Looming oil funds put Cambodia at crossroads
On Sunday, CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap will attend a forum on the evolving oil and gas sector with about 400 university students. If all goes according to plan, Chevron Corporation will begin to extract oil from Cambodian waters in little over a year. Though the amount of oil the company is set to tap is still unknown, expectations are high and the government is bracing itself for a rise in state revenues. But whether or not Cambodia will be able to avoid the scenario that has taken place in countries such as Nigeria – where vast oil wealth has largely flowed into the pockets of politicians and the urban elite – is yet to be seen. That was the main question at a conference on Friday in Phnom Penh held by Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency, a group of like-minded organizations pressing for transparency in the nascent oil sector…
