New insights into the relationship between economic growth and aC na political stability in post-conflict societies dr Cambodia’s Kol From 2002, Cambodia underwent a visible economic transforma tion heine driven largely by such external factors as increased Chinese demand an H gu for primary commodities and a strong international demand for Cam- Ug h bodian garments. Apart from dramatic rates of economic growth, the ne Economic s boom involved the disappearance of forests and the decline of logging, the inflow of Chinese investment and the rise of indigenous capital, C and the increased significance of remittances from garment workers a and labour migrants. In addition, the impact of government policies m Transformation on land registration and concessions transformed relations of produc- b tion and, with them, the socio-economic and political environment in o rural and urban Cambodia. d Cambodia’s Economic Transformation examines the political econ- i omy of the Cambodian boom, analysing the changing structure of the a ’ economy, the relationship between state and market, and outcomes s for the poor. Not least, it focuses the role of the state in facilitating E and controlling the market, and the way that this has affected the life c chances of the poor. In so doing, it situates Cambodian experience o within key debates in the wider political economy of Eastern Asia, n scrutinizing the relationship between class formation, structures of o m governance and resource distribution. The analysis also offers a deeper understanding of the nature of the market as it has emerged in Cam- i c bodia over the past decade. T Caroline Hughes is Director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch r University and has been studying the process of economic and political a change in Cambodia since 1995. Kheang Un is Assistant Professor of n s political science at North Illinois University. His interests include demo- f cratization, human rights, NGOs, and political economy. Both editors o serve as research advisors to the Cambodia Development Resource r m Institute in Phnom Penh. a t i o n Edited by Caroline Hughes and Kheang Un www.niaspress.dk Hughes_pbk-cover.indd 1 07/11/2011 11:32 Cambodia’s Economic Transformation Hughes book.indb 1 02/11/2011 10:07 NORDIC INSTITUTE OF ASIAN STUDIES NIAS Studies in Asian Topics 21 Identity in Asian Literature Lisbeth Littrup (ed.) 22 Mongolia in Transition Ole Bruun and Ole Odgaard (eds) 23 Asian Forms of the Nation Stein Tønnesson and Hans Antlöv (eds) 24 The Eternal Storyteller Vibeke Børdahl (ed.) 25 Japanese Influences and Presences in Asia Marie Söderberg and Ian Reader (eds) 26 Muslim Diversity Leif Manger (ed.) 27 Women and Households in Indonesia Juliette Koning, Marleen Nolten, Janet Rodenburg and Ratna Saptari (eds) 28 The House in Southeast Asia Stephen Sparkes and Signe Howell (eds) 29 Rethinking Development in East Asia Pietro P. Masina (ed.) 30 Coming of Age in South and Southeast Asia Lenore Manderson and Pranee Liamputtong (eds) 31 Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895–1945 Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb (eds) 32 Contesting Visions of the Lao Past Christopher Goscha and Søren Ivarsson (eds) 33 Reaching for the Dream Melanie Beresford and Tran Ngoc Angie (eds) 34 Mongols from Country to City Ole Bruun and Li Naragoa (eds) 35 Four Masters of Chinese Storytelling Vibeke Børdahl, Fei Li and Huang Ying (eds) 36 The Power of Ideas Claudia Derichs and Thomas Heberer (eds) 37 Beyond the Green Myth Peter Sercombe and Bernard Sellato (eds) 38 Kinship and Food in South-East Asia Monica Janowski and Fiona Kerlogue (eds) 39 Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Burma Mikael Gravers (ed.) 40 Politics, Culture and Self: East Asian and North European Attitudes Geir Helgesen and Søren Risbjerg Thomsen (eds) 41 Beyond Chinatown Mette Thunø (ed.) 42 Breeds of Empire: The ‘Invention’ of the Horse in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa 1500–1950 Greg Bankoff and Sandra Swart 43 People of Virtue: Reconfiguring Religion, Power and Moral Order in Cambodia Today Alexandra Kent and David Chandler (eds) 44 Lifestyle and Entertainment in Yangzhou Lucie Elivova and Vibeke Børdahl (eds) 45 iChina: The Rise of the Individual in Modern Chinese Society Mette Halskov Hansen and Rune Svarverud (eds.) 46 The Interplay of the Oral and the Written in Chinese Popular Literature Vibeke Børdahl and Margaret B. Wan (eds.) 47 Saying the Unsayable: Monarchy and Democracy in Thailand Søren Ivarsson and Lotte Isager (eds.) 48 Plaited Arts from the Borneo Rainforest Bernard Sellato ed.) 49 Cambodia’s Economic Transformation Caroline Hughes and Kheang Un (eds.) Hughes book.indb 2 02/11/2011 10:07 Cambodia’s Economic Transformation Edited by Caroline Hughes and Kheang Un Hughes book.indb 3 02/11/2011 10:07 Cambodia’s Economic Transition Edited by Caroline Hughes & Kheang Un NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies NIAS Studies in Asian Topics, no. 49 First published in 2011 by NIAS Press Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Leifsgade 33, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark Email: [email protected] Online: http://www.niaspress.dk © NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies 2011 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, copyright in the individual chapters belongs to their authors. No chapter may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher. Printed in the United Kingdom by Marston Digital Typesetting and layout: Donald B. Wagner British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Cambodia’s economic transformation. -- (NIAS studies in Asian topics ; 49) 1. Cambodia--Economic conditions-- 21st century. 2. Cambodia--Economic policy. 3. Economic development--Social aspects--Cambodia. 4. Poor--Cambodia. 5. Distributive justice--Cambodia. 6. Cambodia--Politics and government--1979- I. Series II. Hughes, Caroline, 1969- III. Un, Kheang. 338.9’596’0090511-dc22 ISBN: 978-87-7694-082-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-87-7694-083-6 (pbk) Hughes book.indb 4 02/11/2011 10:07 Contents Figures vi Tables vi Contributors vii Acknowledgements x 1. Cambodia’s Economic Transformation: Historical and Theoretical Frameworks Caroline Hughes and Kheang Un 1 2. The Rise of Provincial Business in Cambodia Andrew Robert Cock 27 3. China’s Aid to Cambodia Michael Sullivan 50 4. Growth in the Rice and Garment Sectors Sophal Ear 70 5. The Privatization of Cambodia’s Rubber Industry Margaret Slocomb 94 6. Cashews, Cash and Capitalism in Northeast Cambodia Jonathan Padwe 110 7. The Politics and Practice of Land Registration at the Grassroots Sokbunthoeun So 136 8. Neoliberal Strategies of Poverty Reduction in Cambodia: The Case of Microfinance David J. Norman 161 9. The Politics and Profits of “Labour Export” Annuska Derks 182 10. The Political Economy of “Good Governance” Reform Kheang Un and Caroline Hughes 199 11. Party Financing of Local Investment Projects: Elite and Mass Patronage David Craig and Pak Kimchoeun 219 12. Local Leaders and Big Business in Three Communes Caroline Hughes, Eng Netra, Thon Vimealea, Ou Sivhuoch and Ly Tem 245 13. Accountability and Local Politics in Natural Resource Management Kim Sedara and Joakim Öjendal 266 14. NGOs, People’s Movements and Natural Resource Management Roger Henke 288 15. Imagined Parasites: Flows of Monies and Spirits Erik W. Davis 310 Bibliography 330 Index 357 Hughes book.indb 5 02/11/2011 10:07 Figures 1. The Jarai farming system at Tang Kadon 121 2. Selected area, not showing recent land sale 132 3. The same area, showing land sales transacted recently 133 4. Location where landholdings were surveyed 145 5. CPP Working Group Structure 224 Tables 1. Agriculture in Cambodia 2000–2006 82 2. Situation of Rubber Cultivation at 31 December 1968 96 3. The Jarai Agricultural Calendar 123 4. Land Sales in Tang Kadon by Year, Differentiated by Seller and Buyer 129 5. Land Sales in Tang Kadon by Year 130 6. Transfer of land holdings in Voar Sar, Pneay and Khtum Krang Communes, Kampong Speu Province 144 7. How people conduct land transactions before and after receiving land titles in Voar Sar and Pneay Communes, Kampong Speu Province 153 8. Reasons for not registering land transfers at cadastral authority 154 9. Number of borrowers of Microfinance as of March 2010 175 10. Case 1: District Working Group Composition 226 11. Case 1: CPP support to the district, 2003–2007 227 12. Case 1: CPP support to the commune, 2003–2007 228 13. Case 2: CPP support to the district, 2003–2007 231 14. Case 2: CPP and Other Support to one selected commune (in USD), 2003–2007 232 15. Case 3: Party and Donor Support to the district, 1998–2007 235 Hughes book.indb 6 02/11/2011 10:07 Contributors Andrew Robert Cock was Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies at Monash University in Australia from 2009–2011. He is currently based in Japan at Waseda University in Tokyo undertaking research into global commodity traders. Recent publications on Cambodia include “Anticipating an Oil Boom: the ‘Resource Curse’ Thesis in the Play of Cambodian Politics,” Pacific Affairs, 83.3 (2010) and “External Actors and the Relative Autonomy of the Ruling Elite in post-UNTAC Cambodia,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 41.2 (2010). David Craig is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the Uni- versity of Auckland in New Zealand. He is the author of Development Beyond Neoliberalism? Governance, Poverty Reduction and Political Economy (London: Routledge, 2006), written with Doug Porter, and Familiar Medicine: Everyday Health Knowledge and Practice in Today’s Vietnam (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002). Erik W. Davis is Assistant Professor of Asian Religions at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the US. He is the author of “Between Forests and Families: Death, Desire, and Order in Cambodia” published in People of Virtue: Reconfiguring Religion, Power, and Moral Order in Today’s Cambodia, edited by Alexandra Kent and David P. Chandler (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2008); and “Imaginary Conversations with Mothers about Death,” published in At the Edge of the Forest: Essays in Honor of David Chandler, edited by Anne R. Hansen and Judy Ledgerwood (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008). Annuska Derks is a Swiss National Science Foundation Research Fellow, af- filiated with the Institute for Social Anthropology of Bern University and the Center for Asian Studies at the Graduate Institute for International and Devel- opment Studies in Geneva in Switzerland. She is currently based in Vietnam, where she is a Visiting Lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology of the Vietnam National University, Hanoi. She is the author of Khmer Women on the Move: Exploring Work and Life in Urban Cambodia (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008) and editor of the Special Issue of the Asian Journal of Social Sci- ence on Bonded Labour in Southeast Asia, 38.6 (2010). Sophal Ear is an Assistant Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in the US. He is the author of the award-winning article “Does Aid Dependence Worsen Governance?” vii Hughes book.indb 7 02/11/2011 10:07 viii Contributors International Public Management Journal, 10.3 (2007) and has contributed to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Eng Netra is a PhD candidate and Australian Leadership Award-holder at Monash University in Australia. She is the co-author of three working papers published by the Cambodian Development Resource Institute: Accountability and Neo-Patrimonialism in Cambodia: a Critical Literature Review (Phnom Penh: CDRI, 2007); Accountability and Human Resource Management in Decen- tralised Cambodia (Phnom Penh: CDRI, 2009); and Leadership in Local Politics of Cambodia: A Study of Leaders in Three Communes of Three Provinces (Phnom Penh: CDRI, 2009). Roger Henke is the Managing Director of the Summit Hotel in Kathmandu in Nepal and formerly Programme Manager at the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Recent publica- tions include “Mistakes and their Consequences: Why Impunity in Cambodia is Here to Stay” in Edwin Poppe and Maykel Verkuyten, (eds.) Culture and Conflict: Liber Amicorum for Louk Hagendoorn (Amsterdam: Aksant, 2007) and a Cam- bodia Context Analysis for the Dutch Trade Union Confederation CNV (2010). Caroline Hughes is the Director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch Uni- versity in Australia. She is the author of The Political Economy of Cambodia’s Transition (London: Routledge, 2003) and Dependent Communities: Aid and Politics in Cambodia and East Timor (Ithaca: Cornell SEAP, 2009). Kim Sedara is Senior Research Fellow at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He recently completed a PhD at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden entitled Where Decentralization Meets Democracy: Civil Society, Local Government and Accountability in Cambodia (Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, 2007) and is the co-author of “Korob, Kaud, Klach: In Search of Agency in Rural Cambodia,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 37.3 (2006). Ly Tem is a Research Assistant at the Cambodia Development Resource Insti- tute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is the co-author of a CDRI working paper entitled Leadership in Local Politics of Cambodia: A Study of Leaders in Three Communes of Three Provinces (Phnom Penh: CDRI, 2009). David Norman is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He has re- cently completed a PhD entitled “Interrogating the Dynamics of Cosmopolitan Hughes book.indb 8 02/11/2011 10:07 Contributors ix Democracy in Theory and Practice: The Case of Cambodia” (Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 2010). Fieldwork for this chapter was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK Joakim Öjendal is Professor of Peace and Development Research at the School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. He has co-edited three volumes on Asian politics: Beyond Democracy in Cambodia: Political Recon- struction in a Post-Conflict Society, edited with Mona Lilja (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2009); Deepening Democracy and Restructuring Governance: Responses to Globalization in Southeast Asia edited with Francis Loh (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2005); and Regionalization in a Globalizing World, edited with Michael Schulz and Fredrik Söderbaum (London: Zed Press, 2001). Ou Sivhuoch is a Research Associate at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He is the co-author of a CDRI working paper entitled Leadership in Local Politics of Cambodia: A Study of Leaders in Three Communes of Three Provinces (Phnom Penh: CDRI, 2009). Jonathan Padwe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii in the US. He recently completed a PhD disserta- tion entitled Garden Variety Histories: Notes on Farming at the End of the World (New Haven: Yale University, 2010). Pak Kimchoeun recently completed a PhD dissertation at the Australian Na- tional University entitled, A Dominant Party in a Weak State: How the Ruling Party in Cambodia has Managed to Stay Dominant (Canberra: ANU, 2011). He is co-author of two working papers published by the Cambodia Development Resource Institute: Accountability and Neo-Patrimonialism in Cambodia: a Critical Literature Review (Phnom Penh: CDRI, 2007); and Accountability and Public Expenditure Management in Decentralised Cambodia (Phnom Penh: CDRI, 2008). Margaret Slocomb has retired, but continues to write history. She is the author of The People’s Republic of Kampuchea 1979–1989: the Revolution after Pol Pot (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003), Colons and Coolies: the Devel- opment of Cambodia’s Rubber Plantations (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2007) and most recently An Economic History of Cambodia in the Twentieth Century (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2010). Sokbunthoeun So is a Senior Research Fellow at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He is the author or co-author Hughes book.indb 9 02/11/2011 10:07