Phnom Penh - Cambodia's petroleum authority chief responded
sharply to policy recommendations by US ambassador Joseph Mussomeli
Friday, saying it was too early to dictate policy when the amount of
the resource was still unknown.
In a speech to a high-level economic forum in the capital,
Mussomeli recommended seven policy considerations for the government
to help it manage its resources when expected oil reserves are tapped
in the near future.
'Some countries have made the irritatingly human decision to use
the resources to relax fiscal discipline,' Mussomeli warned. 'Like
children who never think about the long-term consequences of the
choices they make, they act as if the revenue will never stop flowing
and they never act responsibly.'
Among the initiatives the US ambassador suggested were improved
transparency, improved laws and regulations relating to disclosure
and oversight of government revenues, government revenue management
policy reviews and a new freedom of information law.
Director-general of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority Te
Duong Tara arrived after the ambassador's speech, saying he had been
in a meeting and too busy to attend.
He dismissed concerns about the way Cambodia would handle oil
revenues, predicted to be in excess of its entire current national
gross domestic product, calling them 'pessimistic.'
'To say 'keep money for this purpose or that purpose' for me is
too early. Wait until the money from the oil is here. The fish is not
in the boat yet,' he told reporters.
He said Cambodia realized it had little experience in this area
but had reached out to other, more seasoned players to learn from
their human resources and marketing experience.
Tara added that Cambodia had studied the experiences of countries
such as Angola and Nigeria and learned from them. Angola, he said,
made the mistake of marketing by themselves and Nigeria had made
errors because it did not know how to market.
Cambodia was ready for the challenge of oil revenue and would not
squander the opportunity, he said.
'We have been a poor country, so now we really do not want to
destroy our own money,' he said.
Cambodia has so far not begun full-scale drilling and is judging
its oil reserves on exploratory wells from a number of companies
including US giant Chevron. However, it has been predicted the
reserves are significant and could reverse the country's current
heavy dependence on aid.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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