[PHNOM PENH POST]
PRIME Minister Hun Sen held talks with the President of the Thai
National Assembly Somsak Kiatsuranont in the capital yesterday, paving
the way for the extraction of contested oil and gas reserves in the Gulf
of Thailand.
Since Yingluck Shinawatra led Pheau Thai party to
take power in Thailand in August, efforts to resolve the disputed
Overlapping Claims Area have been bolstered by a series of high-profile
visits from the new Thai Prime Minister and her brother Thaksin
Shinawatra.
Yesterday’s talks between Hun Sen and Somsak focused
on restoring diplomatic relations between the neighbours so both
Kingdom’s could begin exploiting resources in the
27,000-square-kilometre OCA, the premier’s personal spokesman Eang
Sophalleth said.
“God has created Cambodia and Thailand as
neighbours and we have joint potential mineral resources [oil and gas],”
Eang Sophalleth said Somasak told Hun Sen.
“Therefore Cambodia
and Thailand together must join hands to exploit the mineral resources
for the benefit of the people from two countries,” he quoted the Thai
National Assembly President as having said.
But Global Witness
Campaigner George Boden warned earlier this week that if Cambodia did
not vastly improve its laws to regulate extractive industries the
benefits of those resources would be isolated to the ruling elite. “The
Cambodian government has a track record for corruption, and its oil laws
are not fit for purpose,” he said in statement.
“The country’s
international donors must push for reform, so that the millions due to
be paid by oil, gas and mining companies are used to build schools and
hospitals, instead of lining the pockets of senior politicians”.
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