Cambodia responds sharply to oil policy recommendations by US

Feb 23, 2007, 11:27 GMT

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's petroleum authority chief responded sharply to policy recommendations by US ambassador Joseph Mussomeli Friday, saying it was too early to dictate policy when the amount of the resource was still unknown.

In a speech to a high-level economic forum in the capital, Mussomeli recommended seven policy considerations for the government to help it manage its resources when expected oil reserves are tapped in the near future.

'Some countries have made the irritatingly human decision to use the resources to relax fiscal discipline,' Mussomeli warned. 'Like children who never think about the long-term consequences of the choices they make, they act as if the revenue will never stop flowing and they never act responsibly.'

Among the initiatives the US ambassador suggested were improved transparency, improved laws and regulations relating to disclosure and oversight of government revenues, government revenue management policy reviews and a new freedom of information law.

Director-general of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority Te Duong Tara arrived after the ambassador's speech, saying he had been in a meeting and too busy to attend.

He dismissed concerns about the way Cambodia would handle oil revenues, predicted to be in excess of its entire current national gross domestic product, calling them 'pessimistic.'

'To say 'keep money for this purpose or that purpose' for me is too early. Wait until the money from the oil is here. The fish is not in the boat yet,' he told reporters.

He said Cambodia realized it had little experience in this area but had reached out to other, more seasoned players to learn from their human resources and marketing experience.

Tara added that Cambodia had studied the experiences of countries such as Angola and Nigeria and learned from them. Angola, he said, made the mistake of marketing by themselves and Nigeria had made errors because it did not know how to market.

Cambodia was ready for the challenge of oil revenue and would not squander the opportunity, he said.

'We have been a poor country, so now we really do not want to destroy our own money,' he said.

Cambodia has so far not begun full-scale drilling and is judging its oil reserves on exploratory wells from a number of companies including US giant Chevron. However, it has been predicted the reserves are significant and could reverse the country's current heavy dependence on aid.