Q1. This is the 50th
Anniversary of diplomatic relations with Cambodia.
Could you explain us briefly the historical development
of those relations?
A1. As you said, this is the 50th Anniversary
of diplomatic relations for our two countries.
But, because of the civil war period, which lasted
almost three decades, I will talk more about our
relations after this period. Of course, before
the turmoil we had normal and good relations,
but because of the Pol Pot regime we had to close
our embassy in 1975 and re-opened it in 1992.
I would say that our bilateral relations are
very good. I would even say that it is especially
good when I compare with bilateral relations between
Japan and other countries, even in Asia. This
is mainly because when Cambodia tried to seek
peace the Japanese diplomacy was very much involved
in that peace process, during the late 1980s,
as part of an international effort to bring peace
in Cambodia.
Japan played a unique and important role. Many
diplomats, government officials and political
leaders from Japan were engaged at certain important
stages of the process of negotiations to establish
peace. Japan also tried, together with France
and other countries, to organize international
conferences to establish peace. After the peace
agreement in Paris, the country was not very stable
yet; internal conflicts continued and then the
UN came in to establish UNTAC. The Japanese national
Mr. Akashi represented UNTAC; of course he's not
a Japanese government official, but because of
his nationality the Japanese people closely followed
the UNTAC's work. As you may remember, the Japanese
government sent its first ever peacekeeping forces
abroad to Cambodia.
Japan is a country whose public opinion is strongly
pacifist, so when the Japanese government decided
to play a more active role internationally, during
the late 1980s, the public opinion in Japan was
against anything related to war. That explains
why, when our government tried to enact a law
enabling Japan to participate in overseas peacekeeping
operations, this first endeavor failed. But after
that, the government re-submitted a new draft
law and our parliament successfully passed it.
Based upon this law, Japan sent its first peacekeeping
operations abroad to Cambodia. This strongly impressed
the Japanese, and Cambodia became very close to
the heart of our people.
After the successful elections administered by
UNTAC, Cambodia established its first after war
government in 1993. The major task was then to
reconstruct the country. Since that time, Japan
has been the top donor; we have assisted Cambodia
in their efforts of reconstruction in diverse
ways and I can say that the whole country is very
thankful for the Japanese assistance.
Q2. As you said Japan is one of the main donors
to Cambodia. This falls into the ODA policy, Could
you give us the main lines of this policy?
A2. If we go back to an earlier period,
it had been a long and consistent policy of the
Japanese government to help the economic development
of Asian countries. In the 1970s and through the
1980s, the Japanese economy rapidly grew and our
government has made a series of five-year plans
to double our assistance to developing countries
in the world, and especially in Asia through our
ODA.
We considered first the organization called ASEAN,
as the central group of countries in Asia. Our
close relations with ASEAN countries started 30
years ago. In 1977, the former Prime Minister
Mr. Fukuda made a very clear policy speech in
which he underlined that Japan would consider
ASEAN countries as equal partners for development
and to establish peace and stability in this area.
We increased our ODA to this particular region
in Asia year by year. I think we can say with
confidence that the massive contribution of our
ODA, for these original ASEAN countries, helped
their economic development rather substantially.
This is the case for countries such as Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia.
We consider that our policy was very successful.
At present day, we continue to help the ASEAN
countries as the central core group of Asia. ASEAN
has become larger; now they are 10 member countries.
The most important agenda of ASEAN today is what
they call IAI or Initiative for ASEAN Integration.
This means that they are committed to fill the
gap of development between the original ASEAN
countries and the latecomers: Vietnam, Myanmar,
Laos and Cambodia. The Japanese government has
now a clear policy of helping this important agenda
of IAI. This means that we have to continue to
give assistance to ASEAN countries and particularly
those new members.
Q3. Cambodia lies in a strategic place for
ASEAN, it is more or less the center of Indochina.
What are your expectations for the development
of this country?
A3. I consider that among these Indochina
countries, Cambodia is by far the least developed.
It is far behind the other countries. I can show
it to you with some statistics; when we compare
some economic and social indicators like the per
capita GNP, the ratio of sewage systems, the percentage
of paved roads, access to safe water, infant mortality,
etc
, we see that those indicators show that
Cambodia is the lowest in this sub-region. Even
Laos, which is a very poor country, lies ahead
of Cambodia.
This is due, of course, to the decades of war
and instability. I traveled extensively in the
country through all the provinces and I was impressed
by the extreme poor conditions of economic infrastructure;
roads and bridges. I even saw a bridge which was
destroyed by the US bombing during the late 1960's
and has not been repaired since then. Since Cambodia
went into the civil war in 1970 the roads and
bridges were also destroyed and had not been rehabilitated.
It was only in 1998, when this country really
obtained peace and stability that they have been
able to work on their infrastructure rehabilitation.
It is only four years ago that Cambodia really
started the reconstruction efforts. Not only physical
infrastructure, but also legal and administrative
systems were destroyed during the war.
You also have to consider that human resources
have been destroyed, especially during the Pol
Pot regime; they often say 1.7 million people
died then, and most of them were intellectuals
and engineers who could carry out the development
of this country. Because instability kept on until
1998, the people didn't access to "normal
education". Therefore, the people who are
supporting the development of this country today
are those who barely survived the Pol Pot period.
The younger generations have not received appropriate
education either, so the negative legacy is enormous
and almost unthinkable in other neighboring countries.
This means that conditions for economic development
are very much constrained in this country and
therefore consider that priority must be given
to Cambodia in developing Indochina sub-region.
Q4. Which are nowadays the priorities in order
to develop the country and allow FDI to flow into
Cambodia?
A4. First of all we have to rehabilitate
the infrastructure such as roads, bridges, electricity
and telecommunications. Prime Minister Hun Sen
is very conscious of this need for the country's
development. The government has been asking donor
countries to help rehabilitate roads and bridges.
Japan may be the number one country in helping
the infrastructure, but international organizations
such as World Bank and Asian Development Bank
are also really involved in this aspect.
Q5. Can you give us an idea of the ODA that
the Japanese government has given to Cambodia?
A5. In the past three or four years our
government has been helping this country an average
amount of some $100-$120 million per year; including
infrastructure building, human resources development,
rural development and assistance to the health
and education sector.
Prime Minister Hun Sen seems to give a top priority
to rehabilitate infrastructure, as it is the basis
of any economic activity. If we go around the
provinces, we see that roads are so bad that even
farmers who grow some vegetables cannot sell them
to neighboring villages. Thus, the Royal Government
of Cambodia asked not only to Japan, ADB, World
Bank, but also to other countries such as Thailand,
Laos, Vietnam and China for infrastructure assistance.
South Korea also participates in this effort now.
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The government's ultimate goal is poverty reduction
but the Japanese government as well as the Cambodian
government consider that building infrastructure
and thereby promoting economic activities is a
very effective way to reduce poverty. There are
other focal areas of our assistance such as health
and education, the rural development and then
human resources development in all areas. We also
assist the country in their de-mining activities.
Last but not the least we attach importance to
system building, such as rebuilding the legal
framework; we are providing assistance to draft
the civil code, the civil procedures, which are
now completed this year.
Q6. Do all those projects go through JICA?
A6. No, not all of them. In every country
the system of assistance is very complicated.
JICA is a governmental organization that conduct
technical co-operation. It's not a funding organization.
We extend a lot of grant assistance to construct
bridges and hospitals or rehabilitate roads, but
this financial assistance is provided by the Foreign
Ministry of Japan.
JICA is under the jurisdiction of the Foreign
Ministry and they conduct technical assistance
such as dispatching Japanese experts and advisors
to this country in all kinds of fields. JICA also
receives technical personnel from the developing
countries to have them trained in Japan or in
other countries. It also dispatches many development
survey teams; for instance when you have to construct
a road, establish a hospital or create irrigation
facilities, you need these surveys and that is
also JICA's job.
Q7 Could you tell us more about the involvement
of Japanese companies in Cambodia and what are
their main projects?
A7. At present time there are over 40
Japanese companies in Cambodia; 10 Trading Companies,
16 Construction Companies and the rest are different
types of companies. Most of these companies, Trading
Companies or Constructors, conduct their activities
based on our government assistance or ODA. That
explains why there are so many Construction Companies.
There are only a few companies that invest as
private foreign direct investment and these are
rather small in size.
The first investor from Japan is a wood-processing
company, called Okada; this company operates in
joint venture with the Cambodian government. The
second private investment is Eastern Steel Company
and is also a joint venture. Japanese Trading
Company called Sumitomo invested in this company.
They produce tin products for fences or roofs;
annual production is about 5 million dollars.
There is also Suzuki Motors that has a motorbikes
factory; annual production is about 5 million
dollars. Toyota Trading has a sales and repair
shop of automobiles. There is also Marubeni trading
company; they constructed an oil jetty in joint
venture with a local Cambodian company. Ajinomoto
started a sales company last year, and that's
about all for Japanese private investment.
Q8. What are according to you the advantages
and inconveniences that an investor encounters
in Cambodia?
A8. I think that among this small number
of companies, many of them have some problems.
Most of those companies are struggling with the
smuggling that makes business very difficult.
For instance Eastern Steel who produces tin-plates,
they suffer from the smuggled similar products
from Thailand or Vietnam. Their production encounters
lots of difficulties and they lose competitivity.
Toyota Trading also encounters this problem, the
customs ratio is very high for automobiles, but
there are many smuggled automobiles that don't
pay any taxes. Imported automobiles with high
customs duties do not sell very well vis-à-vis
smuggled automobiles. So this is one of their
serious problems Cambodian authorities are taking
measures to reduce smuggling.
Q9. Could you tell us more about your career
path and your greatest satisfaction as Japanese
Ambassador to Cambodia?
A9. Well, I entered the Foreign Service
in 1968, so this is my 35th year in the Japanese
Foreign Service. As diplomats we serve in Japan
or in foreign countries. As for my foreign assignments,
I served in France twice, and then the Philippines,
the former Soviet Union at the time of Gorbachov,
i.e., at the time of the great changes in the
Soviet Union. After Moscow I went to South Korea
and my latest foreign assignment was at Honolulu,
Hawaii as Consul-General.
Cambodia is my seventh posting in a foreign country,
but it is my first Ambassadorial assignment. Because
of the close relations between Japan and Cambodia,
being Japan the largest donor to this country,
the Japanese role in Cambodia is very important,
so I enjoy being here. Having lived here for more
than two years and three months and having traveled
in all provinces and countryside; I have observed
the development situation and the extent to which
poverty is deeply rooted. I sincerely consider
that Japan must assist the Cambodian efforts.
I know that to promote foreign direct investment,
official development assistance (ODA) is very
important. At this stage the investment conditions
are not really good particularly because of the
lack of infrastructure, such as the roads, communications
systems, electricity, etc
So in the early
stages of development, aid from foreign donors
or international institutions plays a vital role.
In order for Cambodia to ensure its development
it needs foreign assistance but the government
must manage the country in a democratic and non-corrupt
way. There is the donor's community that maintains
a close dialog and gives advices to the Cambodian
government to reduce corruption, to pursue reforms
and improve the situation. As representative of
the largest donor to this country, I have been
trying to join in this international effort, so
that the Cambodian government can conduct a good
economic policy and pursue serious reforms. In
fact, there are many problems like corruption,
smuggling, and problems of drugs and even traffic
of human beings; we, as donor countries and donor
institutions, always encourage this government
to make reforms and realize better governance.
In doing so I consider that Japan's role is important.
So far I have been doing my utmost efforts in
that direction and I think the government headed
by Prime Minister Hun Sen has been going in the
right direction. There are many difficulties,
but they are working hard. Sometimes donors give
severe criticisms of the situation in this country
and they are often right, but we have to recognize
the difficulties coming from the lack of infrastructure
and human resources and the weak legal and judicial
systems which have also been destroyed during
the war. We have to be patient. At least I can
say that little by little, and steadily, progress
has been made, so we have to continue encouraging
the government to do more in that direction.
Q10. As last question, what would be your
final message to foreign investors who are interested
into Cambodia?
A10. Cambodia is still at the very initial
stages of development, but in certain sectors
there are good short- or medium-term prospects.
The tourism has a big potential, and has been
developing quite well. First, I think Sihanoukville
and its vicinity have good prospects for having
more economic activities in the near future. Although
the major roads are not yet rehabilitated, I think
that in four or five years time, major national
roads will be more or less rehabilitated and will
facilitate the traffic between Thailand, Cambodia
and Vietnam.
There is also a hopeful prospect for oil exploitation
and exploration offshore of Sihanoukville and
if it's successful it will change the perspectives
of Cambodia's economic development. Although it
is not really developed, there is a potential
for some agro-industries as there are a number
of agricultural products that can be processed.
The government and the donor community are assisting
for the planning and realization of some industrial
zones or special processing zones. So, in the
medium term perspective this country has a rather
good future.
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