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Vietnam exports about 60 million USD worth of aquatic products to Cambodia annually. (Photo: VNA) Phnom Penh (VNA) – The Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on February 8 issued a press release on the resumption of the import of aquatic products, including farmed fish, from neighbouring countries, including Vietnam.   The import suspension was announced by the Cambodian side one month ago. On January 19, Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh sent a letter to Cambodian Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak, saying Vietnam’s shipments of farmed fish failed to pass through customs and were returned. The import ban showed signs of running counter to the trade liberalisation spirit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the ASEAN Economic Community, of which both countries are members, he said. In the press release, the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it will continue to collect feedback from the Cambodian Aquaculture Association, importers and exporters, and concerned agencies that are Cambodia’s trade partners to build and recognise technical standards. Le Bien Cuong, head of the Vietnamese trade affairs office in Cambodia, told the Vietnam News Agency on February 8 that the Cambodian side has shown its goodwill and active response. Cambodia would consider imposing additional non-tariff technical measures in farmed fish import, including certificates of product origin and quality, he said. According to the Vietnamese ministry, in recent years, Vietnam has exported about 60 million USD worth of aquatic products to Cambodia annually. Although Cambodia is not a major market of Vietnamese aquatic products, its stable import demand has contributed significantly to cross-border trade development, as well as job creation and income generation for local residents./. VNA …

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Cambodia has announced an end to the ban on catfish import from several neighbouring countries, including Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The move followed the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade’s reaction to send a letter to Cambodian Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak, saying that the import ban showed signs of running counter to the spirit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the ASEAN Economic Community, of which both are members. Vietnam's catfish On January 8, the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries released an announcement about the suspension of the import of certain catfish species from some countries bordering Cambodia, including Vietnam. The ban came after requests by farmed fish breeders in Cambodia who said they are badly affected by the market being flooded with smuggled farmed fish from neighbouring countries, which has led to a drop in prices for domestically farmed fish. Although the suspension was removed, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnamese seafood exporters need to meet Cambodia’s import regulations, particularly in relation to food safety. Vietnam’s seafood export value to Cambodia was estimated around USD60 million over recent years. …

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PHNOM PENH/BANGKOK -- Cambodia’s centuries-old tradition of masked dance was nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge’s “Killing Fields” regime, but a handful of artists managed to keep it alive and are now working to pass it along to a new generation. Sun Rithy’s father and grandfather were both performers of the Lakhon Khol masked dance, but the Khmer Rouge - who scorned most art as decadent - banned its study when he was a child in the 1970s. Now 48, Sun Rithy leads one of the last Lakhon Khol troupes in Cambodia, made up of about 20 performers and students aged six to 15. For him, teaching a new generation is a matter of survival for the tradition. “I don’t want Lakhon Khol ... to go extinct,” Sun Rithy told Reuters . Lakhon Khol was recently listed by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency, as an intangible cultural heritage, along with neighboring Thailand’s version of the dance, known as Khon. There are different variations in Southeast Asia, all featuring dancers wearing elaborate painted masks depicting the Ramayana, a Sanskrit epic poem in which a prince rescues his wife from a demon with help from an army of monkeys. But in Cambodia, the art form is still struggling to recover from the Khmer Rouge, under whose genocidal 1975-79 rule at least 1.7 million people, including artists, dancers and writers, died, mostly from starvation, overwork, disease, execution or torture. “In the Khmer Rouge, I was young and they didn’t teach people dance. Lakhon Khol was destroyed,” said Sun Rithy, who started to learn the dance when he was 14, after the Khmer Rouge were ousted from power. Ahead of a recent rehearsal, students stretched their legs and hands at the troupe’s a newly built theater at Wat Svay Andet, a Buddhist temple outside the capital, Phnom Penh. Pum Pork, 49, said his 11-year-old son, Pum Meta, was attending the dance class. “I want to have my son trained to perform so that in the future we won’t lose the ancient art,” he said. …

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