An indicator of optimism, an arrogant ploy or a greedy stretch, Cambodia's plan to start up a national airline is making news.

The costly failure of Royal Air Cambodge in 2001 may have indicated simple bad timing, and now that close to 2 million tourists are pouring in the venture could make sense.

In advance of next year's general election scheduled for July, election watchdog NGOs have determined that 11.2 percent of eligible Cambodian voters aren't registered.

Deeming this "more important than deleting ghost voter names from the voter list", the director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia is suggesting the National Election Committee do some cleaning up of the list, nonetheless.

A press release has been issued on foreign ownership of Cambodian real estate, urging the government to begin to enforce a 2005 amendment.

As it stands now, property investment must be in the name of a Cambodian national, and some argue that this is limiting the investment market in the country.

American lawyer and chairman of the International Business Club, Bretton Sciaron comments on the property investment news ‘There are several reasons for urgent action, this is already a sector of the economy that is dynamic, but foreign ownership of apartments, condominiums and other such structures on the land will help spur further economic growth. Such a regulatory development will provide a dramatic indication that Cambodia has an investor-friendly environment.’

It seems enough to me that KFC is moving in, but I've never really been convinced that development is all that good a thing.

This story, sounding way too much like the pot/kettle thing is certainly development-related.

It looks like China is desirous of helping Cambodia fight corruption.

"China would like to deepen exchanges and cooperation with Cambodia in various fields including fighting corruption and administrative supervision," said He Yong, deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC), when meeting with Cambodian Minister of the National Assembly and Senate Relations and Inspections Men Sam An.

He also briefed Men Sam An on the great efforts the Chinese government has made in building an honest and clean government, and in fighting against corruption.

Excuse me while I reach for the salt shaker I keep handy for occasions like this ...

And yet more development, this on Cambodia and Vietnam working together to build tourism on the stretch of coast that runs along both countries.

Kep is to be a hub on the Cambodian side.

On the good news front, the spread of dengue fever seems to be slowing down. Given that 370 children have already died and 35,000 people have been hospitalized ... the official figures, I must add, and certainly not a complete number ... it's good to hear that some of the anti-mosquito actions have been successful.

And sticking with positives on the health side, the VOA reports on the country's unexpected success in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The United Nations AIDS co-ordinator in Cambodia, Tony Lisle, says the government has done a good job. "I think the main reasons behind this remarkable success is the enormous commitment of government. I think very strong partnerships between government and civil society, NGOs, and other partners to ensure that we had a very, very comprehensive program that addressed the high points of the epidemic, the epicenter of the epidemic, which is basically sex workers and their clients."

If Cambodia can do it, any country should be able to. As the article puts it: "Cambodia is poor and is recovering from decades of conflict. Thousands of women see no choice but to become sex workers", adding, " ... if the political will is there, the disease can be contained, even in the poorest nation."

(Can we hope Thabo Mbeki is listenting?)