Monthly Archives: July 2015

New partnership: GIZ Land Rights Program II signed a MoU with Phnom Penh Capital Hall to jointly secure land tenure for urban poor settlers in the capital

Maraile Görgen, GIZ Land Rights Program II, and Mr. Mean Chanyada, Administration Director of Phnom Penh Capital Hall, are handing over to each other the signed MoU.

Maraile Görgen, GIZ Land Rights Program II, and Mr. Mean Chanyada, Administration Director of Phnom Penh Capital Hall, are handing over to each other the signed MoU.

24 July 2015

Guided by the motto „Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when they are created by everybody“ GIZ’s  Land Rights Program II and Phnom Penh Capital Hall signed a MoU on July 10. With the technical support of GIZ, Phnom Penh Capital Hall aims to strengthen the capacity of their staff to identify and implement replicable, transparent and participatory procedures to provide land tenure security for urban poor settlers. More>>>

New partnership: GIZ Land Rights Program II signed a MoU with Phnom Penh Capital Hall to jointly secure land tenure for urban poor settlers in the capital

Maraile Görgen, GIZ Land Rights Program II, and Mr. Mean Chanyada, Administration Director of Phnom Penh Capital Hall, are handing over to each other the signed MoU.

Maraile Görgen, GIZ Land Rights Program II, and Mr. Mean Chanyada, Administration Director of Phnom Penh Capital Hall, are handing over to each other the signed MoU.

24 July 2015

Guided by the motto „Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when they are created by everybody“ GIZ’s  Land Rights Program II and Phnom Penh Capital Hall signed a MoU on July 10. With the technical support of GIZ, Phnom Penh Capital Hall aims to strengthen the capacity of their staff to identify and implement replicable, transparent and participatory procedures to provide land tenure security for urban poor settlers.

During the signing ceremony the Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh Capital, HE Ieng Aunny, presented his goal to stop the development of new urban informal settlements. He underlined the need to improve the situation of urban poor settlers and thus to give them secured tenure rights.

Maraile Görgen, representative of GIZ Land Rights Program II, welcomed the approach and valued the representatives of Phnom Penh Capital Hall for their ambition to fight poverty in the capital. Through the longstanding and successful cooperation with the Municipality of Battambang, GIZ Land Rights Program II became an experienced and valuable stakeholder in the area of securing land tenure for urban poor communities. The LRP II team is more than happy to share its expertise with its new partner in Phnom Penh and is looking forward to bring the capital’s informal settlers to formal land tenure rights.

 

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Be responsible, be profitable and be proud

Dr. Vinai Pitipont, Permanent Executive Technical Consultant to the Deputy Director takes Mr. Heang and Ms. Rothany Srun, entrepreneurs, for a tour at Central Lab Thai.

Dr. Vinai Pitipont, Permanent Executive Technical Consultant to the Deputy Director takes Mr. Heang and Ms. Rothany Srun, entrepreneurs, for a tour at Central Lab Thai.

22 July 2015

Father and daughter exploring Thailand’s fruit juice standard in improving Cambodian SMEs market

Heang Srun and his daughter Rothany Srun want to develop their own fruit juice business in Cambodia, Mr. Srun’s home land.

Mr. Srun traveled from Minnesota, USA to meet his daughter in Bangkok, Thailand. Ms. Srun flew from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to see her father. They were going to visit four fruit production factories, one manufacturer, and one laboratory to learn about food standard and quality in the Thai food and beverage industry.

The four-day study trip was organized by German’s ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS) with its goal to heighten food safety and quality standard in ASEAN countries. More>>>

Be responsible, be profitable and be proud

Dr. Vinai Pitipont, Permanent Executive Technical Consultant to the Deputy Director takes Mr. Heang and Ms. Rothany Srun, entrepreneurs, for a tour at Central Lab Thai.

Dr. Vinai Pitipont, Permanent Executive Technical Consultant to the Deputy Director takes Mr. Heang and Ms. Rothany Srun, entrepreneurs, for a tour at Central Lab Thai.

22 July 2015

Father and daughter exploring Thailand’s fruit juice standard in improving Cambodian SMEs market

Heang Srun and his daughter Rothany Srun want to develop their own fruit juice business in Cambodia, Mr. Srun’s home land.

Mr. Srun traveled from Minnesota, USA to meet his daughter in Bangkok, Thailand. Ms. Srun flew from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to see her father. They were going to visit four fruit production factories, one manufacturer, and one laboratory to learn about food standard and quality in the Thai food and beverage industry.

The four-day study trip was organized by German’s ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS) with its goal to heighten food safety and quality standard in ASEAN countries.

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“Cambodian market itself in terms of production and manufacturing has been hit with so many scandals in relation to what sort of pesticide and chemical get put in the food. The SMEs in Cambodia want to improve their product safety and quality. They know that this will actually improve their business and also trust in their brand,” said Ms. Srun, a US born citizen, who has been working in Cambodia for the past five years in communication and organization development.

“From what I hear, a lot of Cambodians are interested in developing their own country that they have something to be proud of at better quality and higher standard,” she said.

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On a personal note, Ms. Srun said she was very concerned about the food she ate and if she was going to start a food production factory of her family, she wanted to be able to eat the food she

Sample test at Central Lab Thai.

Sample test at Central Lab Thai.

produces. “I am really concerned about the food I eat that what sort of ingredients they are putting into the food if there’s pesticide and chemical residues in the vegetable and the food I am eating. I want to be able to actually produce something I could also eat. I don’t want to eat pesticide and I don’t’ want to eat chemical,” she said.

This four-day study visit was planned and organized by a fruit juice factory auditor of Sure and Global Fair (SGF), a German based self-control association for fruit juice safety and quality assurance, a public private partnership of ASEAN SAS on a project “Improvement of product safety and quality for the Thai fruit juice industry” with the aim of improving the production processes of fruit juice in the Thailand.

ASEAN SAS supports responsible agriculture production for safe, healthy and affordable food to meet an increasing demand of a growing populations while, at the same time, protecting a shrinking natural resources. The Agrifood systems will only be sustainable when the value chain including, for example, farmers, processors, traders, and input suppliers are profitable while securing food safety and quality standard.

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Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, Regional Adviser of ASEAN SAS (far left) gives introduction on fruit juice safety and quality standard to entrepreneur.

Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, Regional Adviser of ASEAN SAS (far left) gives introduction on fruit juice safety and quality standard to entrepreneur.

“ASEAN SAS seeks to collaborate with serious private partners to adopt food safety and quality standard and link to the market. This also includes supporting SMEs in getting benefit from ASEAN Economy Community,” said Mr. Suriyan Vichitlekarn, regional adviser of GIZ’s ASEAN SAS project.

One of the ASEAN SAS’s activities is providing advisory support for responsible business development.

Mr. Srun, business entrepreneur and vice president of QTS manufacturing for medical device outsourcing said: “Business is business, but we want to do business with responsibility. For us standard is about responsibility. For a lot of private business, at least in Cambodia, it costs money. But we want to improve the society and the community. It’s not like the rich taking advantage of the poor. We don’t want to only make money and take advantage of the consumers and our employees.

“We want to create jobs for Cambodian people that they can make a basic living and pursue their other interests and enjoy life. People are people. It doesn’t matter if they are Thais, Americans or Cambodians, but they should be able to enjoy life as people.

“We want to see Cambodian people live and eat well in their own country and make enough for their family that they don’t have to find work in other countries living in a harsh condition. We are proud that we can help people,” he said. Mr. Srun was born in Cambodia and moved to the US for over 20 years.

Ms. Srun also said about responsible business and standard that: “We talk about responsible social practice but at the end of the day it needs to be profitable. How you can talk to them [SMES]

Testing Room at Central Lab Thai, Bangkok, Thailand.

Testing Room at Central Lab Thai, Bangkok, Thailand.

that standard can improve and widen their market scope in the future and why it should be important to them. I want to be able to show that these sorts of things are possible to do in Cambodia that you can be profitable and you can still also follow international standard.

“Food standard is important for food production if you want a better market, better product, and better image of the country,” she said.

In this four-day study visit the father-and-daughter entrepreneurs visited the pineapple product factories, coconut product factory, beverage factory, and laboratory and machinery manufacturer. The study trip was specifically designed to fit the needs and future business possibilities of the visitors.

From left: Ms. Napaporn Rattanametta, Auditor of Sure and Global Fair and Project Manager on Food Safety for ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems; Chamoy Thonglue, Vice President of Central Lab Thai’s Bangkok Branch, Ms. Rothany Srun and Mr. Heang Srun and Dr. Vinai Pitipont, Permanent Executive Technical Consultant to the Deputy Director.

From left: Ms. Napaporn Rattanametta, Auditor of Sure and Global Fair and Project Manager on Food Safety for ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems; Chamoy Thonglue, Vice President of Central Lab Thai’s Bangkok Branch, Ms. Rothany Srun and Mr. Heang Srun and Dr. Vinai Pitipont, Permanent Executive Technical Consultant to the Deputy Director.

“I like the variety of what we saw, we saw the big factory, we saw the smaller factory, and even not factory, but laboratory and manufacturer. After the visit, I saw that so many other SMEs would also benefit from it, and they would be very much interested in learning from it. It is not only about visiting the factories in Thailand but if we connect other SMEs in utilizing the different services available here [laboratory and machinery manufacturer] that are not available in Cambodia, it will eventually help their business, help them to improve the quality,” said the Ms. Srun.

By Rojana Manowalailao, ASEAN Sustainable Agrifood Systems (ASEAN SAS)

For more information: http://www.asean-agrifood.org/be-responsible-be-profitable-and-be-proud/

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Targeting Urban Poverty in Cambodia: Accuracy Matters

Questionnaire Testing 117 July 2015

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – There is no room for mistakes when identifying urban poor households. As IDPoor Programme team from the Cambodian Ministry of Planning demonstrated at a March workshop, urban poor household identification requires accuracy in the questions evaluators ask and a reliable scoring system. More>>>

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All activities are implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).