With so much happening in Cambodia this week, the wrap of the week’s news is sloshing over from Friday right into Saturday.

We have looked at a trafficking task force and some issues with the courts, but will start today on a brighter note. Things are improving in Cambodia, and some are predicting it will be the next "Asian economic tiger".

A positive POV has much on the upswing and improving in Cambodia, and some are predicting it will be the next "Asian economic tiger".

Last year's rice yield was the highest in a decade at 6.4 million tons, and with agriculture counting for 30% of the country's gross domestic product, this is good news. Although more than a third of Cambodians live still live in poverty, the economy has grown by 9% since 2000.

That could be part of the reason the Shinhan Financianl Groups will be setting up a wholly-owned commercial lending bank in PP as early as September.

"Cambodia has high demand for project financing since there has been a social infrastructure construction boom in the Southeast Asian country," a bank official said.

Of course, the smell of oil has people thinking money-money-money! Apparently, it's not just off shore, either, but also to be found in the Tonle Sap Lake.

Not to worry, however, as a seminar has been held. This one called, "Avoid the Oil Curse", and was designed to, "prepare on legal and theoretical bases for the expected influx of oil revenues around 2010."

The UNDP (United Nations Development Program) has confirmed about 700 million barrels of oil are to be had in Cambodian territory, an amount that could provide over three times the kingdom's official development assistance received in 2005.

(In case you're not familiar with the way things tend to work in countries tutored by the UN in governance, it works like this:

First: identify a problem
Second: Form a committee
Third: Come up with a slogan
Fourth: Print slogan on T-shirts
Fifth: Conduct a seminar
Sixth: Yack about seminar and slogan on local news
Seventh: Prepare a report about seminar and slogan

And that's it. If the problem isn't solved by these steps? Oh, well. We did our best ... )

And there’s more to come in the next post …