One Village One Product Markets Need more time to open nationwide

By Soy Sophea

Cambodian officers have said that the concept of One Village One Product (OVOP) is under consideration and moves underway to educate villagers on branding their productions to serve as symbols for their villages.

Son Koun Thor, Secretary General of the Cambodian OVOP National Committee, told the Cambodia Weekly by telephone that the vision is to open OVOP nationwide, and the time is right to turn vision into reality.

However, the secretary general refused to say how long it would take. He did say that he wanted Cambodian people to understand the concept of the OVOP. He added that potential problems to confront in future include the lack of understanding of OVOP among Cambodians and the remoteness of many of the target villages.

Since the creation of the movement in 1979, this movement is now promoted globally in China, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and the United States, he added. OVOP is seen as a viable option for Cambodia with products such as baskets, pottery, silk and food being manufactured in regional concentrations.

Sun Kuon Thor, said that the movement accords with general economic guidelines, so authorities are able to promote the movement as part of wider economic development drives, especially with regard to agricultural plantations, livestock feed and farm produce processing.

Under this framework, he said, the government would continue to push the OVOP movement to foster innovative ideas and strengthen the self-confidence of rural people based on four important principles.The principles are to "find the production method that is suitable to the village's conditions and meet the market demand; enable and encourage people to produce by improving market access, providing credit, transferring technology and supplying seeds; build management capacity and human resources; and enable the people to establish agricultural communities to ensure price stability of the product," Koun Thor added.

The Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon told the Cambodia Weekly that he believed that if the OVOP markets are to be opened throughout the country, they can also attract foreign tourists who look forward to experiencing a variety of vacation activities.

“Now, we have launched and promoted many tourism programs to attract more tourists to visit Cambodia, for She is truly a wonderful country,” said Thong Khon. He added that the Cambodian tourism industry needs access to more and improved infrastructure facilities and trained and qualified hospitality workers.

Speaking by telephone to the Cambodia Weekly recently, Kep Chutema, Phnom Penh Municipality Governor said the main challenges facing the Municipality would be overcome during the fourth mandate of the Royal Cambodian Government. These activities will include One Village One Product market, rehabilitation work, environmental protection and traffic calming innovations.

“In the future, we plan to beautify many more gardens, make roads safer for all users, make night markets brighter and introduce new entertainment outlets to the city,” he said.

Chuktema added that recently, to attract tourists and promote progress in Phnom Penh, the Municipality had been paying attention to infrastructure development in Phnom Penh with support for OVOP programs as well as the introduction of improved roads, traffic lights and signs, gardens, supermarkets and tourist destinations.

Chhay Khoeun, Director of the Tourism Department in Kep city, said his office is also paying attention to the matter of improved hospitality, in line with government directives. Part of this includes establishing modern and exciting tourist destinations on the 12 islands off the province’s coast. Local people are expected to make an essential contribution to these plans.

He said that he wanted to see the establishment of an OVOP market in his city and he believed that more local and international tourists would thus be encouraged to visit the city.

To increase the number of visitors, which in 2007 stood at 150,000, his office is expected to bring in 200,000 tourists by 2009 and more than that if the OVOP project comes to fruition.

“We want our people to join us and gain all the benefits that an enlivened tourist industry can bring,” Khoeun said. “Without them we cannot achieve our goals.”