Soaring oil prices are threatening the prospects of millions of the region's poor, and Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable, according to a UNDP report
- From: Chim <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 27 Oct 2007 01:11:06 -0700
In Brief: Oil and the Poor, an Intern First, Debt Swap
News Brief, VOA Khmer
Washington
26 October 2007
Soaring oil prices are threatening the prospects of millions of the
region's poor, and Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable, according
to a UNDP report issued Friday. As oil prices climb, the impact on the
poor may worsen, warns the report, "Overcoming Vulnerability to Rising
Oil Prices." Oil prices have tripled in the last four years, and
absorbing the growing price is a staggering issue for poor Southeast
Asian countries, Hafiz Pasha, UNDP Regional Director for Asia and
Pacific, said at the launch of the report in Bangkok. The Oil Price
Vulnerability Index developed in the report ranks countries in terms
of their economic strength and extent to which growth depends on
imported oil. Countries ranked most vulnerable were Cambodia, the
Maldives and Sri Lanka. Between 2002 and 2005, the UNDP found an
average household paid 74 percent more for energy needs. This included
171 percent more for cooking fuels; 120 percent more for
transportation; 67 percent more for electricity; and 55 percent more
for lighting fuels.
Third-year journalism student Chhor Yi Eung finished a three-month
internship Friday at the office of Dr. Horst Posdorf, a German member
of the European Parliament, becoming the first Cambodian to complete
such an assignment within the European Parliament. Chhor Yi Eung, 23,
also worked in the governing body's press department, where she was
tasked with studying European Parliament by attending meetings, public
hearings and writing articles and reports. The program was made
possible by a partnership between the Department of Media and
Communications of the Royal University of Phnom Penh and the German
aid agency the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation.
Outgoing Polish Ambassador Habil Ryszard Olszewski announced Friday
Poland plans to erase Cambodia's foreign debt, on the condition the
money be used to preserve Angkor Wat. Poland will also continue to
back Cambodia for a place on the non-permanent committee of the UN
Security Council, a Polish embassy consul said. The spokesman declined
to disclose the total amount of Cambodia's debt to Poland, but
government statistics put Poland's contribution for 2006 alone at
around $10 million. Poland also donated armored personnel carriers to
Cambodia in 1995. The countries first established diplomatic relations
more than 50 years ago, and Poland was the first to answer the call of
Cambodia's newly installed Vietnamese-backed government in 1979 to
assist in preserving the Angkor Wat temple complex.
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