PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — This past Tuesday marked the day of the first Cambodian genocide hearing. The trial starts almost thirty years after the end of Pol Pot’s cruel Khmer Rouge regime. During its three years, eight months, and twenty days of rule from 1975 to 1979, 1.7 million Cambodians, more than one-fifth of the population, were killed by their own countrymen.

On our journalism trip to Cambodia, we talked with several Cambodian and international experts, and it struck me that there was a seemingly odd lack of excitement about this historic moment for Cambodia. The reasons for this could be a combination of the following points that were raised by different people we talked to:

First, many argue that the trials come too late. They argue that the trials should have been held right after the Khmer Rouge dictatorship fell in 1979. Since then, the process has lost much of its momentum. Some argue that it was the international community’s fault to not push for immediate reconciliation.

Second, it can’t bring back those who were killed. We heard from several people that the trial will bring back the grief but won’t bring back the parents, siblings, and grandparents so many Cambodians lost due to execution or starvation. We talked to a former Cambodian ambassador to the United States, who lost both his parents and seven of his nine brothers and sisters. Some also argue that the trial’s mandate to only punish senior leaders wasn’t helpful, since those who carried out the executions will remain free.

Third, international observers argue that the trial structure is imperfect and vastly underfunded. So far, funding amounts to $56 million for three years. A sum far too small, according to Michael Petit, the international co-prosecutor we talked to. Also, some argue that a process mostly driven by Cambodian law and Cambodian lawyers and only 40% international involvement won’t help to make the process credible. International NGOs, however, will play an important role in strengthening the transparency of the process by hosting public meetings and by reaching out to the public.

Fourth, some Cambodians even argue that the trials are government-controlled and therefore won’t address the involvement of current government officials in the Khmer Rouge regime. Some of the current government members used to be uncomfortably close to Khmer Rouge officials.

Lastly, Cambodia’s booming economy with its two-digit growth rates might play a role. Some people might just want to turn the page and forget.

The international political and business community, however, will probably closely monitor the trials. The question is whether the process has the potential to improve the Cambodian government’s tattered reputation. Business experts argue that it has been corruption and a lack of rule of law and good governance that kept big investment flows out of Cambodia so far. Will the trials be able to change this?

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HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Like many developing countries, Vietnam is dealing with challenges that are caused by its own success: Exponentially growing market demand and the influx of direct foreign investment – to a large degree due to Vietnam’s recent WTO accession – have caused shortages in the areas of infrastructure and energy.

Most of the economic experts we talked to mentioned Vietnam’s lack of roads, ports, railways and airports as one of the biggest detriments to the continuation of rapid economic development. Dr. Le Dang Doah, one of Vietnam’s leading economists, is concerned about what he calls Vietnam ‘s”infrastructure bottleneck”. We heard from an official that investments in infrastructure – as opposed to education or health projects – are often seen as rather”unsexy” by some foreign aid donors. When it comes to the Vietnamese government’s plans to build new ports and roads, an American business woman complained that the government tended to over-promise and to not always stick to its own deadlines.

Energy in Vietnam is also in short supply. Despite making best use of hydroelectric power, the Vietnamese power sector relies on imports from China and Laos among other countries while oil and electricity prices continue to climb. Slowly, investments are also triggering into the areas of wind, solar and bio-energy. Vietnam plans to use nuclear power in the future; the first nuclear facilities will be built by 2018. But Vietnam has been and will continue to face energy constraints.

Speaking of infrastructure and energy supply bottlenecks – what about traffic? When walking the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where millions of motor bikes already make their way through heavily polluted streets, one wonders what will happen once most Vietnamese can afford to buy cars. So far, prices for automobiles in Vietnam were among the highest in the world. The local production was protected by high taxes on imported cars, but taxes have gradually been lowered – partly due to WTO demands to make the local auto market more competitive. Thus, purchasing a car in Vietnam will become more and more affordable. When asking a business woman if – despite the overwhelming traffic and the vast pollution – most Vietnamese would buy a car if they could, her answer was:”Oh yes, immediately!”

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HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Keeping good relations with China will certainly continue to be one of the Vietnamese government ‘s main priorities.

The reasons for this have been of political nature; but increasingly economic reasons take priority. While there are some success stories like Vietnamese companies winning back the local beer market, the Vietnamese reliance on Chinese products and production materials is huge. According to a government official, the bilateral trade volume between China and Vietnam amounts to $15 billion a year. Vietnamese imports from China clearly outstrip opposite trade flows – the Vietnamese trade deficit with China is at around $8 billion.

When traveling in Vietnam, we heard about two recent instances where China flexed its muscles in times of economic challenge: When a British oil company explored drilling possibilities of Vietnamese oil fields close to the Chinese border, China forced the company to stop. Find a related news article here.

When Vietnamese media reported about Chinese-made toys containing lead paint, China retaliated by suspending food imports from Vietnam. A media representative said that they were told by their editors to immediately stop reporting about the lead paint scandal.

The Vietnamese plans to continue their economic reforms, to diversify their economy and to rely on quality and productivity instead of quantity make much sense; but it will remain difficult to strike a balance between economic dependence on China and attempting to go their own way when it comes to domestic economic growth and greater political freedom.

It is interesting, though, that some Vietnamese have revised their perception of China. For them, China is first and foremost a market of 1 billion people next door to Vietnam.

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At an international biofuels conference hosted in Brussels last week, the EU Commission announced that imports will be an important policy tool in order to reach the EU’s ambitious goal of a 10% biofuels share by 2020. This came at a point when serious doubts were raised, even within the Commission, about the feasibility of the 10% goal.  

The presence of five EU Commissioners in addition to Brazilian President Lula and EU President Barroso at the conference indicated the enormous importance biofuels have gained as a tool to fight climate change and to achieve energy diversification and income opportunities for rural areas. Interestingly, though, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, was not among the speakers.  

EU Trade Commissioner Mandelson strongly argued for increased international trade in biofuels and emphasized that biofuels produced in countries like Brazil have a stronger carbon performance and are cheaper and  cleaner than their European counterparts. The Swedish Trade Minister Sten Tolgfors would even like to abolish import tariffs on biofuels altogether. He criticized that Brazilian ethanol was still met with tariffs of up to 55% while the tariff on petrol was as low as 5%. Sweden and the Netherlands recently commissioned a comprehensive OECD study on a trading system for biofuels that will be released in spring 2008. In contrast to the European approach, the US biofuels strategy is much more focused on local production. Experts predict that this year US import figures for biofuels will be even lower than they were in 2006.  

The other key aspect that was repeatedly raised last week in Brussels was the need for a sustainable production of biofuels. The EU plans to establish sustainability criteria or a certification system that would apply to imports as well as domestic production. Sustainability criteria will include environmental as well as social aspects of global biofuels production. The EU just finished a public consultation process and plans to publish a Renewable Energies Directive by the end of 2007. The sustainability discussion was initially pushed by countries like the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany after experts argued that certain biofuels had a negative greenhouse gas impact on the environment.  

One way to significantly raise the environmental and energy-balance of biofuels would be to switch to greener, so-called second- or third-generation biofuels. These, however, won’t become economically viable until 2012 to 2017.

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