This year, The British embassy celebrates its 60th anniversary in Cambodia. “The relationship between Cambodia and the United Kingdom has become a lot stronger over the years”, says the British Ambassador, Mark Gooding. On the opening day of the national election campaign, two main topics are being discussed by representatives from CCIM and the British Ambassador at the British embassy in Phnom Penh. The first topic is the British-Cambodian relationship and how the United Kingdom is contributing to development in Cambodia and the second topic is the embassy’s role and perspective of the national election and election campaign.
“It is a very important year for the UK in Cambodia, because it is actually the 60th anniversary of the British embassy in Cambodia. And I have to say that I am really pleased with the ties between the UK and Cambodia, because we work together on more and more fields.”
Mark Gooding, British Ambassador.
The business and trade relationship between the two countries has especially become stronger, and many British companies have been established in Cambodia during the years. Furthermore, many investments in Cambodia have been made by British investors and this is only a few examples of how the bilateral relationship is growing and growing right now.
An example of a present project from the UK embassy is the International Child Protection Certificate, launched in the beginning of this year. The embassy has a really good cooperation with the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency. They work with a number of organizations in Cambodia, like the national police, local NGO’s and schools, and other organizations that deal with young people. Over several years, they have been working on raising awareness, and capacity building within the organizations, so that they have the tools to tackle the issues and make sure that they are stopped. A part of the project is the International Child Protection Certificate, which UK citizens can obtain, which confirms that the person doesn’t have a criminal record in this area.
When it comes to contributing to the development of Cambodia, the United Kingdom stands in a front position, by being one of the biggest supporters throughout the years. Areas like health, HIV and education have been supported by the UK. The British embassy is searching for opportunities to enhance this cooperation.
“A general challenge for the Cambodian development is that it only really got going about 20 years ago. This is a broad development challenge, but the UK embassy is very strongly committed to supporting the development”
The national election
How do you see your role as an embassy during the election campaign?
Our role is very clear here. I think we are doing a number of very practical things to support the election process. The UK embassy has been invited by the National Election Committee, to provide them with technical assistance, and to ensure that the electoral process is free and fair. We will help to implement the recommendations of the last EU observations from 2008 on different technical issues.
The UK embassy is furthermore supporting two projects under the campaign. One project is about voters’ awareness, where they are trying to educate voters about the voting process, what the national assembly is, and why this election is important. The UK embassy is also going to be providing support for some observing organizations operating in Cambodia.
There are about 30 days until the national elections, so what are you doing now? Are you sending election observers?
We do not have an official EU observation mission. The three things we are doing are: providing technical advisers from the EU International Election Committee, supporting projects and also the local observer organizations.
So, it means that you do not have election observers for Cambodian Elections?
We do not send our own observers; we only support the local observers.
As I know, the US Embassy has observers and they see a lot of bad points in Cambodia: corruption issue, election is not free and honest. So what is your idea on this?
I obviously cannot speak for the US embassy. I think my focus is very clear, and that is to provide constructive support to the national elective committee.
Have you seen any changes in elections so far if you take the EU recommendations in consideration, and will it be more free elections in the future?
It is a really important time now for the National Election Committee, because the process of elections has just begun. The role of the National Election Committee has just come into effect, so now is a very important time for them to run the election process, and that’s where the EU advisers come in. We have had very positive contact with the National Election Committee, for many months now. But let’s see what happens over the next 30 days, because as said we are only just in the start of the election campaign.
