| By Laurent Le Gouanvic | | | 27-07-2009 | 
Chom Chao (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). 10/03/2009: Workers of a garment factory who were laid off come to receive half their salaries
©John Vink/Magnum Economic forecasts for 2009 in Cambodia, which were hardly optimistic, unfortunately seem to be confirmed as the months go by. As the first 2009 semester has just ended, several studies highlight that the Kingdom, which is among the poorest countries in Asia, is bearing the brunt of the economic crisis. First affected, Cambodian poor families have become poorer during the last months, much more than what neighbouring countries have experienced, according to the findings of an investigation carried out by a private society. The conclusions are even more worrying as another report, realised under the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, expresses concern over the increasing number of women, including former garment industry workers, who prostitute themselves to survive.
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| By Ros Dina | | | 24-04-2009 |  Svay Rieng (Cambodia). 16/08/2007: Public hospitals in Phnom Penh will become Referral hospitals. For hospitals in the provinces, like the Svay Rieng ‘referral hospital’ above, the reform will have to wait ©John Vink/ Magnum
A small revolution is on its way in the Cambodian public health system. Indeed, by the end of this year, no less than four public hospitals in Phnom Penh will become autonomous. The law, which has already been adopted and enforced for several years at Calmette hospital will progressively be extended by the Ministry of Health to the National Paediatric Hospital, the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, Kossamak Hospital and the National Maternal and Child Health Centre. Consequences for those institutions are that they will be able to manage their budget themselves in a much more flexible and reactive way, but they will also be in charge of more responsibilities. Here is a little explanation, by the main protagonists in this major change.
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| By Ros Dina | | | 03-04-2009 |  Chom Chao, Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 06/09/2009. Unemployed person living in cheap accommodation for garment workers, located in the vicinity of his workplace
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| By Ros Dina | | | 23-03-2009 |  Kep (Cambodia). 11/01/2008: Back to empty beaches? ©John Vink/ Magnum
The tourism sector has been the spearhead of Cambodia’s economic growth over the past decade, but will it be spared by the economic crisis which affects the Kingdom? The Cambodian Ministry of Tourism and representatives of the tourism industry show their optimism and claim they only fear, at worst, a slowdown in the frenzied growth which the sector went through since the end of the 1990s. Minister of Tourism Thong Khon recently told Ka-set that the number of tourists in January 2009 had “only” gone down by 2% compared to this time last year when 223,581 tourists, out of an annual total of 2.1 million, entered the Cambodian territory. Generally speaking for the year 2009, the Minister plans a growth rate situated between 0 and 2%, quoting predictions made by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO). However, small enterprises and those living on little jobs in that sector do not agree with the figures.
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| By Corinne Callebaut | | | 18-03-2009 | 
Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 26/02/2009. A Cambodian Buddhist monk is reading international news on the Internet.
©Vandy Rattana
Mid-February, the news was broken and circulated by most economic media in France: Alcatel-Lucent was chosen by Chuan Wei to set up a national WiMAX Rev-e network in Cambodia. The new technology, somehow the big sister of WiMAX Rev-d already operational in Cambodia and used by many Internet Service Providers (ISPs), would not just allow a simple home connection in a restricted perimeter of a few hundred yards – like Wi-Fi (wireless transmission) in a slightly more powerful version – but would also allow users to access the Web via a high-speed wireless connection, and move around, for example out in the street, thanks to a mobile phone or a laptop computer. Thinking with optimism, Chuan Wei even plans to gather a million subscriptions in the space of two years, starting with the launching of services in mid-2009. The thing is, WiMAX Rev-e seems idyllic and some Internet specialists in Cambodia prove more than cautious towards this new telecommunications technology. For instance, having to equip oneself with a modem or the appropriate equipment that would support WiMAX technology might not be on the plus side of the newcomer. Besides, some point out that this technology might be difficult to set up if in the end, the connection is bound to be worse than regular DSL or fibre-optic broadband Internet. On a developing and much competitive market, the struggle affects technologies as much as the world of communications.
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By Doris
By John Vink
By Doris