Thursday, May 28, 2009
Japan suicides climb as economy plumbs depths
TOKYO (Reuters) – Suicide is rising in Japan as the economic crisis bites, with more than 100 people a day taking their lives in April.
"It's the end of the financial year, so I think the effect of the economy is a trigger," said Yasuyuki Shimizu, head of Lifelink, a group that campaigns to prevent suicide. In a recession, the end of the financial year tends to spark bankruptcies and layoffs.
Japan's suicide rate is already one of the highest in the developed world, with about 24 cases per 100,000 population in recent years, compared with 11 in the United States.
The April figure was up 6 percent from the same month last year, police statistics showed on Wednesday.
Japan's economy shrank by a record 4 percent in January-March, the final quarter of the business year.
"The problem is that it's seen as a matter of course that people who lose their jobs should be forced into suicide," Lifelink's Shimizu said.
"We have to create a safety net that enables the unemployed to stay alive," he added, calling on the police to provide more detailed information on suicides as a first step.
Middle-aged men are most at risk, although cases of younger people taking their own lives are on the rise. More than 30,000 Japanese have committed suicide each year for the past 11 years.
The National Police Agency began publishing monthly suicide statistics last year in an bid to support efforts to tackle the problem.
(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds)
Inside Business: Juice maker struggles to turn healthy profit
The Khmer Mekong Foods processing factory in Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Souen Say)Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Written by Soeun Say
The Phnom Penh Post
PICH Chan, general manager of Khmer Mekong Food Enterprise, walked into a supermarket in Phnom Penh in 2003, and he was dismayed.
He counted 90 different products that had been imported from neighbouring countries that could have been made in Cambodia.
"I wanted to see a Khmer product at markets," he said. "My friends and my relatives said my juice was good, so I started to think about producing juice for the market."
In late 2005, Pich Chan invested US$40,000 in a fruit-juice processing enterprise, and now four years later, his business produces juice from mangoes, pineapples, tamarind and guavas.
With eight workers, Khmer Mekong Foods is a small business only producing about 50 cases of juice a day. A case, which holds 24 bottles, is sold to retailers for $7, according to Hok Sovanna, Khmer Mekong Food's marketing manager.
But Hok Sovanna says Cambodians are starting to acquire a taste for fruit juice after initially shunning it.
"Now Cambodians have started to accept its flavour with up to 80 percent natural fruit," he said.
But despite increasingly positive feedback about the product, in 2007, Khmer Mekong Food lost $60,000.
Pich Chan blames the losses on his own lack of marketing expertise.
"I only have skills at producing not at selling, that's why poor marketing is our weak point" he said.
Also, as a small enterprise, Pich Chan says it has been impossible for his company to break into the international market because he cannot produce enough bottles to fill a shipping container, which is necessary to supply countries like the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the United States.
"I was sad to hear that they need one big container per month. I regret that I could not meet their demands," he said, adding many other Khmer agricultural products face the same limitations.
In the next one to two years, Pich Chan hopes to expand his company so he will be able to export his product overseas.
But the economic crisis has hit his company hard. Since late 2008, sales have dropped between 30 and 40 percent from the same period last year. Nevertheless, Pich Chan says that by continuing to improve the quality of his juices and diversifying his product line he will be able to increase Khmer Mekong Foods' market share in Cambodia.
In order for him to follow through with his expansion plan, however, Pich Chan says the company will need to borrow money. But, he says, Cambodian interest rates are too high at up to 12 percent per year.
"There are a lot of things to produce, but I don't have the capital. I need to find which bank has a low [interest] rate," he said.
Pich Chan said that he wished Cambodia had a bank with an especially low rate for small and medium-sized enterprises.
"I need a chance to borrow money to improve my business," he said.
Inside Business is a new section every Wednesday that will profile Cambodian small and medium-sized enterprises.
He counted 90 different products that had been imported from neighbouring countries that could have been made in Cambodia.
"I wanted to see a Khmer product at markets," he said. "My friends and my relatives said my juice was good, so I started to think about producing juice for the market."
In late 2005, Pich Chan invested US$40,000 in a fruit-juice processing enterprise, and now four years later, his business produces juice from mangoes, pineapples, tamarind and guavas.
With eight workers, Khmer Mekong Foods is a small business only producing about 50 cases of juice a day. A case, which holds 24 bottles, is sold to retailers for $7, according to Hok Sovanna, Khmer Mekong Food's marketing manager.
But Hok Sovanna says Cambodians are starting to acquire a taste for fruit juice after initially shunning it.
"Now Cambodians have started to accept its flavour with up to 80 percent natural fruit," he said.
But despite increasingly positive feedback about the product, in 2007, Khmer Mekong Food lost $60,000.
Pich Chan blames the losses on his own lack of marketing expertise.
"I only have skills at producing not at selling, that's why poor marketing is our weak point" he said.
Also, as a small enterprise, Pich Chan says it has been impossible for his company to break into the international market because he cannot produce enough bottles to fill a shipping container, which is necessary to supply countries like the United Arab Emirates, Canada and the United States.
"I was sad to hear that they need one big container per month. I regret that I could not meet their demands," he said, adding many other Khmer agricultural products face the same limitations.
In the next one to two years, Pich Chan hopes to expand his company so he will be able to export his product overseas.
But the economic crisis has hit his company hard. Since late 2008, sales have dropped between 30 and 40 percent from the same period last year. Nevertheless, Pich Chan says that by continuing to improve the quality of his juices and diversifying his product line he will be able to increase Khmer Mekong Foods' market share in Cambodia.
In order for him to follow through with his expansion plan, however, Pich Chan says the company will need to borrow money. But, he says, Cambodian interest rates are too high at up to 12 percent per year.
"There are a lot of things to produce, but I don't have the capital. I need to find which bank has a low [interest] rate," he said.
Pich Chan said that he wished Cambodia had a bank with an especially low rate for small and medium-sized enterprises.
"I need a chance to borrow money to improve my business," he said.
Inside Business is a new section every Wednesday that will profile Cambodian small and medium-sized enterprises.
Cambodia, Kuwait and farmland: Petrodollars v smallholders
Apr 23rd 2009 | BATTAMBANG
From The Economist print edition
Disputes erupt over plans to invest millions in rice farming
IT SEEMED like the perfect match. Kuwait has a lot of money and needs to import food. Cambodia has a lot of fertile land and wants to attract foreign capital. So, as has been happening around the world since the food-price spike of 2007-08, the government of a poor farming country is planning to hand over vast tracts of land to a richer, oil-producing one.
In a whirlwind courtship, Cambodia and Kuwait have exchanged prime ministerial visits and initialled deals on everything from opening embassies and boosting energy co-operation to opening direct flights and holding football friendlies. Kuwait has now reportedly agreed to offer loans totalling $546m to finance a dam on the Stueng Sen river for irrigation and hydropower and to build a road to the Thai border. The Cambodian government says it has not yet decided what exactly the Kuwaitis will get in return but the speculation in Phnom Penh is that they may be offered 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres) of farmland, possibly on 99-year leases. Kuwait is not alone. Last year the prime minister of another rich Gulf statelet, Qatar, also visited Phnom Penh, with plans to invest $200m in Cambodian agriculture.
Such deals have a way of turning sour because of disputes over details. The Cambodian one seems to be conforming to type. Agreements ratified by the rubber-stamp parliament contain sweeping generalities and less detail than most people would expect when they rent an apartment. Son Chhay, an opposition MP and chairman of the National Assembly’s foreign-affairs committee when the deals were initialled, said he could not now obtain copies. But if foreigners want Cambodian rice, he says, they should buy it, not seek to control vast tracts of land.
The other problem with such deals is that they are made in national capitals and often run into opposition on the ground. Cambodia’s rice-farmers are suspicious enough because the government has a record of throwing them off their land in opaque deals involving rich cronies. Villagers in Battambang province, where the Kuwaiti road will run, say they know almost nothing about the scheme. They concede that a new road, built on what is currently a dirt track being measured by surveyors, would help them get crops to market. And according to one happy rumour, Kuwait has agreed to buy all their produce. But they are worried that their land will be confiscated—as has happened before.
The government insists the deal would be good for the country and for economic growth. Cheam Yeap, the chairman of the parliamentary economics and finance committee, says that “somehow we have to attract investors for national development.” He argues that land conflict is the fault of farmers as well as the government and that farmers have to be realistic.
This is not merely self-serving. Cambodia’s rice yields are about half those in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam. Many people—not just the Kuwaitis—are seeking to modernise farming, which is the largest employer in Cambodia.
International donors are hoping to improve the lot of small-scale farmers by helping them take advantage of world markets by investing in productivity, food processing and transport infrastructure. Other international businessmen, including some from Israel, are seeking to bring foreign technology and capital into Cambodia’s fledgling agri-business sector.
So the question is not whether investment by Kuwait or anyone else is in Cambodia’s long-term interest. It is whether the terms of the particular deal are beneficial. Alas, it is far from clear in this case whether Cambodia’s rulers have been influenced by economic development—or by the prospect of another quick payday.
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