Wealthy Splurge on ‘Lucky’ License Plates, Phone Numbers
Duong Tech, the owner of an import-export company, spent $150,000 on his chrome-rimmed Cadillac Escalade SUV. Then he shelled out an additional $10,000 at the Phnom Penh municipal transportation department for a license plate ending with the numbers “9999.” … In Phnom Penh, custom-numbered license plates are affixed to many luxury cars navigating the city’s traffic, while mobile phone shops offer bespoke phone numbers costing thousands of dollars. … While Chinese culture, pervasive throughout Cambodia, holds certain numbers to particularly auspicious, Dok Narim, secretary of state for the Ministry of Cults and Religion, said that a belief in lucky numbers usually has nothing to do with the numerals most often chosen for license plates and mobile phones. … “It’s just a tendency of people to follow each other,” he said noting that the ever-changing obsession of the rich with certain numbers is a boon to business people such as phone shop owners. …
