Government Provides Passports Free of Charge to Workers

By Soy Sophea

Prime Minister Hun Sen, speaking at the 14th Government-Private Sector Forum, has agreed in principle to provide fee passports to all workers who have opted to work abroad.

The approval was in response to requests made by the 8th Working Group, Industrial Relations represented by Dr. Nang Sothy. He raised the issue of free passports in an earlier meeting of the Cambodia Council for Women. This organization is headed by the Honorary President, the Queen Mother Her Majesty Norodom Monineath Sihanouk and vice honorary president Bun Rany Hun Sen, the wife of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“From today, the Royal Government of Cambodia will start to provide free passports to our laborers,” the Prime Minister said at the Forum. He added, “We need to help those members of our society who find it necessary to find jobs abroad. Therefore, I am ordering the Ministry of Interior to take immediate action to cancel passport fees for laborers.”

He added that currently the Cambodian Government pays 100 US dollars out of the 125 US dollars total for electronic-chip passports. He also demanded that all bureaucratic processing of passport applications be cleared within 20 days.

The Economy

During the forum, the Prime Minister also touched on the economy. He said that Cambodia's banking sector remained stable despite the global economic crisis, but plans to establish a national stock exchange could be delayed.The Prime Minister said that the state of the country's finance industry was "in a stable position which is not worrisome" because Cambodia "has not yet received a stock market.""If there is no stock market, there is no problem,” said the Premier. But he affirmed that he still aimed to set up a bourse once fears of a global recession had receded.

"When the wind dies down, we will try to establish the stock market. I only know that when the red arrow sign is down it means the stock is also down...something that I see all the time nowadays," he said.

Earlier this year, Cambodia signed an agreement with representatives from South Korea's stock exchange, the Korea Exchange, to establish a stock market in 2009. These plans were based on annual economic growth rates averaging 11 percent over the past three years. These impressive figures were the result of vibrant garment and tourism sectors.But the International Monetary Fund recently said Cambodia's economy was expected to flounder next year as the world crisis deepened. Cambodia still remains a largely cash-only economy and a high degree of mistrust keeps many people hoarding their money at home instead of using banks.

Keat Chhon, The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance responded to the Premier’s speech by saying that the Government-Private Sector Forum (G-PSF), which was launched in 1999 on the personal initiative of The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was an effective mechanism for finding solutions to challenges faced by the private sector as it went about its business.

“The G-PSF is considered to be an enlarged plenary cabinet meeting with the attendance of private sector representatives at discussions of government policies and initiatives related to private sector development,” he said at the Forum. He continued that, “Having been successful in the past 13 meetings, the G-PSG will continue to improve and strengthen the business and investment climate in Cambodia.”

The eight working groups at the Forum include the Export Processing and Trade Facility, Energy, Infrastructure and Transport, Agriculture and Agri-Industry, Tourism, Manufacturing and Small and Medium Enterprises, Law, Tax, and Good Governance, Banking and Financial Services, and Industrial Relations.