Cambodia offers rice at much lower rates

Aquino and Hun Sen met on the sideline of Asean Summit in Indonesia on 7th May, 2011.

by Joyce Pañares
Manila standard Today

Jakarta—Cambodia has offered to sell rice to the Philippines at lower prices if the country will pour in investments in their agriculture sector as well as allow direct flights from Phnom Penh to Manila.

Cambodia made the offer during the bilateral meeting between President Aquino and Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday, Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office head Ramon Carandang said.

“Cambodia said some of the rice we are buying from Vietnam also comes from them. Their problem is they do not have enough storage facilities and we do not have direct flights between our countries,” he said. “We will be studying their proposal. This will certainly result in lower rice prices because we remove the middleman, so to speak.”

Mr. Aquino also had bilateral meetings with Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Mr. Aquino raised the issue of South China Sea cooperation and maritime security in his meeting with Dung.

He earlier called on other Asean leaders to transform the “potential flashpoint” in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea into an area of cooperation and freedom.

Of the 10 Asean member-states, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines have claims over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.China and Taiwan are also claiming the mineral-rich archipelago, and all claimant-countries except Brunei have military presence in the area.

Thammavong, on the other hand, has asked Mr. Aquino to make a state visit to Laos soon, Carandang said.

Mr. Aquino’s next foreign trip will be to Thailand and Brunei for separate state visits by the end of the month.