Loeng Sophorn can kick it

MONDAY, 06 SEPTEMBER 2010 15:00
By: H S MANJUNATH
Source: The PhnomPenh Post

Certified football coach Loeng Sophorn said she was inspired to take up coaching to help improve the standard of Cambodian girls. Photo by: Sreng Meng Srun

Neighbourhood taunts that girls were not cut out for a manly game like football only served to ignite Loeng Sophorn’s passion for the game when she was barely in her teens. Taking cue from her younger brother’s street football experience, she vigorously pursued a career in the game.

Now the 24-year-old Prey Veng born Loeng Sophorn, now based in Siem Reap and known as Srey Mom among friends, is an official C-licenced coach. Along with batchmate Leng Chanthay, they are currently the only two women in the Kingdom to carry the distinction.

“I was really offended when people dissuaded me from taking up football,” said Loeng Sophorn. “I loved the game a lot, and I used to see my brother play with his friends near our home. I kept asking ‘why not me?’

“I learnt the game quickly and played for a while, but my driving ambition had always been to teach girls and make them play better than we were. That drove me towards coaching.”

World Bank chief economist visits

MONDAY, 06 SEPTEMBER 2010 20:49
By: NGUON SOVAN
Source: The PhnomPenh Post

THE chief economist and senior vice president of World Bank, Justin Yifu Lin, began a three-day fact-finding mission in Cambodia yesterday.

The visit from one of the organisation’s top global officials was billed as a chance to learn about the Kingdom’s development and its challenges as part of a regional visit, according to Bou Saroeun, communications specialist at World Bank-Cambodia.

During the first day of the mission, Justin Yifu Lin met with ACLEDA Bank’s top management to discover more about the progress of the bank and the finance sector as a whole in Cambodia.

He was taken to the bank’s Monivong Boulevard headquarters by a motorcade, reportedly provided by the government, with sirens blaring. The delegation was accompanied Hang Chuon Naron, secretary of state for the Ministry of Economy and Finance, who represented the government.

“His visit to our bank was to learn of our successful experiences in order to share them with other institutions in other countries,” ACLEDA President and Chief Executive Officer In Channy told reporters after the meeting.

In Channy said he told Justin Yifu Lin that ACLEDA’s lending had steadily grown in the last six years, from US$65 million in 2004 to $538 million last year.

It was expected to hit $632 million at the end of July this year, with 70 percent of the loans lent to rural borrowers, he said. The bank’s total assets reached $1.06 billion at the end of August…read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or the see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.

NGOs call for human rights inquiry

MONDAY, 06 SEPTEMBER 2010 21:19
By: CHHAY CHANNYDA
Source: The PhnomPenh Post

A COALITION of 21 NGOs yesterday urged the government to investigate an organisation that has been accused of a raft of human rights violations – including rape and unlawful forced eviction – targeting residents of Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district.

According to Adhoc, the government granted the Drugs and AIDS Research and Prevention Organisation a 556-hectare social land concession in Choam Khsan district in 2007, and the organisation was charged with supporting economically disadvantaged families in the area.

But at a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday, the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee accused DARPO of claiming more land than it was entitled to, and of forcing families who have lived there since 2002 to leave their homes in response to “threats, rape and torture”…read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or the see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.