Geography

Cambodia has a land area of 181,035 square kilometers in the southwestern part of the Indochina peninsula, about 20% of which is used for agriculture. It lies completely within the tropics with its southernmost points slightly more than 100 above the Equator. The country's capital city is Phnom Penh. International borders are shared with Thailand and the Lao People's Democratic Republic on the west and on the north, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on the east and the southeast. The country is bounded on the southwest by the Gulf of Thailand. In comparison with its neighbors, Cambodia is a geographically compact country administratively composed of 20 provinces, three of which have relatively short maritime boundaries, 2 municipalities, 172 districts, 1,547 communes. The country has a coastline of 435 km and extensive mangrove stands, some of which are relatively undisturbed.

The dominant features of the Cambodian landscape are the large, almost centrally located, Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and the Bassac River systems and the Mekong River, which traverses the country from north to south. Surrounding the Central Plains which covered three quarters of the country's area are the more densely forested and sparsely populated highlands, comprising: the Elephant Mountains and Cardamom Mountains of the southwest and western regions; the Dangrek Mountains of the north adjoining the Korat Plateau of Thailand; and the Ratanakiri Plateau and Chhlong highlands on the east merging with the Central Highlands of Viet Nam.

The Mekong River swells with waters during the monsoon season reaching a flood discharge of 40,000 m³/s at Phnom Penh. By about mid-June, the flow of the Mekong and the Basak Rivers fed by monsoon rains, increases to a point where it floods the adjacent floodplains for 4-7 months. At this point, instead of overflowing its banks, its floodwaters reverse the flow of the Tonle Sap River (about 120 km in length). This specifity of the Tonle Sap River makes it the only "river with return" in the world.

Political and Administrative Structure

In the transitional period between the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements in October 1991 and a free and fair national elections conducted by the United nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in May 1993, Cambodia was governed by a Supreme National Council (SNC), regrouping all four major political parties.

Administration of the country was temporarily entrusted to UNTAC, which successfully organized the elections with a large turnout of the population. Following the installation of a Provisional National Government, the elected Constituent Assembly adopted and promulgated on September 24, 1993 the nation's constitution, which proclaimed King Norodom Sihanouk as Head of State and established the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) within a framework of parliamentary democracy. Two Prime Ministers were appointed to represent the two major parties that won the elections. This same date marks the official end of UNTAC's mandate. 30th September marks the date of easing of the activities of the various UNTAC components and 15th November, the date provided for the end of withdrawal of the "Blue helmets".

The King

The King is the Head of state for life. He holds the throne but does not hold power. "The King reigns but does not Govern". He appoints the Prime Minister(s) and the Council of Ministers. Upon presentation by the Council of Ministers, the King signs decrees of appointment., transfer and dismissal of high civil and military officials, extra- ordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors and delegates, and upon presentation by the Supreme Council of Magistracy, he signs decrees to appoint, transfer or dismiss judges.

As the Supreme Commander of the Royal Khmer Armed Forces, the King appoints -the Commander-in- Chief of the Royal Khmer Armed Forces, declares war upon approval of the National Assembly, and upon approval of the Prime Minister(s) and the President of the National Assembly, the King declares the state of emergency. The King receives letters of credentials from foreign ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Cambodia, and upon the approval of the National Assembly, he signs and ratifies international treaties and conventions.

Economic Situation

The Cambodian economy is at a critical pass. To the strains caused by the transition from central planning to a market economy, which the country shares with all economies in transition, the burden of the war has been added. Its current macroeconomic developments reflects the country emergence from almost two decades of armed conflict and isolation to the changing world economy. While most of the former centrally planned economies have had access to various forms of foreign assistance to smooth the impact of the reforms on output and living standards, Cambodia was cut off from foreign financial support and had to fend for itself. It has seen an inordinate proportion of its resources and income directed toward financing conflict. The Cambodian economy has until recently also labored under the constraints imposed by a centrally planned, command-and-control approach to economic management. Although in many respects the progress made during the past decade in recovering from the devastation of the 1970s has been impressive, in effect, a quarter of a century of progress has been lost.

Agriculture

The main domestic activity on which most rural households depend is agriculture and its related sub-sectors. Agriculture contributes about half of the country's GDP and employs about 80% of the labor force. Agriculture has been growing at an average rate of 2% over 1991-94. Not only is agriculture the largest primary sector of the Cambodian economy (compared with industry and services), but in the last few years its pace of development has been satisfactorily in-creasing. Not surprisingly, however, because of the long - term influence of administered pricing and output targeting arrangements, the current production performance of different commodities is mixed. In terms of the recorded current values of both gross and net output, crops (63%), livestock (26%), fishing (8%), and forestry (3%) represent the broad subsector ranking in order of the importance of their contribution to agricultural value added.

Crops and Commodities

Among crops, rice (representing approximately 74 and 66%, respectively, of gross and net crop values) makes by far the most important contribution to value added. This is followed by vegetables, including soybean and mungbean., jute, tobacco, sugar cane, and maize in current values. Rubber, as a raw material tree crop, is also important.. but not as important as it was a generation ago when organized private plantation production provided the bulk of the output.

Livestock

It is unusual for the South East Asia region that, in Cambodia, cattle is more important than swine, principally because buffalo and oxen are valued for the wide scope of their contributions to output. Cattle are also exported informally (on the hoof) to both Viet Nam and Thailand, but there is no clear measure of the value of these sales. Pork and poultry, on the other hand, are slaughtered predominantly for domestic consumption.

Fishing

Value added contributed by fishing is less than a third of that contributed by livestock. Commercial fishing operations remain relatively small scale, but a limited export potential certainly exists. As the economy opens up, it can be expected that Cambodia will take advantage of new opportunities to exploit both domestic and overseas markets. The scope of development, however, may be limited by the traditional fishing methods in place, particularly where freshwater catches (which are by far the most important) are concerned. It is reported, however, that traditional freshwater fish habitats are becoming increasingly subject to environmental degradation and over-fishing.

Forestry

Officially, forest products represent only a small share of value added, but it is well known that a significant amount of unreported logging takes place and that logs are shipped regularly across Cambodia's borders, both to the west and to the east. Logging in Cambodia is a rapidly growing industry, and concerns regarding over- exploitation are being increasingly expressed. Forest cover in Cambodia has fallen from 73% of land area to less than 50% in the last two decades. While this rate is considerably slower than Thailand's, it is, nonetheless proving ecologically harmful. As has been implied above, deforestation has led to significant siltation in the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers, and the denudation of previously wooded hillsides is also believed to be one of the causes of increasingly severe flooding in lowland areas, particularly during the monsoon period. A nationwide campaign of forestation has been organized by the Royal Government in order to pressure Cambodia's natural resources.

External Assistance to Cambodia

Following the collapse of the Pol Pot regime, the PRK signed working agreements with UNICEF, ICRC, and other agencies for emergency programmes. At the same time a large-scale relief effort was set in motion to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of Cambodians who had fled into Thailand.

Faced with the extent of the destruction, donors however gave generously during this period to a broad range of emergency programmes which included essential rehabilitation components. The ICRC, UNICEF, WFP, FAO and the major NGO consortia provided a wide range of supplies from basic agricultural inputs to tractors, spare parts for industry to transport equipment, basic medical supplies to hospital equipment, pens and school notebooks to Khmer typewriters.

From 1979 to 1981 official bilateral and multilateral emergency programmes provided USD 370 million in assistance to Cambodia. NGO programmes contributed more than USD 100 million. A UN report estimates NGO expenditure by a dozen agencies at USD 2 million in 1984. By the end of the decade approximately 25 NGO's were programming about USD 15 million annually in Cambodia. Western donors, Japan, China, and the ASEAN countries complemented their policy of isolating Cambodia by offering to resettle Cambodian refugees in third countries and, once resettlement was closed as an option, by meeting the basic needs of 375,000 Cambodians in camps along the Thai- Cambodian border.

Following the formation of the Royal Government in 1993, UNDP has assisted in the preparation of the National Programme to Rehabilitate and Develop Cambodia (NPRD). It was- also agreed that a UNDP-supported Country Programme for Cambodia be prepared in order to better focus UNDP cooperation in support of the priorities of the NPRD, taking into account the increasing volume and coverage of donor assistance. The first UNDP Country Programme (1994-96) was prepared in a highly participatory manner and approved by UNDP's Executive Board in October 1994. UNDP's cooperation has thus come to concentrate on two, mutually supportive areas, namely poverty alleviation and capacity building for management of the national development and reform processes in pursuing equitable and sustainable growth.

'Sustain human development is development that not only generates economic growth but distributes its benefits equitably; that regenerates the environment rather than destroys it; that empowers people rather than marginalizes them. That gives priority to the poor enlarging their choices and opportunities, and provides for their participation in decisions affecting them.'