EU increasingly impatient with Cambodia over anti-corruption law

Jan 23, 2007, 7:55 GMT

Phnom Penh - International donors are increasingly impatient with delays in implementation of a long-awaited anti-corruption law, German Ambassador to Cambodia Pius Fischer said Tuesday.

Fischer, who is the acting European Union (EU) president, called it an important issue for EU policy in Cambodia and could not be sidestepped.

'We strongly advocate the fight against corruption and the early adoption of an anti-corruption law in Cambodia,' he said after addressing a seminar on EU-Cambodian relations in Phnom Penh.

'We cannot debate any longer. For 10 years the royal Cambodian government has discussed a law against corruption. Now is the time to act and implement that law.'

Fischer also warned that implementation was as important as the law itself, and donors would be happy with no less than a politically independent anti-corruption body which can 'locate, integrate and develop cases against corruption.'

Endemic corruption has consistently been cited as a major hurdle to Cambodia's development.

Last November, Berlin-based Transparency International ranked Cambodia at 151 out of 163 countries in its 2006 corruption perceptions index survey.

The group made its ranking on a definition of corruption as 'the abuse of public office for private gain.' Cambodia scored just 2.1 points out of 10, earning it the second lowest position in Asia, ahead of only Myanmar.

Donors have repeatedly threatened to withhold funds from aid-dependent Cambodia if it continues to delay adopting the law. The government promised a new law by the end of last year but later announced that it needed to make changes to the penal code first.

As well as being an important donor to Cambodia, the EU is also a powerful trading partner, ranking as Cambodia's second most-important destination for exports and its sixth leading source of imports, according to 2005 trade statistics, with Germany at the top of the list.