Kon BambooSchoot

Two Funcinpec governors ousted in post-poll reshuffle, NRP not seeking govt coalition deal: official and New $4b dams in planning
CPP continues to remove senior officials from increasingly junior coalition partner Funcinpec and has filled the posts with its own loyalists

TWO Funcinpec governors have been removed from their posts in Sihanoukville and Kampot and replaced by the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) deputy governors in a ceremony Thursday as part of the post-election drive to switch royalist officials with those from the ruling party.

Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak has been replaced by his deputy, Sboang Sarath, and Kampot Governor Thach Khorn will be succeeded by his deputy, Khoy Khunhuor.

Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng attended the handover ceremony.
Sak Setha, director general of general administration at the Ministry of Information, said that the two newly promoted CPP stalwarts have been serving in their provinces for years.

"The government has no more plans to reshuffle the provincial governor positions," he said.
Say Hak said that as a public servant he respected the government's decision to change positions and is happy to accept whatever post he will be offered in the future.

Tired of the job?
"I stayed here [as Sihanoukville governor] long enough," said Say Hak, who served in the position for seven years.
"I don't mind, and I am prepared to leave."

It is unclear what position Say Hak is likely to receive in the new government, which will be sworn in on September 24.
According to the draft list of new government positions, Kampot's Thach Khorn has been appointed secretary of state at the Ministry of National Assembly-Senate Relations and Inspection.

All Funcinpec ministers, provincial governors and ambassadors have lost their posts following the July 27 general election, in which the CPP won a resounding majority in parliament.

The Interior Ministry's Sak Setha said that the government has appointed one additional provincial deputy governor for Siem Reap, taking the number of governors and deputy governors in the province to 13.

NRP not seeking govt coalition deal: official
THE Norodom Ranariddh Party is not seeking a coalition government deal, its officials said Thursday, denying earlier reports that it wanted a partnership with the ruling Cambodian People's Party.

NRP spokesman Suth Dina said the party's priority was securing the return of its leader, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who remains in self-imposed exile in Malaysia, where he fled in 2007 under a cloud of legal troubles.

"What we are worried about is the fact that the Prince is absent from the country," Suth Dina said, adding that the party never requested a coalition deal with the CPP.

"What we need first is help for Ranariddh," he said.
The NRP, created after Ranariddh was ousted as head of Funcinpec, won two seats in parliament in last month's general election. A new government is expected to be sworn in on September 24.

The NRP had initially rejected the election results, along with Cambodia's other opposition parties, but then abruptly endorsed them in what some observers saw as a bid to pave the way for the Prince's return.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told the Post Thursday that the CPP's overriding goal was to create a government alongside a faction of Funcinpec that remains loyal to the ruling party, adding that the NRP was not welcome.

"We will watch the NRP for a couple more years and if they have a similar platform and vision as us, we will agree to take them," he said.

According to official election results released Tuesday, the CPP won 90 of the National Assembly's 123 seats, more than enough to form a government on its own.

New $4b dams in planning
Proposed 10 dams will boost irrigation, generate electricity
THE Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology has begun preliminary studies for the building of a series of dams across four provinces.

"We are planning to build more than 10 dams and related irrigation systems in four northwestern provinces to ensure rice production during both the rainy and dry seasons," Veng Sakhon, secretary of state for the ministry, told the Post this week.
The proposed dams would provide the country with a more modern irrigation system as well as generate electricity for rural communities, he said.

However, other dam projects have come under fire for their impact on the environment and lack of transparency.
The ministry aims to build four dams in Pursat province that would supply irrigation to more than 35,000 hectares of land and generate as much as 300 megawatts of power for local communities. Other proposed dam sites include locations in Battambang, Kampong Chhnang and Banteay Meanchey provinces, and the ministry is consulting with engineers from China and South Korea, Veng Sakhon said.

He added that the government must look outside the country for the money needed to complete the ambitious project.
"We will need more than US$4 billion," he said, adding that the ministry is still in the preliminary stages of planning the massive projects.

Chan Tong Yves, secretary of state for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said Cambodia must improve its irrigation systems to meet greater agricultural and export demands. "We have suffered drought in some areas, but nothing serious yet," he said.

Meas Sotheavy, head of the statistics office at the ministry's Planning and Statistics Department, said only a relatively small portion of Cambodia's rice fields is irrigated.
"Now, only about 30 percent of rice paddies are connected to irrigation systems. We'd like to get that number to 40 percent by the end of this year," she said.