By Hallie Schiffman-Shilo

Hallie Schiffman-Shilo is The Asia Foundation’s Program Assistant for the Women’s Empowerment Program based in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at hshilo@asiafound.org-dc.org.

Human trafficking is one of the most egregious human rights abuses. Each year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked within their own countries or abroad into exploitative, abusive, and often illegal labor sectors. Many trafficking victims are forced into sexual slavery, domestic servitude, or hard labor and suffer from both physical and psychological abuse. Official statistics are hard to determine because of the illicit nature of trafficking. However, the International Labor Organization estimates that there are 12.3 million people in forced or bonded labor, forced child labor, or sexual servitude at any given time. Furthermore, an estimated 80 percent of transnational trafficking victims are women and girls.
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By Véronique Salze-Lozac’h

Véronique Salze-Lozac’h is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Economic Programs and is based in Cambodia. She can be reached at vsalze-lozach@asiafound.org. Last week, The Asia Foundation’s Cambodia office released the second Provincial Business Environment Scorecard (PBES) survey, which ranks all 24 provinces on the quality of their economic governance. Findings from the report have been cited in articles in Agence France-Press, Voice of America, and two articles in The Phnom Penh Post (one here, the other here).

The recent release of two reports – one from the World Bank/IFC and the other from the IFC/Asia Foundation – compelled more than 200 Cambodians to gather on May 25th in a conference room overseeing the Tonle Sap river. They were business owners, public officials, and development organizations, all keen to discuss ways to make the life of business owners in Cambodia easier and more productive.

The lack of information on regulations, time-consuming procedures, unofficial charges, and the poor delivery of essential public services hamper business growth.   Making it easier, cheaper, and more transparent to start and operate a business could significantly help Cambodia compete in both the international and domestic markets, according to the World Bank/IFC Second Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) and the Provincial Business Environment Scorecard (PBES), published by IFC and The Asia Foundation.  At a time of unprecedented global financial and economic crisis, the issue is not anecdotal. Cambodia urgently needs to improve its business environment at the national and provincial level if it wants to mitigate the shock of the international crisis.
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By Chris Plante

Chris Plante is The Asia Foundation’s Director of the Environment Program. He can be reached at cplante@asiafound.org. Recently, he participated in a panel discussion titled “Water Worries: Balancing the Water We Need with the Water We Have” aired on City Visions Radio.

Thinking about World Water Day this Sunday, March 22nd, and the 2009 World Water Day theme of Transboundary Water, “sharing water, sharing opportunities,” I am reminded of “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost’s 1914 poem in which he asks why two neighbors must rebuild the stone wall dividing their farms each spring. Today, the unwritten rule – that good fences make good neighbors – makes plenty of sense to most of us. Our cities and suburbs, farms and factories, power plants and parks, and roads and rivers share common geography, boundaries, and neighbors.
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By Tharum Bun

Tharum Bun is the Information Technology Manager at The Asia Foundation in Cambodia. He’s also a contributing writer for Global Voices Online, a citizen media project founded at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School. Known widely as one of Cambodia’s first bloggers (perhaps the first), Tharum’s blog can be read at http://tharum.info, and he can be reached at tbun@asiafound.org.

Cambodia has over 13 million people, but currently, less than 2 percent have regular access to the Internet. Cambodia’s official language is Khmer, but these Cambodians who chat, e-mail, and blog on the Internet – and the approximately 23 percent of Cambodians who text with their mobile phones – find it easier to use English. While low Internet penetration, language barriers, and technical issues with using the Khmer scripts limit the amount of Cambodians who can engage in online dialogue, those Cambodians who are entering the international blogosphere are breaking a pattern of devastating silence and isolation.

The former King (or King Father), Norodom Sihanouk, now 86,  makes regular postings about Cambodia’s past and present on his website. The former Prince – fluent in Khmer, French, and English – posts communiqués and reactions to media reports regularly. Originally launched in 2002, the King’s website became a new digital medium for global visitors.
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By Jeremy Gross

Jeremy Gross is the Foundation’s Election Program Manager based in the Indonesia office. He can be reached at jeremy@tafindo.org.

Seminal elections in a country’s history, such as those after a period of civil war, military rule or at the demise of an authoritarian regime, are invariably marked by the arrival of troupes of international election observers; their duty: to comment on the overall election environment and whether or not the elections held are free and fair.

There are numerous examples of this from the Asia region, including Cambodia in 1993 and Indonesia in 1999. In 2008, both Nepal and Bangladesh held milestone elections, the former after the then-government and Marxist guerillas signed a peace accord, the latter to end two years of rule by the military-installed Caretaker Government.

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By Roderick Brazier

Roderick Brazier is The Asia Foundation’s Country Representative in Cambodia. He can be reached at rbrazier@asiafound.org.

On January 12th, in Phnom Penh, The Asia Foundation and the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace convened a discussion of America’s Role in Asia, newly-released recommendations on what America’s foreign policy should be in Asia when the new U.S. Administration takes office.

The fourth in a series of quadrennial reports that coincide with U.S. presidential elections, this marks the first time America’s Role in Asia (ARA) findings were ever publicly released and discussed in Cambodia.
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By Véronique Salze-Lozac’h

Véronique Salze-Lozac’h is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Economic programs. She is based in Phnom Penh and can be reached at vsalze-lozach@asiafound.org.

One might wonder whether, at a time of financial turmoil and economic uncertainty, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the most urgent economic issue to discuss.  One might argue, when hundreds of thousands are expected to lose their jobs and as many enterprises are struggling to simply survive throughout the world, that companies would be better off focusing on their primary needs, concentrating on reducing costs, and improving productivity and market shares. Indeed, one might think that CSR is a luxury that enterprises cannot afford at a time of economic crisis or that for a country like Cambodia, which is still in its early stage of development, not a priority.  However, it is precisely the issues of productivity, competitiveness and economic development that were discussed a few days ago at the first conference on Corporate Social Responsibility organized in Phnom Penh. 
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By Véronique Salze-Lozac’h

Veronique Salze-Lozac’h is the Regional Director for Economic Programs in Cambodia. She can be reached at vsalze-lozach@asiafound.org.

“We feel that too often, we are floating with the tide, but we want to be more active, we actually want to learn how to swim,” explained H.E. Ung Huot, Chairman of the Cambodian Senate’s Commission on Economy, Planning, Investment and Environment.

In the midst of what we can now call an international financial and economic crisis, more than 140 Cambodian senators, parliamentarians, and Government officials — but also students and businesspeople — gathered in Phnom Penh to discuss economic policy reforms and learn from the experience of their neighbor, South Korea.  They gathered at a seminar organized by the Cambodian Senate and The Asia Foundation on November 6th in Phnom Penh.
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By Tommy Koh

Tommy Koh is Ambassador-At-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, and Chairman of the Institute of Policy Studies and the National Heritage Board. He was one of the three Asian co-chairs for the recently released book, America’s Role in Asia: Asian and American Views. Below is an excerpt from his chapter, which provides recommendations for a new U.S.  administration’s foreign policy towards the Southeast Asia region.

The peoples of Southeast Asia are following the 2008 U.S. presidential elections with great attention and admiration, given the open and transparent primary processes. America’s real and vibrant democracy is reflected in the competing candidates’ travels to every corner of the country to win the hearts and minds of voters. This illustrates that the highest office of the land can neither be secured by wealth nor pedigree and, this year especially, neither race nor gender is an insurmountable obstacle. Consequently, in some parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, anti-Americanism has been balanced by a respect for America’s current exercise of democracy.

Thus, every region of the world wants America’s attention; the only question is whether American attention is positive or negative. Washington’s nature is to focus attention on the largest countries, regions, and economies, which can pose a threat to American interest or to international peace and security. By these standards, Southeast Asia ” a region largely at peace ” does not receive the positive attention it deserves. Read More…

By V. Bruce J. Tolentino

Bruce Tolentino is The Asia Foundation’s Director for Economic Reform and Development Programs. He can be reached at btolentino@asiafound.org.

Over the past few weeks, as the U.S. financial system has reeled from a shocking series of major “adjustments,” Asia’s economists and bankers remind themselves of the key lessons — painfully taught — by the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s:  (a) all markets are linked; (b) financial markets are much more volatile than others and thus require more stringent oversight and regulation; and (c) refocusing on economic fundamentals is key to long-term recovery and growth.

Taking the long view, the medium-to-long term impact of the U.S. financial crisis on Asia is likely to be muted.
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