Netball in Cambodia
Development and technology
Booked
Maximum 60 page
Author Morn kunthea
Content
1. Cambodia
2. History
3. Economic of Cambodia
4. Cambodia economic growth
5. Cambodia economic problems
6. Government and society
7. Open development Cambodia
8. Cambodia's future
9. Conclusion
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1- Cambodia
Cambodia, country on the Indochinese mainland of Southeast Asia. Cambodia is largely a land of plains and great rivers and lies amid important overland and river trade routes linking China to India and Southeast Asia. The influences of many Asian cultures, alongside those of France and the United States, can be seen in the capital, Phnom Penh, one of a handful of urban centres in the largely rural country. For 2,000 years Cambodia's civilization absorbed influences from India and China and, in turn, transferred them to other Southeast Asian civilizations. From the Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms of Funan and Chenla (1st–8th century) through the classical age of the Angkor period (9th–15th century), it held sway over territories that are now part of Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. The Khmer (Cambodian) empire reached its apex in the 12th century, a time marked by the construction of the massive temple complexes known as Angkor Wat and Bayon and the imperial capital of Angkor Thom. Following 400 years of decline, Cambodia became a French colony and during the 20th century experienced the turmoil of war, occupation by the Japanese, postwar independence, and political instability. Between 1975 and 1979 the country was devastated by the reign of the Khmer Rouge, a rural communist guerrilla movement. During the Khmer Rouge's period of power, at least 1.5 million Cambodians were killed or died, a monumental tragedy from which the country still suffers. Cambodia began the process of recovery under the Vietnam-backed regime of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (1979–89), and in the 1990s it regained political autonomy, reestablished a constitutional government, and subsequently instituted free elections. The Cambodian economy has steadily improved, and the country seems to be living by the words of the Cambodian proverb, "Fear not the future, weep not for the past."
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Cambodia, about one-third the size of France and somewhat larger than the U.S. state of Missouri, is bordered to the west and northwest by Thailand, to the northeast by Laos, to the east and southeast by Vietnam, and to the southwest by the Gulf of Thailand. The country's maximum extent is about 280 miles (450 km) from north to south and 360 miles (580 km) from east to west. Cambodia's landscape is characterized by a low-lying central alluvial plain that is surrounded by uplands and low mountains and includes the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and the upper reaches of the Mekong River delta. Extending outward from this central region are transitional plains, thinly forested and rising to elevations of about 650 feet (200 metres) above sea level. To the north the Cambodian plain abuts a sandstone escarpment, which forms a southward-facing cliff stretching more than 200 miles (320 km) from west to east and rising abruptly above the plain to heights of 600 to 1,800 feet (180 to 550 metres). This escarpment marks the southern limit of the Dangrek (Khmer: Dângrêk) Mountains. Flowing south through the country's eastern regions is the Mekong River. East of the Mekong the transitional plains gradually merge with the eastern highlands, a region of forested mountains and high plateaus that extend into Laos and Vietnam. In southwestern Cambodia two distinct upland blocks, the Krâvanh (Cardamom) Mountains and the Dâmrei (Elephant) Mountains, form another highland region that covers much of the land area between the Tonle Sap and the Gulf of Thailand. In this remote and largely uninhabited area, Mount Aôral, Cambodia's highest peak, rises to an elevation of 5,949 feet (1,813 metres). The southern coastal region adjoining the Gulf of Thailand is a narrow lowland strip, heavily wooded and sparsely populated, which is isolated from the central plain by the southwestern highlands.
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The two dominant hydrological features of Cambodia are the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap. Rising in the Plateau of Tibet and emptying into the South China Sea, the Mekong enters Cambodia from Laos at the Khone Falls and flows generally southward to the border with Vietnam, a distance within Cambodia of approximately 315 miles (510 km). The Mekong is connected to the Tonle Sap by the Sab River. During the rainy season (mid-May to early October), the Mekong's enormous volume of water backs up into the Sab and flows up into the Tonle Sap 65 miles (105 km) to the northwest, expanding the lake's surface area from a dry-season minimum of 1,200 square miles (3,100 square km) to a rainy-season maximum of more than 3,000 square miles (7,800 square km). As the water level of the Mekong falls during the dry season, the process is reversed: water drains from the Tonle Sap back down into the Mekong, switching the direction of its flow. As a result of this annual phenomenon, the Tonle Sap is one of the world's richest sources of freshwater fish. Most of Cambodia's soils are sandy and poor in nutrients. The so-called red-soil areas in the eastern part of the country, however, are suitable for commercial crops such as rubber and cotton. The annual flooding of the Mekong during the rainy season deposits a rich alluvial sediment that accounts for the fertility of the central plain and provides natural irrigation for rice cultivation. Cambodia's climate is governed by the monsoon winds, which define two major seasons. From mid-May to early October, the strong prevailing winds of the southwest monsoon bring heavy rains and high humidity. From early November to mid-March, the lighter and drier winds of the northeast monsoon bring variable cloudiness, infrequent precipitation, and lower humidity. The weather between these seasons is transitional. Maximum temperatures are high throughout the year, ranging from about 82 to 83 °F (28 °C) in January, the coolest month, to about 95 °F (35 °C) in April. Annual precipitation varies considerably throughout the country, from more than 200 inches (5,000 mm) on the seaward slopes of the southwestern highlands to about 50–55 inches (1,270–1,400 mm) in the central lowland region. Three-fourths of the annual rainfall occurs during the months of the southwest monsoon.
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Although much of Cambodia is heavily forested, the central lowland region is covered with rice paddies, fields of dry crops such as corn (maize) and tobacco, tracts of tall grass and reeds, and thinly wooded areas. Savanna grassland predominates in the transitional plains, with the grasses reaching a height of 5 feet (1.5 metres). In the eastern highlands the high plateaus are covered with grasses and deciduous forests. Broad-leaved evergreen forests grow in the mountainous areas to the north, with trees 100 feet (30 metres) high emerging from thick undergrowths of vines, rattans, palms, bamboos, and assorted woody and herbaceous ground plants. In the southwestern highlands, open forests of pines are found at the higher elevations, while the rain-drenched seaward slopes are blanketed with virgin rainforests growing to heights of 150 feet (45 metres) or more. Vegetation along the coastal strip ranges from evergreen forests to nearly impenetrable mangroves. The northeastern forests of Cambodia—like the neighbouring areas of Laos and Vietnam—once sheltered large populations of wild animals such as elephants, wild oxen, rhinoceroses, and several species of deer, but the loss of forest cover, combined with warfare and unregulated hunting in the region, sharply reduced those numbers. Small populations of most of these species may still be found, along with some tigers, leopards, bears, and many small mammals. Among the more common birds are herons, cranes, grouse, pheasant, peafowl, pelicans, cormorants, egrets, and wild ducks. Four varieties of snakes are especially dangerous: the Indian cobra, the king cobra, the banded krait, and Russell's viper.
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The Khmer (Cambodians) account for the vast majority of the population, producing a homogeneity unique in Southeast Asia that has encouraged a strong sense of national identity. Ethnic minorities include Chinese, Vietnamese, Muslim Cham-Malays, Laotians, and various indigenous peoples of the rural highlands. The Khmer, who belong to the Mon-Khmer ethnolinguistic group, are concentrated in the lowland regions surrounding the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap, on the transitional plain, and along the coast. The product of centuries of intricate cultural and ethnic blending, the Khmer moved southward before 200 BCE into the fertile Mekong delta from the Khorat Plateau of what is now Thailand. They were exposed to successive waves of Indian influence and, in the 8th century CE, to Indo-Malayan influence, perhaps including immigration from Java. Immigrations of Tai peoples occurred from the 10th to the 15th century, of Vietnamese beginning in the 17th century, and of Chinese in the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the ethnic minorities in Cambodia before 1975, the Chinese were the most important, for they controlled the country's economic life. They were shunted aside in the communist-led revolution of the 1970s and made to become ordinary peasants. Those who did not seek refuge abroad after 1975 and others who subsequently returned regained some of their former influence as urban centres were revived. The Vietnamese minority occupied a somewhat lower status than the Chinese, and most of them fled or were repatriated to Vietnam after 1970. In the 1980s, however, a large number of Vietnamese migrants, many of them former residents of Cambodia, settled in the country. Centuries of mutual dislike and distrust have clouded Vietnamese-Khmer relations, and intermarriage has been infrequent.
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The most important minority in the early 21st century was the Cham-Malay group. Known in Cambodia as Khmer Islam or Western Cham, the Cham-Malay group also maintained a high degree of ethnic homogeneity and was discriminated against under the regime of Democratic Kampuchea. Receiving only slightly better treatment than the Khmer Islam during that period were the smaller communities of indigenous peoples. These communities, known collectively as Khmer Loeu ("Upland Khmer"), include the Katu, Mnong, Stieng, Jarai, and Rhadé, among others, and inhabit the sparsely populated northeastern provinces bordering Vietnam and Laos. The Khmer language is one of the major tongues of the Mon-Khmer subfamily of the Austroasiatic language family and is spoken by nearly all people in Cambodia, including the Cham-Malay. Historically, a small number of people in Cambodia spoke Vietnamese and Chinese. The Katu, Mnong, and Stieng speak Mon-Khmer languages, while the Jarai and Rhadé speak languages of the Austronesian language family. Most ethnic Khmer are Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhists (i.e., belonging to the older and more traditional of the two great schools of Buddhism, the other school being Mahayana). Until 1975 Buddhism was officially recognized as the state religion of Cambodia. Under the Khmer Rouge, all religious practices were forbidden. The pro-Vietnamese communist regime that ruled Cambodia in the 1980s encouraged Buddhism in a limited way, and Theravada Buddhism was restored as Cambodia's state religion in 1993. Almost 20 years of neglect have been difficult to reverse, however, and the religion has not regained the popularity and prestige that it had before 1975. Nonetheless, the social and psychological characteristics often ascribed to the Khmer—individualism, conservatism, patience, gentleness, and lack of concern for material wealth—represent Buddhist ideals toward which Cambodians, especially in rural areas, continue to aspire. Buddhist precepts, however, do not permeate Cambodian education and ideology as strongly as they did before 1975.
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Minority populations are not Theravada Buddhists. Khmer Loeu groups generally follow local religions, while ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese are eclectic, following Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism. Many Vietnamese are members of the Roman Catholic Church or of such syncretic Vietnamese religious movements as Cao Dai. The Cham minority is Muslim, generally of the Sunni branch. More recently, thousands have converted to Evangelical Protestantism, particularly urban Khmer. Cambodia has always been overwhelmingly a land of villages. Only a fraction of the total population has ever lived in a town of more than 10,000 inhabitants. Since the 1920s most of these urban dwellers have been concentrated in Phnom Penh, which is situated at the confluence of the Mekong, Basăk (Bassac), and Sab rivers. Some four-fifths of the population still live in rural areas, the remainder being classified as urban. Until the mid-1970s the vast majority of Cambodia's people inhabited the central lowland region, where the rural village was second only to the family as the basic social unit. The typical Khmer family consisted of a married couple and their unmarried children. Both sons and daughters usually left the parental home after marriage to establish their own households. Most Cambodian villages in those days were made up of ethnically homogeneous people and had a population of fewer than 300 persons. The village (phum) was part of a commune or community (khum) with which it shared one or more Buddhist temples (wat), an elementary school, and several small shops. Cambodian villages usually developed in a linear pattern along waterways and roads, but houses were also often found on largely self-contained paddy farms. Houses in Cambodia were generally built on wooden pilings and had thatched roofs, walls of palm matting, and floors of woven bamboo strips resting on bamboo joists. Houses for the more-prosperous, while still on pilings, were built of wood and had tile or metal roofs.
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There were a few large landowners in Cambodia until, under the rulers of Democratic Kampuchea, they were forced off their land and into collectives in 1975 and made to live as ordinary peasants; hardly any of these people reemerged after decollectivization in the 1980s. Before collectivization, villagers typically owned and worked enough land to provide for their families and generate small surpluses that could be converted into cash to buy additional goods or to pay taxes. Landholdings tended to be small in the crowded south-central regions of the country. During the 1960s the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk was successful in colonizing frontier regions, especially in the northwest, with army veterans or poor farmers from more-crowded parts of the country. These programs, however, did not significantly alter Cambodian settlement patterns. Throughout rural Cambodia, lifestyle was attuned to the agricultural cycle, which was based in large part on family-oriented subsistence farming. Family members were awake before dawn, and most of the day's work was accomplished before noon, although minor tasks were performed in the cool of the early evening. Electricity has always been rare in village areas, and country people were generally asleep soon after sunset. During the rice-growing season, all family members worked together in the fields, as the work of planting, transplanting, and harvesting had to be done quickly. Farmers had no access to agricultural machinery, and the work of several people was needed to grow enough rice to feed a family for a year. Because paddy farming required intensive labour, obligations would build up among families within a village during the agricultural season. Festivals and marriages, celebrated by a whole village, were usually held after the rice had been harvested and money had been obtained from selling the surplus grain.
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The urban areas of Cambodia emerged in their present form in the early 20th century, during the French colonial period, as commercial and administrative centres serving their surrounding rural regions. Most of them were located at the intersections of land or river routes and were relatively accessible to the areas they served. Phnom Penh (phnom means "hill"; Penh is a woman's name) is Cambodia's single metropolis, and its population fluctuations since the 1960s reflect the country's recent history. Before the outbreak of war in 1970, it held about 500,000 people, but its population by 1975, then swollen with refugees, numbered some 2,000,000. Phnom Penh was virtually abandoned during the Democratic Kampuchea period, but people began returning to the city in 1979. Its population has grown rapidly since then, exceeding its 1970 level by the late 1980s and surpassing 1,000,000 by the start of the 21st century. Other cities, such as Bătdâmbâng and Kâmpóng Cham, are considerably smaller than Phnom Penh. Cambodia's first national census as an independent country, taken in 1962, reported a population of about 5,700,000. Subsequent population figures are exceedingly difficult to determine because of the enormous number of people who died or were displaced in the years after 1970. After some stability returned in the 1990s, a second national census, conducted in 1998, indicated that the population was double its 1962 level. In 2008 a third census put the population at nearly 13,400,000.
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Since that time, the country's population has continued to expand at a rate above the world average. As in many developing countries, children under age 15 constitute the largest group, nearly one-third of the population, while about three-fifths of the population is under 30. The age distribution is becoming more balanced as the country continues to recover from its losses under the Khmer Rouge regime. The war and social revolution of the 1970s, and the country's subsequent political and economic disruption, also seriously affected the geographic distribution of Cambodia's population. Between 1975 and 1978, hundreds of thousands of urban people were forcibly moved into rural areas to cultivate rice and to dig and maintain extensive irrigation works. Following the upheaval, towns and cities began again to grow, and most have regained or surpassed their pre-1970 population levels. However, the unrest of the 1970s led more than 300,000 Cambodians to emigrate. Of these, more than half (some 179,000) went to the United States, more than 50,000 to France, and 45,000 to Australia. Several thousand Cham were resettled in Malaysia in the 1980s. An additional 300,000 people who had sought shelter in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border in the 1980s were repatriated to Cambodia in 1993–94 under the provisions of a 1991 peace agreement between the Cambodian government and what had been its political opponents.
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Agriculture remains the most important sector of the Cambodian economy in terms of its share of the gross domestic product (GDP), and it employs the vast majority of the workforce. Rice is Cambodia's major crop, its principal food, and, in times of peace, its most important export commodity. Rice is grown on most of the country's total cultivated land area. The principal rice regions surround the Mekong and the Tonle Sap, with particularly intensive cultivation in Bătdâmbâng, Kâmpóng Cham, Takêv, and Prey Vêng provinces. Cambodia traditionally has produced only one rice crop per year because it has lacked the extensive irrigation system needed for double-cropping. Under traditional patterns of agriculture, planting normally begins in July or August, and the harvest period extends from November to January. Where there is little irrigation, the amount of rainfall determines the size and quality of the crop. The government of Democratic Kampuchea made great efforts to build irrigation systems throughout the country. The results occasionally were notable, and in a few parts of the country farmers were able to grow two or, more rarely, three crops of rice per year. In some cases the irrigation works were poorly conceived and hastily built, and they soon collapsed. Most of those that survived were abandoned after 1979. Another significant problem is that millions of land mines remain in Cambodian fields from the years of warfare; this has severely restricted the amount of land available for cultivation.
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In addition to rice, other food products include cassava, corn (maize), sugarcane, soybeans, and coconuts. The principal fruit crops, all of which are consumed locally, include bananas, oranges, and mangoes, and are supplemented by a variety of other tropical fruits, including breadfruits, mangosteens, and papayas. Cattle, particularly water buffalo, are used principally as draft animals in the rice paddies and fields. Hog production has also played a large role in agriculture. Efforts to replenish the number of livestock—depleted by years of war—have been hampered by uncertain social conditions and the prevalence of animal diseases. About three-fourths of Cambodia was forested in 1970, but by the early 21st century that portion had decreased to roughly half, with Cambodia carrying one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. The provinces bordering Thailand and Vietnam continue to be logged by large companies to whom the government has granted concessions, as well as by smaller entrepreneurs, many of whom do not obtain official permits. Illegal logging is a persistent and serious problem despite efforts to curb it.
Fisheries are important in the domestic economy. Fish in its various forms—fresh, dried, smoked, and salted—constitutes the most important source of protein in the Cambodian diet, and subsistence fishing is part of every farmer's activity. The annual freshwater catch includes perch, carp, lungfish, and smelt. For larger-scale fishing, the government sells two-year leases to harvest segments of the Tonle Sap and inland rivers. Revenues from these sales have been significant at times, but the program has been fraught with corruption. Overfishing and environmental degradation around Tonle Sap have decreased the fish supply and driven up prices, and the sustainability of freshwater fisheries has become a matter of public concern.
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Cambodia has few known mineral resources. Some limestone and phosphate deposits are found in Kâmpôt province, and precious stones are mined in Bătdâmbâng province. Cambodia's small quantities of iron and coal have not justified commercial exploitation. Most electric power is generated at thermal plants fired by imported oil. Hydroelectric generation from facilities along the Mekong and its tributaries is being rapidly expanded and provides the remainder of the country's electricity. Prospecting by foreign firms for petroleum and natural gas at offshore areas adjacent to sites being exploited by Vietnam has yielded sizeable deposits.
Until the mid-1990s, industrial development in Cambodia remained at a low level, contributing a relatively small portion of the gross domestic product (GDP). Efforts had been made to build a modest industrial base suitable for domestic needs, and timber processing and rice milling, which were important before 1975, were revived in the 1980s. Toward the end of the 20th century, however, plants were established to produce soft drinks, paper, cigarettes, building materials, cement, and cotton textiles. Although Cambodia's industrial sector initially found it difficult to compete with mass-produced goods from the more economically developed countries of the region, those countries have invested heavily in Cambodian garment factories, and manufacturing has contributed an increasingly significant proportion of annual GDP.
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Cambodia's commercial banking system was established in 1989–90. It is headed by the National Bank of Cambodia, which functions as the central bank and issues the national currency, the riel. The Foreign Trade Bank, originally established to manage commercial relations with other communist countries, facilitates the financing of the country's commercial activities. Most other banks are either foreign-owned or joint ventures with a foreign partner; the first of these ventures was established in 1992 between the central bank and the Siam Commercial Bank. Foreign bank branches are concentrated in Phnom Penh. The remaining banks are small, private entities, many of which are suspected of engaging in money laundering in connection with regional drug trafficking. The banking system actually plays only a minor role in public or private finance. Most of the population has little contact with banks, preferring instead to put their limited savings into gold or U.S. dollars. Rather than use the credit services offered by banks, small-scale business owners and farmers borrow from relatives, business associations, shopkeepers, or other nonfinancial entities and are often charged exorbitant interest rates. The government has encouraged foreign investment, particularly through legislation providing tax incentives for foreigners, which has increased capital flow into the country. Hotel construction has intensified, as has foreign investment in the garment industry. Investor confidence, however, has continued to be restrained because of concerns about political instability.
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2- history
Cambodia's history is marked with periods of peace and of great calamity. From its early cities to the introduction of Hinduism and Buddhism, the great kingdom of Angkor, colonialism, and the Khmer Rouge, this essay tries to put its current rebuilding of civil society in context of its incredible history and the challenges it faces today. When Communist insurgents known as the Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia in 1975, a spokesman claimed that in the process "2,000 years of history" had come to an end. What he meant was that the Khmer Rouge intended to break with the past and to overthrow Cambodia's social relationships. The spokesman was also boasting that Cambodia's recorded history stretched back for two millennia. In fact, archaeological data has revealed that the area we now call "Cambodia" was inhabited by human beings at least 40,000 years ago. Cities developed along the coast in the centuries before and after the birth of Christ. Indian and Chinese pilgrims and traders passed through these cities, and for the first centuries of the Christian era sources for Cambodian history that survive are almost entirely written in Chinese. Elements of Indian culture, in the meantime, took root among Cambodia's elite, and by the 5th and 6th centuries several Hinduized kingdoms sprang up in southern Cambodia. We know about them from the remains of small religious monuments in brick, laterite and stone, from massive stone sculptures, and from inscriptions in Sanskrit and Cambodian, or Khmer. The earliest dated inscription comes from the 4th century CE.
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In the late 8th century, a Khmer prince later crowned as Jayavarman II returned to Cambodia from "exile" in Java, and began to consolidate the kingdom. In 802, in a ceremony near the site we now call Angkor, north of Cambodia's Great Lake, he declared himself a universal monarch, and founded a dynasty that lasted until Angkor was abandoned in the 16th century. In its heyday, Angkor was a powerful kingdom that dominated much of mainland Southeast Asia. Its capital, Yasodharapura, probably housed as many as a million people—most of them farmers—making it one of the most populous cities in the world. The city's temples, dedicated to the Buddha or to Hindu gods, are among the artistic wonders of the world. An image of the most famous of these, Angkor Wat, has appeared on every Cambodian flag (there have been five of them) since the country gained its independence from France in 1953. In the 13th century, Cambodians converted en masse to Theravada Buddhism, the variant practiced by the Khmer today. State-sponsored Hinduism, and the temples inspired by that religion, lost their importance, but for many years the kingdom remained strong and prosperous, as the Chinese emissary Zhou da guan reported in 1296. Over the next 200 years, the empire shrank, as tributary states in what is now Thailand declared their independence and invaded Cambodian territory. By 1450 or so, the capital had shifted southward to the region of present-day Phnom Penh, where it has remained ever since.
Over the next four centuries, Cambodia became a small Buddhist kingdom dependent on the goodwill of its neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam, In the mid-19th century, conflict between these kingdoms spilled onto Cambodian soil, and Cambodia almost disappeared.
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In 1863 the Cambodian king, fearful of Thai intentions, asked France to provide protection for his kingdom. France kept Cambodia from being swallowed up, but the protectorate developed into a full-scale colonial relationship that the king had not foreseen. French rule lasted until the 1950s, and was less harsh than in neighboring Vietnam. The Khmer elite was treated well and French policies had a relatively light impact on the population, while improvements in infrastructure strengthened the economy and brought Cambodia to the edges of the developed world. France's greatest contribution to Cambodia was probably its restoration of the temples at Yasodharapura. French scholars deciphered Angkorean inscriptions and rebuilt many of the temples, providing Cambodians with a glorious, precisely dated past that had been largely forgotten. After Cambodia gained its independence from France, it entered a short period of peace and prosperity which many older Khmer now look back on as a golden age. By the late 1960s, however, Cambodia was drawn inexorably into the Vietnam War. In 1975, Communist forces, known to the outside world as Khmer Rouge or Red Khmers, overthrew the pro-American regime that had seized power five years before. In the Khmer Rouge era that followed , at least 1.2 million Cambodians died of malnutrition, overwork, executions, and mistreated diseases as the Maoist-inspired regime sought to achieve total communism overnight. Responding to Cambodian attacks, Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 and established a protectorate there that lasted for 10 years. Under peace agreements signed in Paris in 1991, Cambodia came under United Nations protection for a time in preparation for general elections that were held in 1993. Since then, Cambodia has been a constitutional monarchy ruled by a coalition government that has accepted large infusions of foreign aid. In 1999 Cambodia became a member of ASEAN, and became for the first time, after centuries of isolation, a full-fledged member of the Southeast Asian community.
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3- Economic of Cambodia
Even before 1975, Cambodia's economy was one of the least-developed in Southeast Asia. It depended heavily on two major products—rice and rubber—and consequently was vulnerable to annual fluctuations caused by vagaries in the weather and world market prices. Agriculture dominated the economy, with most rural families engaged in rice cultivation. Although the tradition of landownership was strong, family landholdings were relatively small, and the rural population was largely self-sufficient. Two and a half acres (one hectare) of rice paddy provided for the needs of a family of five people, and supplementary requirements were traditionally satisfied by fishing, cultivating fruit and vegetables, and raising livestock. Famine was rare in Cambodia, but the self-sufficiency of the rural family produced a conservatism that resisted government efforts before 1975 to modernize the country's agricultural methods. The pro-Vietnamese government that came to power in 1979 dismantled the collectivized agriculture that had been savagely imposed on a national scale by Democratic Kampuchea in 1975–79, but partial collectivization remained an ideal of the new regime, as it did in neighbouring Vietnam, in an attempt to improve efficiency. Voluntary cooperative groupings called krom samaki subsequently replaced collective farms in many areas, but the vast majority of Cambodian farming continued to be carried out by family units growing crops for subsistence and small surpluses for cash or barter. A law enacted in 1989 permitted Cambodians to buy and sell real estate for the first time. An immediate effect of the law was a speculative boom in urban areas and an increase in investment, particularly in Phnom Penh. In rural areas laws were also implemented that restored traditional rights of land tenure and inheritance.
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In 1992–93, during a brief United Nations protectorate, the economies of Phnom Penh and Bătdâmbâng were fueled by foreign speculation in land and short-term, foreign-financed construction. Tourism became (and has remained) a major source of national revenue, but the rural economy has continued to be hampered by poor communications, bad weather, widespread poverty and disease, and often outdated and inefficient farming techniques. Although per capita income has been rising, it has remained among the world's lowest. The country's external debt also increased sharply during the 1990s, and foreign aid continues to be a major source of revenue. Most of the international donors, the leader of which is Japan, have used aid to pressure the Cambodian government to carry out reforms aimed at promoting economic development and democratization. Donors have targeted funding at particular areas such as refugee repatriation and resettlement, education and training, health and sanitation, agriculture, and community development. Creditors have rescheduled and in some cases canceled repayment of loans, but they have also cut aid disbursements when they have disagreed with government policies or actions.
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Cambodia's trading pattern has changed dramatically since the mid-1980s, when the Soviet Union virtually dominated Cambodia's trade. The country's main import sources now are China, the United States, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Most exports go to the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Goods are freely smuggled between Cambodia and Thailand, and large volumes of Cambodian imports are undocumented and untaxed. Consequently, trade figures are difficult to interpret. This understood, major retained imports include investment-related products, petroleum products, and durable consumer goods. Until the late 1990s, reexport of imported goods such as cigarettes, motor vehicles, electronics, and gold accounted for the bulk of Cambodia's external trade. Since then garments have eclipsed all other commodities to constitute the bulk of Cambodia's exports. Sawn timber, logs, and rubber, once central to Cambodia's economy, continue to be exported—legitimately—in small quantities. The success of free trading zones established at the ports of Kâmpôt and Krŏng Kaôh Kŏng in the late 1980s for trade with Thailand and Singapore led to the expansion and legalization of cross-border trade with Thailand. In 1999 Cambodia became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and in 2004 the country joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both initiatives required implementing reciprocal tariff reductions and other trade legislation, some of which have posed a perennial challenge to the national budget. The country has long had chronic balance-of-trade deficits.