Australian mining firm begins drilling in Cambodia

(DPA)

28 November 2007


PHNOM PENH - Australia’s Southern Gold Ltd has commenced mining for gold in north-eastern Cambodia, the company said Wednesday.


In a statement also released to the Australian Stock Exchange, Southern Gold said it had started ‘its first drilling campaign in Cambodia’ at its 80-per-cent-owned Snoul Prospect in the south-eastern province of Kratie.

Southern Gold and another Australian mining giant, Oxiana Ltd, have taken out adjoining lots in the remote area with both reporting promising pre-drilling exploration findings on gold and base metals. Oxiana already operates the massive Sepon gold mine in neighbouring Laos.

Southern Gold - which like Oxiana also mines for base metals, including lead and zinc - said it expected first assay results in early 2008.

Environmentalists have expressed concern as mining companies flock to newly opened Cambodia, concerns the Cambodian government has said are unfounded.

Chinese mining companies are exploring for iron ore in the country’s north, and Australia’s BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, has reported promising finds in initial explorations for bauxite in the eastern province of Mondulkiri and also has interests in as yet untapped anticipated off-shore oil reserves.

Cambodia To Form New National Flag Carrier With Indonesian Firms

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: The Cambodian government signed a joint venture agreement with two Indonesian companies Friday (23 Nov) to form a new national airline to tap the country's growing tourism industry.

The new airline, which has yet to be named, is expected to begin flying in six months, the partners said.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint venture with officials from two Indonesia-based companies, the Rajawali Group and PT Ancora International.

"We will create an airline the country will be proud of," he said.

The new airline will be Cambodia's national flag carrier, its first since tough competition and mismanagement forced Royal Air Cambodge to shut down over five years ago. Air travel to and from Cambodia is currently dominated by foreign-owned airlines.

The Indonesian partners' businesses include cigarettes, cement, telecommunications, hotels, resorts, extractive minerals and airlines, a joint statement said.

The government will hold a 51% share in the new venture and its partners 49%, it said.

But since the two foreign firms are responsible for providing the capital for creating the new airline, they are entitled to total 70% of potential profit while the remaining 30% will go to the government, the statement added.

Peter Sondakh, chairman and CEO of Rajawali Group, declined to discuss other financial details of the new airline when asked by reporters.

But he said it will operate with "better aircraft and better service" to compete with foreign airlines.

"We envisage more and more travelers coming to Cambodia, and the new national carrier will become indispensable for the tourism market," said Vichit Ith, managing director of PT Ancora International.

Cambodia received 1.4 million visitors between January and September this year, up nearly 19%from the same period of 2006, according to statistics of the Tourism Ministry, which has also forecast that total tourist arrivals this year will exceed last year's 1.7 million. (AP)

FRANCE'S ALSTOM PLANS TO OPERATE TRAMS IN CAMBODIA

PHNOM PENH, Nov 26 Asia Pulse - A French firm has said it plans to operate trams in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, and Siem Reap to help reduce the number of traffic jams and ease air pollution, local media reported Monday.

Jean Lousiv Menuel, president of Alstom, presented his company's plan to run trams in Phnom Penh and later in Siem Reap province during a recent meeting between a French business delegation and Phnom Penh Municipal Governor Kep Chuktema, the Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper said.

The tram railways will maintain the environment and beauty of the cities, Jean Lousiv Menuel was quoted as saying.

According to the plan, a railway to be called Tranway will connect the outskirts of Phnom Penh to its downtown, from Phnom Penh International Airport to the center.

Kep Chuktema offered his support to the plan, saying that he hopes it will help reduce traffic jams in the city just as the number vehicles on the roads is markedly increasing.

The municipality will cooperate with Alstom to carry out a feasibility study, he said.

Water park plans for Cambodia

Plans to build a large water park near Angkor Wat, Cambodia have been revealed.

Creative Entertainment, an affiliate of Bridge Capital, announced it has secured a lease for an 35-hectare spot of land which it intends to develop into a visitor attraction called Kingdom of Dreams.

The development will be located in the town of Siem Reap, Cambodia and the will be built in two phases.

According to a spokesperson, the first phase will include an two-hectare, themed outdoor water park bordered by an interactive raft and tube ride that includes a series of rapids, lazy river sections, water blasters, and landings.

Other facilities at Kingdom of Dreams will include a 1,500-cover restaurant, an IMAX theatre, a 400-room hotel and small amusement park with dry rides.

Women warriors may have battled in ancient Cambodia

TOKYO (AFP) - Archaeologists have found female skeletons buried with metal swords in Cambodian ruins, indicating there may have been a civilisation with female warriors, the mission head said Thursday.

The team dug up 35 human skeletons at five locations in Phum Snay in northwestern Cambodia in research earlier this year, said Japanese researcher Yoshinori Yasuda, who led the team.

"Five of them were perfect skeletons and we have confirmed all of them were those of females," Yasuda told AFP. The skeletons were believed to date back to the first to fifth century AD.

The five were found buried together with steel or bronze swords, and helmet-shaped objects, said Yasuda, who is from the government-backed International Research Center for Japanese Studies.

"It is very rare that swords are found with women. This suggests it was a realm where female warriors were playing an active role," he said.

"Women traditionally played the central role in the rice-farming and fishing societies," he said. "It's originally a European concept that women are weak and therefore should be protected."

"The five skeletons were well preserved because they had been buried in important spots at the tombs," he said.

It was the first time that large-scale research was conducted on the Phum Snay relics, which were found in 1999.

It is believed there was a civilisation inhabited with several thousand rice-farming people between the first to fifth century.

Rebranding for TM Cambodia Its subscriber base to further expand strongly

PHNOM PENH: TM International (Cambodia) Co Ltd (TMIC) yesterday rebranded its cellular operation and expected the company to continue registering strong growth in subscribers.

The new brand identity, hello, will spearhead TMIC’s aggressive move to increase capacity through the setting up of more base stations throughout Cambodia and revamp its distribution network by introducing more hello points there.

The hello point is modelled after Telekom Malaysia Bhd's TM Point in Malaysia.

“The launch of the new hello identity is not only important but necessary to bring the brand to another level of business excellence,” said TMIC chief executive officer Yusoff Zamri.

Minister of Ministry Posts and Telecommunications of Cambodia (3rd from right) unveiling the new brand identity 'hello'. Next to him is Dato' Yusof Annuar Yaacob, CEO of TM International and Ir. Prabahar Singam, Director of TM International Cambodia (right).

“The change is timely to inject a fresh approach into the company as this marks the second year that TM International acquired full ownership of TMIC,” he said.

TM International bought 49% of TMIC from Thailand’s Samart Corp to fully own the Cambodian cellular company.

The rebranding encompasses not only a logo change but also an investment of US$150mil in the next two years to upgrade TMIC's network capacity and add 500 base transceiver stations for increased coverage in rural and urban Cambodia.

The expansion would see TMIC having close to 800 base stations, and bring its cellular service to 80% of the country’s population.

The company invested US$50mil last year to boost capacity to serve 500,000 customers. It had 283,000 customers at the end of third quarter this year.

Yusoff expects subscriber growth, which came in at 50% for TMIC’s 2006 financial year, would grow by an even higher rate in the current year ending December.

In a statement, TMIC said the new identity was also a strategic initiative to move the brand away from the previous shareholding arrangements with Samart.

“It signifies the change that the company is going through and moving forward,” the statement said.

TMIC said 150 frontline staff would undergo intensive training to improve their service delivery, adding that all 700 staff members would be trained by the end of the month.

Eight hello points would be changed and two more would be established by next year. All hello points in the country would be rebranded by next year.

The rebranding also aims to keep TMIC competitive and fresh as it prepares to take on more mobile operators that are expected to enter the Cambodian market as well as grow its current market share of about 18%.

Speaking to the media after the unveiling of the new identity, TM International Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Yusof Annuar Yaacob said that to increase market share, distribution needed to be fixed and owned by operators.

TMIC has one of the highest average revenue per user (Arpu) of US$9 per customer among the countries in the TM International stable. Its average Arpu is between US$4.50 and US$5.50 per customer.

The penetration rate in Cambodia is 15%.

TM International also hopes to increase its roaming partners to 450 by next year from 181 now.

Viet Nam and Cambodia vow to develop trade during visit

PHNOM PENH — Viet Nam and Cambodia should further develop co-operation in industry and trade and effectively implement signed bilateral and multilateral agreements and mutual development commitments to support regional and international integration.

The statement was made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen when receiving Viet Nam’s Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang in Phnom Penh on Monday.

On the same day, Minister Hoang was received by Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority Sok An.

Sok An expressed the need to strengthen co-operation between Viet Nam and Cambodia in industry and trade, especially in oil and gas exploration and exploitation. He affirmed that Cambodia was ready to boost oil and gas co-operation with foreign partners, including Viet Nam.

At a working session with Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on speeding up the construction of a 220kV transmission line between Viet Nam and Phnom Penh through the border Takeo Province as well as a 110kV power transmission system in the border Kompong Cham Province.

They also agreed to jointly implement projects in industry, mining and energy that are part of a co-operative programme approved at the 9 th session of the Viet Nam-Cambodia Intergovernmental Committee in Phnom Penh on August 21.

These include projects to build a hydropower plant on Se San River, establish a mineral exploitation joint venture and train labour for Cambodia.

Minister Hoang and Cambodian Minister of Trade Cham Prasit signed a memorandum of understanding stating that Viet Nam would allow Cambodia to enjoy tariff incentives and non-quota policies on 25 agricultural products.

The two ministers affirmed that two-way trade between Viet Nam and Cambodia would reach U$1 billion this year.

During its stay in Cambodia from November 4 to 6, the delegation worked with the Cambodia Development Council and attended the closing ceremony of the Viet Nam-Cambodia Trade Fair 2007 in Phnom Penh. — VNS

Tay Ninh to increase trade with Cambodia

(03-11-2007)

HCM CITY — The authorities of Tay Ninh Province plan to take advantage of the province’s excellent roads and proximity to major highways to build up trade and tourism with Cambodia, provincial officials have said.

Nguyen Van Nen, chairman of Tay Ninh People’s Committee, cited the Trans-Asia Highway, which runs through the province and links HCM City and Phnom Penh and is considered a gateway to member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The HCM Highway and the HCM City-Moc Bai expressway also run through the province and the road network is accessible to cars throughout the province.

Nen said local authorities would make greater efforts to fully tap these advantages to further develop two major border economic zones.

To attract domestic and foreign investors to the economic zones, provincial authorities have pledged to offer preferential taxes and land rentals and meet regularly with investors to settle difficulties.

The local authorities will focus on development of the two zones as a way to expand trade and tourism between southern Vietnamese provinces and ASEAN countries via the Moc Bai bordergate.

Provincial authorities said trade, industrial production, and the processing and tourism industries would be at the top of the investment agenda until 2020.

On the borderline

The Moc Bai border economic zone in the two districts of Trang Bang and Ben Cau covers 21,283ha and houses a 1,356-ha urban, trade and industrial ucentre.

Trade in the zone bordering Cambodia, established in 1999, has flourished as a result of the Government’s special tax exemption policy.

The zone has set up a duty-free office to sell goods for customers going through the Moc Bai border gate.

According to the province’s tourism department, the number of tourists travelling through the border gate has increased sharply in the last few years, opening up new investment opportunities. —VNS

Vietnam, Cambodia willing to boost cooperation

Vietnam and Cambodia should further develop cooperation in industry and trade as well as effectively implement signed bilateral and multilateral agreements and mutual development commitments to support regional and international integration.

The statement was made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen when receiving Vietnam ’s Ministry of Industry and Trade Minister Vu Huy Hoang in Phnom Penh on November 5.

On the same day, Minister Hoang was received by Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority Sok An.

Deputy PM Sok An expressed the need to strengthen cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia in industry and trade, especially in oil and gas exploration and exploitation. He affirmed that Cambodia is ready to boost oil and gas cooperation with foreign partners, including Vietnam .

At a working session with Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on speeding up the construction of a 220kV transmission line between Vietnam and Phnom Penh through border Takeo province as well as a 110kV power transmission system in border Kongpong Cham province.

They also agreed to jointly implement projects in industry, mines and energy that are part of a cooperative programme approved at the 9 th session of the Vietnam-Cambodia Intergovernmental Committee in Phnom Penh on August 21, 2007.
This includes projects to build a hydropower plant on Se San river, establish a mineral exploitation joint venture and train labour for Cambodia .

Minister Hoang and Cambodian Minister of Trade Cham Prasit signed a memorandum on understanding in which Vietnam allows Cambodia to enjoy tariff incentive and non-quota policies on 25 agricultural products.

The two ministers affirmed that two-way trade between Vietnam and Cambodia will reach 1 billion USD this year.

During its stay in Cambodia from November 4-6, the delegation will work with the Cambodia Development Council (CDC) and attend the closing ceremony of the Vietnam-Cambodia Trade Fair 2007 in Phnom Penh

US Cos To Build $1.8 Billion Highway Linking Vietnam Cambodia

HANOI -(Dow Jones)- Vietnamese and Cambodian authorities are working to allow U.S companies to build a $1.8-billion highway linking the two cities of Can Tho and Phnom Penh over the next two years, a local government official said Tuesday.

Vietnam's First Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has given the approval for authorities to work on the 110-kilometer highway linking Vietnam's Can Tho with the historic city of Phnom Penh, Le Tan Hoc, director of Can Tho city's transport department, said.

Global Ventures and KG America will bid to build under a build-operate- transfer model, the official told Dow Jones Newswires.

Under the model, investors build infrastructure, run it for a given period of time and then hand it over to the government.

Hoc said the highway is expected to have six lanes with a total width of 35 meters.

"Vietnam and Cambodia support this project, which will help boost trade in the region," Hoc said.

-By Nguyen Pham Muoi, Hanoi Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 844-8250732; phammuoi.nguyen@dowjones.com

Cambodia inaugurates Intelligence Department at Interior Ministry

Cambodia has officially established an Intelligence Department under the Central Security Department of the National Police General Commissioner's Office at the Interior Ministry, local media said on Saturday.

The department will collect information from abroad for purpose of national security, said newspaper the Phnom Penh Post.

The effort will include appointing operation officials attached to Cambodian embassies or other organizations overseas to perform intelligence services, it said.

It will also propose security measures to the Interior Ministry and cooperate with foreign intelligence institutions to exchange information and prevent international terrorism, it added.

Cambodia to build rail link to Thailand

Cambodia will build a rail link to Thailand after it received $US80 million ($A87.9 million) in funds from the Asian Development Bank and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Cambodia's transport minister says.

Work on the 48-kilometre connection between Sisophan in Cambodia and Poipet near the Thai border will start early next year and be completed by 2010, said Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol.

The funding will also cover improvements to other parts of the Cambodian railway system, he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of transport ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nation, or ASEAN.

The link between Cambodia and Thailand is part of plans for a 5,500km railway linking Singapore to Kunming, which was first proposed by ASEAN in 1995.

The project, which envisages connecting domestic rail networks to form a continuous link from Singapore to Kunming in China, is aimed at easing travel between various Southeast Asian countries and China.

Besides the connection to Thailand, Cambodia will also have to build 257km of tracks linking its capital Phnom Penn to Loc Ninh in Vietnam.

Sun Chanthol said the Vietnam rail link will cost around $US500 million ($A549 million) and his country was seeking funding for the project.

ASEAN, which groups Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, on Friday also signed a maritime agreement with China.

Cambodia coal plant planned

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand plans to co-invest in a new coal-fired power plant in Cambodia to source 3,000 megawatts under a project worth up to US$4.5 billion.

The new project is in line with Egat's plan to diversify its power sources across the region.

Acting Egat governor Santi Sarntijaree said the state enterprise was negotiating with potential investment partners.

''We expect the Chinese government will hold the largest stake. Other stakeholders will be Cambodian authorities and Egat,'' he said.

Under the agreement, Egat would buy all of the electricity generated from the project.

The project would require investment of $4.2 to $4.5 billion, or 142.8 to 153 billion baht.

The figure assumes an average cost of $1.4 million per megawatt.

The electricity from the project is scheduled to link with the Thai national power grid after the completion of the Hongsa lignite project.

Mr Santi said that the project is the first energy collaboration between Thailand and Cambodia after long negotiations.

Previously, the two governments discussed a smaller 1,400-1,600 mw project, but decided on a larger project for cost reasons.

''To buy power from neighbouring countries is our top choice to secure power to meet Thailand's growing demand, particularly in case we are unable to build more power plants,'' he said.

However, power supplies from neighbouring countries still account for less than 20% of total power generation in Thailand.

The mysteries of lefthandedness

The mysteries of lefthandedness
In pursuing the left-right riddle, scientists are unlocking secrets of the brain, genetics and human diversity.

By Faye Flam

Inquirer Staff Writer

Plato and Aristotle puzzled over lefthanders, as did Charles Darwin. What determines "handedness"? Why are only 10 percent of us lefthanded, and why did the ratio seem to change over the last century? Are lefties somehow different - less healthy, more creative?

With brain scanning and the latest genetic technology, scientists are finally starting to crack the mysteries. Lefthanders really are special, and the ways they differ are yielding insight into human diversity - especially how one person's brain differs from another's.

Searches for a lefthanded gene, meanwhile, are untangling the roles of nature and nurture in shaping our behavior, and revealing ever more subtle ways that DNA can influence but not determine who we are.

"Its a quirky phenomenon of humans, and people ask why it's relevant," says research geneticist Clyde Francks of Oxford University. "But this is taking us into a fundamental feature of the human brain."

"Lefthandedness is connected to a lot of neurodevelopmental disorders," says Daniel Geschwind, a UCLA expert in what is known as neurobehavioral genetics. People with autism and schizophrenia are more likely to be lefthanded, he says. "But with that risk, there is also gain."

Look at MIT professors or musicians or architects, he suggests, and you'll see a slightly higher percentage of lefthanders than in the general population. Neuroscientists are beginning to figure out why.

The brains of lefthanded people develop more freely in utero, they say, allowing the organization to stray more from the standard design.

In most people, experts say, the left hemisphere of the brain specializes in tasks that are performed in sequence, such as reading and speaking; the right does more holistic processing, like that needed for visual perception. Most people have a dominant left hemisphere, and since each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body, most of the population is righthanded.

For years, many psychologists assumed that lefties' brains were reversed, with language capacity concentrated in the right side of the organ. Subsequent work shows that is sometimes the case - but not always.

A large body of research shows the majority of righthanders follow the typical pattern, using the left hemisphere for language. Lefthanders' brains appear less predictable: About half have language abilities concentrated in the left, 10 percent in the right, and 40 percent make use of various regions on both sides.

Many animals are right- or left-pawed, or -footed or -flippered. Mice, for example, will consistently use either the right or left paw to press a lever. Unlike humans, however, most species are divided 50-50.

"Years ago geneticists tried to breed left- and righthanded mice," says Chris Walsh, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The offspring were still evenly divided.

In humans, handedness runs in families, though not in an easily predictable way. Lefthanders are about twice as likely as righties to produce lefthanded children, but most of their offspring will still be righthanded.

In the 1980s, psychologist Marian Annett of the University of Leicester in the U.K. came up with a mechanism by which a single gene could produce such a pattern. Genes often come in two or more forms, called alleles, and she suggested that one form might predispose people to righthandedness while another, less-common, form leaves it up to chance.

Since we get two copies of each gene - one from each parent - Annett calculated that even two of the less-common form would give you no more than a 50-50 chance of coming out lefthanded.

A few years ago, UCLA's Geschwind scanned the brains of identical twins, hoping to understand the connection between handedness, heredity and brain structure. He found that pairs of righthanded twins tended to share a more asymmetrical brain structure than did lefthanded pairs or mixed sets.

The finding backed the idea that genes either drive the developing brain toward righthandedness or leave it to chance.

No single righthandedness gene has turned up despite many efforts to find it. Three months ago, however, a team led by Oxford's Francks discovered one that may at least play a role. They found that lefthanders tend to share a variant of the gene they named LRRTM1, but it appears to influence handedness only if it is inherited from the father. (Genes whose dominance is contingent upon which parent contributes them make up about 1 percent of the total in humans.)

In either form, this gene is active in the developing brain. "It influences the way different regions wire up and find connections," Francks says. Its effect on determining handedness is small, and the geneticist believes several yet-to-be discovered genes are also involved.

Environmental factors - stigma, social pressure, possibly hormones - could nudge people one way or the other as well.

Other scientists are examining how LRRTM1 and other genes might tie lefthandedness loosely with all sorts of characteristics. Various studies have found weak but statistically significant associations between lefthandedness and schizophrenia, autism and even homosexuality.

Psychologist Ronald Yeo of the University of New Mexico thinks the common link is a kind of flexibility known as developmental instability. Roughly, this describes the tendency to get off track during development, he says, freeing some brains to vary from the majority design, with each component in its place.

That may allow for novel ways of arranging the brain. Perhaps only an unusual configuration can produce an artistic and scientific genius like Leonardo da Vinci, who was reportedly both lefthanded and gay.

Lefthandedness studies, Yeo says, "have proven to be an avenue into understanding more general issues in how human beings develop and where variation comes from." In doing that, they sometimes overturn long-held beliefs.

Yeo reanalyzed a study that relied on death records to show that lefthanders died an average of seven years younger than righthanders but found that its conclusions were based on the incorrect assumption that the percentage of lefthanders has remained steady over time.

A few scientists say their colleagues are looking at the mystery of handedness from the wrong perspective.

University of Toledo psychologist Stephen Christman was trying to connect handedness with preference for types of musical instruments when he made an unexpected finding: people who were very strongly right- or lefthanded preferred keyboards and drums, while those who were more ambidextrous gravitated toward strings.

"I realized that maybe what's important is not left or right but strongly one-handed or mixed," he says.

There is some evidence, he says, that mixed-handers have a wider connecting pathway - called the corpus callosum - between the right and left hemispheres. Having a wider connection seems to make it harder to do more than one thing at a time - playing a different rhythm with each hand, for example.

Christman has found that strong right- or lefthanders, on the other hand, are more likely to hold to set beliefs, such as creationism. He speculates that communication between hemispheres helps people revise beliefs.

None of this suggests mixed-, right- or lefthanders have a corner on creativity or genius. Researching an essay on the lefty guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who famously played a righthanded guitar upside down, Christman made a shocking discovery: the much-photographed Hendrix held a pen with his right hand.

It makes sense, says Christman, himself a lefthanded guitarist, if you consider that in "righthanded" guitars, the left-hand job of working the frets has grown increasingly difficult as both styles and design have evolved.

So why not see how it works the other way around?