Government responds to Global Witness

KHMER TIMES
MAY TITTHARA

Global Witness attacked the business interests of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Supplied

Government officials reacted strongly yesterday to a recent statement by NGO Global Witness calling on Switzerland, the host of this year’s World Economic Forum, to turn away Prime Minister Hun Sen and not give him a platform to find new international business partners.

The Global Witness statement released on Wednesday said the Davos forum should not have allowed Mr. Hun Sen to host an event aimed at attracting new overseas investment, entitled “Cambodia: the rising star of Asean.”

“It’s not surprising that Prime Minister Hun Sen is courting the wealthy elite at Davos. He and his family have Cambodia’s economy so sewn up that new investment may well end up in their own pockets,” said Alice Harrison, the communications advisor at Global Witness.

“The Davos summit claims to be ‘committed to improving the state of the world.’ If this is true, it should close its doors to despots like Hun Sen.”

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan on his Facebook page referred to the statement as incitement and a fabrication of reality, saying Global Witness was continuing its meaningless attack on Cambodia which was falling on deaf ears internationally.

“The request for the international economic forum in Switzerland’s Davos to close the door on and expel Cambodia was a statement from the international devil who has incited and fabricated reality,” he said.

He added that Cambodia was successful and recognized internationally, especially Mr. Hun Sen, who was respected and admired internationally for his active leadership in the direction of peace, stability and prosperity.

“Cambodia is respected and seen as Asean’s economic tiger with an annual GDP growth of more than seven percent over the last decade. Cambodia is also a destination for international ventures, having high capacity in th region,” he said.

The Global Witness statement follows its 2016 investigation that claimed members of the Hun family had amassed extensive fortunes in Cambodia’s private sector, while most people were poor.

Global Witness claimed that companies that Hun family members owned or controlled spanned most of Cambodia’s lucrative industries, with links to international brands like Apple, Nokia, Visa, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Honda.

The annual World Economic Forum, which started on Tuesday and concludes today, has been attended by world leaders, businesspeople, researchers and civil society organizations from 32 countries.

Mr. Hun Sen’s Facebook page confirmed that besides the forum, he was also meeting with other world leaders and more than 100 Cambodian people living in Switzerland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Belgium.