UN-sponsored oil conference hears Cambodia could be Asia's Norway
Posted : Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:01:01 GMT
Phnom Penh - Oil could turn Cambodia into Asia's Norway, a UN-
sponsored conference to discuss strategies to deal with the country's
expected offshore petroleum reserves heard Wednesday. Bangkok-based
Norwegian ambassador extraordinary Merete Fjeld Brattested told the
international conference aimed at discussing how to use the as-yet
untapped reserves to fuel poverty reduction said Norway had once been
the poor cousin of Europe.
"When oil was discovered off the Norwegian coast in the 1960's, Norway
was blessed," she said.
Now oil and gas revenue makes up about 15 per cent of the Norwegian
government's income and has brought prosperity, she said, but not
without the Norwegian government facing difficult decisions about how
to distribute and calculate that wealth.
The three-day conference, co-sponsored by Norway, aims to head off
donor concerns that the recently discovered and unestimated oil
reserves may prove a curse rather than a blessing for Cambodia, which
is notorious for endemic corruption.
Cambodian officials have said they expect drilling to begin between
2009 and 2011.
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told the meeting that Cambodia needed to
work out strategies to fit its own unique cir***stances, but that it
welcomed input from other oil producing countries.
"Not all objectives are reasonable for all countries," he said. "No
single mechanism is likely to provide a silver bullet; oil producing
and oil ex****ting countries need to use a combination of approaches."
He warned that the foreign fixation on oil revenue should not
overshadow the government's efforts at reform in all areas across the
board.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who declined to attend and sent Sok An in his
place, has expressed frequent public annoyance at donor criticism of
Cambodian oil management before any oil has even been tapped.
The director of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority, Te Duong
Tara, echoed Sok An's sentiments, but added that Cambodia's lack of
qualified and skilled personnel to work on oil production was also a
pressing concern.
"The key challenge facing Cambodia is therefore to attract the
investment necessary to develop the energy, gas development and
resource sectors of its economy in a timely and efficient manner," he
said.
The conference is scheduled to end Friday.
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