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Cambodian PM lobbies for WTO membership

PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed to Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi on Saturday to support Cambodia's bid to become a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"The premier asked Supachai for help in supporting Cambodia to become a member of the WTO and asked if Thailand could help train Cambodia's commerce ministry officials to work for the WTO," a spokesman for Hun Sen said after the two met.

Supachai, due to become head of the WTO in September 2002, is in Phnom Penh to inaugurate a Thai-Cambodian trade fair on Saturday in the capital's Olympic Stadium.

For the past few decades, Cambodia has been ravaged by internal strife that has stunted its growth and impoverished the country. More than 1.7 million died during the Khmer Rouge's bloody "killing fields" regime from 1975-79.

The country's biggest export earner, garments, brought in $606 million in 1999, a 60 percent increase over 1998. -Reuters