This started on an internationally supervised election in 1993. Cambodia gained its independence on November 1953. This day is it’s national holiday. The capital of country capital of Cambodia is
Phnom Penh. The national flag has a blue background with a temple in the middle. A picture of it is on the poster display.
The economy in Cambodia is certainly not the best in the world. It is in fact a very poor country. Cambodia’s economy is still recovering from a sudden switch to a free-trade market in 1990, and a cutoff in aid from former Soviet countries. The country does not have that many roads bridges or powerhouses. The country is not heavily populated within cities. About 90% of all the people who live in Cambodia live on the countryside. These people are highly dependent on subsistence agriculture. The GDP per capita was $289 US dollars.
The main currency in Cambodia is the reil. The value of the real has been going down for a long time and is very unstable. For example, in 1996, 2620 real equaled one US dollar.
The life expectancy of many people in Cambodia is not that high. The reason is because of many diseases, and conflicts, which lead to early deaths. In 1990 the percentage of all the people in Cambodia that were older than 15 was 53%. The life expectancy at Birth in 1995 was 51 years of age. Of the 9,898,900 people in Cambodia, the adult literacy rate was 65.3%.
Communication in Cambodia is not good at all. There are hardly any telecommunication companies available, and international services are limited to Vietnam and other few countries only. Now, commuting from place to place is not as bad. Cambodia has 612 kilometers of railroads, and 13,351 kilometers of highways. There are also 3,700 kilometers of inland waterways, and ports are available in Phnom Penh, and Kampong Saom. Cambodia only has nine useable airports.
The situation in Cambodia now is not that good, but a lot better than how it used to be. It has been over 20 years since Vietnam soldiers ended the bloodshed caused by the Khmer Rouge. There are still many killings, which have been caused by grenades or shootings during public demonstrations. Recently on Easter Sunday of March 30, 1997 in Phnom Penh, there were grenades thrown at a crowd during a public demonstration, which was supposed to be headed toward Sam Rainsy. Sam Rainsy was the most visible and vocal Human Rights advocate in Cambodia. In this, Easter Sunday Massacre, there were 19 innocent people killed, and over a 100 people injured. The attempt to get Sam Rainsy failed, and all the people in Cambodia waited for the International public to help out.
There has not been much International help in Cambodia and still the violence and economic problems continue. I seriously think that people should help more than they are doing now, and make this a big situation because many lives are at stake. My proposal to the United Nations Economic Council is that they start donating some money to Cambodia to help out their economy. By building up their economy they can use their money to build schools, hospitals, and more roads. By having educated people, more people could go and get jobs and strengthen the economy even more.
Truly I think that Cambodia is a nice country, but a nice country with many problems. These problems can of course be fixed with a lot of help, which the United Nations can help them with. We will just have to wait and see how Cambodia shapes up.