Cambodia spent $10 million on Preah Vihear
The Cambodian government reveals that it spent $10 million on Preah Vihear as part of the effort to get the border temple listed as a World Heritage Site. The article doesn’t say if they spent $10 million US dollars or Riel.
$10 million spent for Preah Vihear heritage site
Phnom Penh Post, 07 October 2008
Cambodia spent nearly US$10 million on an emergency budget to get Preah Vihear temple listed this year as a Unesco World Heritage site, a government official told the Post on Monday.
Phay Siphan, secretary of state for the Council of Ministers, said the money paid for administrative and restoration expenses and not infrastructure development at the 11th-century temple.
“This is a normal expense for the Cambodian government,” he said. “We used the money for technical work and travelling expenses for our delegates involved in the evaluation of the temple,” he said by telephone.
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Tags: Preah Vihear
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October 11th, 2008 at 12:43 am
The article does say US$10 million. I find this number laughable when there are homeless landmine victims and mothers with children literally on my doorstep with no support from the government. Traveling expenses probably means, in this case, buying some fatcat crony a new Land Cruiser.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Hmmm. I think that Preah Vihear is actually a very important issue for most Khmer people. I’m sure they’d think it was a good investment in order to prevent further Thai encroachment on ancient sites that are clearly Cambodian territory according to international law (Ta Moan, Ta Krabei, for example). It’s easy to cry ‘corruption’ but more difficult to realise what local priorities are.