’s path into the global rice trade

By David Van 
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

Dear Editor,

From an insignificant tonnage of milled rice officially exported for the first time in 2008 to 60,000 tonnes in 2010 and growing exponentially to 170,000 tonnes in 2011, Cambodia at a first glance seemed to be back on the world stage of the global rice trade.

The Royal Government of Cambodia’s Rice Policy – launched in August, 2010, followed by a progress report undertaken at the end of 2011 for further recommendations – has certainly encouraged more foreign and local investments in the milling sector to enhance in-country capacity as an attempt to retain added value domestically.

One should be heartened by the increased export figures for 2011, as the growth in Cambodia’s rice exports was mainly due to circumstances under which the European Union and Russia granted tax-free status for rice of Cambodian origin.

Cambodian milled rice surely has room to improve in competitiveness compared with Thailand and Vietnam, its neighbouring giant rice producers and competitors, in the following areas:

By working on the ability of Cambodian rice exporters to single-handedly take on substantial shipments of 20,000 tonnes with better financial ability, better port infrastructure and making use of the under-utilised waterways in this country;

By improving corporate management of the mills to tackle, and control, actual cost at every step of the milling process and reduce substantial wastage resulting from the inadequate, antique equipment still in use across the country through the modernisation of machinery;

By working with the relevant public institutions to rapidly create a national standard. At the moment, Cambodian rice is deprived of the ability to command better prices because the majority of overseas buyers are still wary of inconsistency in both supply and quality; and

By entering into partnerships to raise financial resources for the procurement of all paddy rice produced every single year in Cambodia. This would avoid farmers having to sell their paddy to traders/collectors who re-export it informally to Thailand and Vietnam, resulting in a loss of added value captured in-country and leading to speculation that makes paddy prices uncontrollable.

The Royal Government of Cambodia’s latest progress report points to the need for the private sector to improve in the area of corporate management and governance.

Although local commercial banks have eased their requirements for loans to millers and exporters a little, it’s still insufficient to allow the rice sector to shift to a higher gear.

Cambodian millers and exporters must embrace a new mindset of mutual collaboration to overcome the current fragmented supply chain.

The formation of clusters, co-operatives or associations (whether informal or formal) would increase their ability to pool resources to tackle serious tonnage for shipments and learn better management techniques to control cost, thus narrowing the huge price disparity with neighbouring countries.

David Van

Phnom Penh

No oil on 12-12-12!!! Oil production delayed

Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Tom Brennan 
The Phnom Penh Post

The Kingdom’s much-hyped deadline of tapping its first oil reserves by December 12, 2012 – or 12-12-12 – will not be met, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Chevron Overseas Petroleum (Cambodia) Ltd, which is now exploring the Kingdom’s offshore Block A in the Gulf of Thailand, has notified the Cambodian government that no oil extraction would take place this year, the spokesman said.

“2012 is not possible,” Ek Tha, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said yesterday by phone.

A representative from Chevron early this month met with the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority to deliver the news, he said, though the reasons for the decision were not discussed.

Ek Tha would not disclose the name of the Chevron representative, although Chevron Overseas Petroleum (Cambodia)’s current president is Steve Glick, who arrived in Phnom Penh last April.

While a new tentative schedule was raised at the meeting, neither party was ready to announce a new deadline for oil production in the Kingdom, Ek Tha said.

The Cambodian government and Chevron plan to release a joint statement on the status of Block A and their partnership sometime in the first quarter, according to Ek Tha.

When asked if the Cambodian government was frustrated by the delay, as Prime Minister Hun Sen at one point had threatened to cancel Chevron’s contract if oil was not produced by 12-12-12, Ek Tha said both parties remained committed to extracting oil from Block A.

“We want to have oil produced as quickly as we can, but we have to work with Chevron as a partner,” he said.

“We want the oil and gas to come out to serve the social development of Cambodia, and the Cambodian people want to see that happen.”

Gareth Johnston, Chevron International Pte Ltd’s Asia Pacific media advisor based in Singapore, responded to questions yesterday by email, saying: “We are continuing to work with the Royal Government of Cambodia to move the Block A project towards a final investment decision.”

He did not answer questions about Chevron’s meeting with the Cambodian government, what prompted the delay or when the company expects to produce oil in Block A.

Chevron (Cambodia)’s Steve Glick told the Post in August that the company believed Block A was financially viable, though “relatively small”.

He also noted that Block A was technically changing to drill. The block’s oil is spread out among smaller pools, rather than one large reservoir, making it harder to reach, Glick said.

While he would not at the time provide details of any potential production of Block A, he did say that Chevron had drilled 18 wells and invested US$160 million exploring the area.

“Technically, Chevron’s ready to go … And we’re working through the remaining issues with CNPA with the target of getting a final investment decision this year,” Glick said at the time.

Japanese firms undertake oil exploration study in northern Cambodia

January 31, 2012

PHNOM PENH (Kyodo) -- Two Japanese oil firms beganseismic acquisition studies in Cambodia on Tuesday to explore for oil and gas reserves in three northern provinces.

Cambodian government spokesman Phay Siphan said the state-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. and Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. started the seismic acquisition operation in Tbeng Meanchey, Preah Vihear Province.

The operation will be conducted in a total area of 6,500 square kilometers in Preah Vihear, Siem Reap and Kompong Thom provinces, Phay Siphan said.

JOGMEC Executive Director Akira Suzuki told Deputy Prime Minister Sok An in a meeting Monday that the operation will roughly take four months to complete, according to a Cambodian official who attended the meeting.

JOGMEC has performed airborne magnetic and gravity surveys in Cambodia since 1996. Seismic acquisition interpretation is one of the first steps of oil and gas exploration