Cambodia

For the 1981 song by British singer Kim Wilde, see Cambodia (song).

Kingdom of Cambodia Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea
Flag Royal Arms of Cambodia Royal Arms
Motto:  "Nation, Religion, King"
Anthem: Nokoreach
Capital and largest city	Phnom Penh
Official languages	Khmer
Demonym(s)	Cambodian
Government	Constitutional monarchy
• King	Norodom Sihamoni
• Prime Minister	Hun Sen
Independence
• from France	November, 9th, 1953
Area
• Total	181,035 km2 (69,898 sq mi) (89th)
• Water (%)	2.5
Population
• July 2006 estimate	13,971,000 (63rd)
• 1998 census	11,437,656
• Density	78/km2 (202.0/sq mi) (112th)
GDP (PPP)	2006 estimate
• Total	$36.82 billion (89th)
• Per capita	$2,600 (133rd)
HDI (2004)	0.583  (129th)
Currency	Riel (៛)1 (KHR)
Time zone	UTC+7
• Summer (DST)	UTC+7
Calling code	855
ISO 3166 code	KH
Internet TLD	.kh
Local currency, although US dollars are widely used.

The Kingdom of Cambodia (IPA: [kæmˈbəʊdɪə], formerly known as Kampuchea (IPA: [ˌkæmpuˈtʃiːə], File:Cambodia5.png, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in Southeast Asia with a population of over 13 million people. Phnom Penh is the capital city. Cambodia is the successor state of the once powerful Hindu and Buddhist Khmer Empire, which ruled most of the Indochinese Peninsula between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.

A citizen of Cambodia is usually identified as "Cambodian" or "Khmer," though the latter strictly refers to ethnic Khmers. Most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists of Khmer extraction, but the country also has a substantial number of predominantly Muslim Cham, as well as ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and small animist hill tribes.

The country borders Thailand to its west and northwest, Laos to its northeast, and Vietnam to its east and southeast. In the south it faces the Gulf of Thailand. The geography of Cambodia is dominated by the Mekong river (colloquial Khmer: Tonle Thom or "the great river") and the Tonlé Sap ("the fresh water lake"), an important source of fish. Much of Cambodia sits near sea level, and consequently the Tonle Sap River reverses its water flow in the wet season, carrying water from the Mekong back into the Tonlé Sap Lake and surrounding flood plain.

Cambodia's main industries are garments and tourism. In 2006, foreign visitors had surpassed the 1.7 million mark. In 2005, oil and natural gas deposits were found beneath Cambodia's territorial water, and once commercial extraction begins in 2009 or early 2010, the oil revenues could profoundly affect Cambodia's economy.

Etymology

Cambodia is the traditional English transliteration, taken from the French Cambodge, while Kampuchea is the direct transliteration, more faithful to the Khmer pronunciation. The Khmer Kampuchea is derived from the ancient Khmer kingdom of Kambuja (Kambujadesa). Kambuja or Kamboja is the ancient Sanskrit name of the Kambojas, an early tribe of north India, named after their founder Kambu Svayambhuva, believed to be a variant of Cambyses. See Etymology of Kamboja.

Preahreachanachâk Kampuchea means "Kingdom of Cambodia". Etymologically, its components are: Preah- ("sacred"); -reach- ("king, royal, realm", from Sanskrit); -ana- (from Pāli āṇā, "authority, command, power", itself from Sanskrit ājñā, same meaning) -châk (from Sanskrit cakra, meaning "wheel", a symbol of power and rule).

The name used on formal occasions, such as political speeches and news programs, is Prâteh Kampuchea (Khmer: ប្រទេសកម្ពុជា), literally "the Country of Cambodia". Prâteh is a formal word meaning "country."

The colloquial name most used by Khmer people, is Srok Khmae (Khmer: ស្រុកខ្មែរ), literally "the Khmer Land". Srok is a Mon-Khmer word roughly equal to prâteh, but less formal. Khmer is spelled with a final "r" in the Khmer alphabet, but the word-final "r" phoneme disappeared from most dialects of Khmer in the 19th century and is not pronounced in the contemporary speech of the standard dialect.

Since independence, the official name of Cambodia has changed several times, following the troubled history of the country. The following names have been used in English and French since 1954.

File:Postagestamp-etat du cambodge-remise armes.jpg

1993 stamp showing the name État du Cambodge

• Kingdom of Cambodia/Royaume du Cambodge under the rule of the monarchy from 1953 through 1970;
• Khmer Republic/République Khmère (a calque of French Republic) under the Lon Nol led government from 1970 to 1975;
• Democratic Kampuchea/Kampuchea démocratique under the rule of the communist Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979;
• People's Republic of Kampuchea/République populaire du Kampuchea under the rule of the Vietnamese-sponsored government from 1979 to 1989;
• State of Cambodia/État du Cambodge (a neutral name, while deciding whether to return to monarchy) under the rule of the United Nations transitional authority from 1989 to 1993;
• Kingdom of Cambodia/Royaume du Cambodge reused after the restoration of the monarchy in 1993.

History

A Khmer army going to war against the Cham, from a relief on the Bayon

Main article: History of Cambodia

The first advanced civilizations in present-day Cambodia appeared in the 1st millennium AD. During the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries, the Indianised states of Funan and Chenla coalesced in what is now present-day Cambodia and southwestern Vietnam. These states, which are assumed by most scholars to have been Khmer, had close relations with China and India. Their collapse was followed by the rise of the Khmer Empire, a civilization which flourished in the area from the 9th century to the 13th century.

The Khmer Empire declined yet remained powerful in the region until the 15th century. The empire's center of power was Angkor, where a series of capitals was constructed during the empire's zenith. Angkor Wat, the most famous and best-preserved religious temple at the site, is a reminder of Cambodia's past as a major regional power.

After a long series of wars with neighbouring kingdoms, Angkor was sacked by the Thai and abandoned in 1432. The court moved the capital to Lovek where the kingdom sought to regain its glory through maritime trade. The attempt was short-lived, however, as continued wars with the Thai and Vietnamese resulted in the loss of more territory and the conquering of Lovek in 1594. During the next three centuries, The Khmer kingdom alternated as a vassal state of the Thai and Vietnamese kings, with short-lived periods of relative independence between.

In 1863 King Norodom, who had been installed by Thailand, sought the protection of France. In 1867, the Thai king signed a treaty with France, renouncing Suzerainty over Cambodia in exchange for the control of Battambang and Siem Reap provinces which officially became part of Thailand. The provinces were ceded back to Cambodia by a border treaty between France and Thailand in 1906.

Cambodia continued as a protectorate of France from 1863 to 1953, administered as part of the French colony of Indochina. After war-time occupation by the Japanese empire from 1941 to 1945, Cambodia gained independence from France on November 9 1953. It became a constitutional monarchy under King Norodom Sihanouk.

In 1955, Sihanouk abdicated in favour of his father in order to be elected Prime Minister. Upon his father's death in 1960, Sihanouk again became head of state, taking the title of Prince. As the Vietnam War progressed, Sihanouk adopted an official policy of neutrality until ousted in 1970 by a military coup led by Prime Minister General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, while on a trip abroad. From Beijing, Sihanouk realigned himself with the communist Khmer Rouge rebels who had been slowly gaining territory in the remote mountain regions and urged his followers to help in overthowing the pro-United States government of Lon Nol, hastening the onset of civil war.

French colonial buildings in Phnom Penh

Operation Menu, a series of secret B-52 bombing raids by the United States on alleged Viet Cong bases and supply routes inside Cambodia, was acknowledged after Lon Nol assumed power; U.S. forces briefly invaded Cambodia in a further effort to disrupt the Viet Cong. The bombing continued and, as the Cambodian communists began gaining ground, eventually included strikes on suspected Khmer Rouge sites until halted in 1973.

Some 2 million Cambodians were made refugees by the bombing and fighting and fled to Phnom Penh. Estimates of the number of Cambodians killed during the bombing campaigns vary widely. Views of the effects of the bombing also vary widely:

• The US Seventh Air Force argued that the bombing prevented the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973 by killing 16,000 of 25,500 Khmer Rouge fighters besieging the city.
• Journalist William Shawcross and Cambodia specialists Milton Osborne, David Chandler and Ben Kiernan argued that the bombing drove peasants to join the Khmer Rouge. Chandler writes that the bombing provided "the psychological ingredients of a violent, vengeful and unrelenting social revolution."
• Cambodia specialist Craig Etcheson argued that it is "untenable" to assert that the Khmer Rouge would not have won but for US intervention, and that while the bombing did help Khmer Rouge recruitment, they "would have won anyway."

As the war ended, a draft US AID report observed that the country faced famine in 1975, with 75% of its draft animals destroyed by the war, and that rice planting for the next harvest would have to be done "by the hard labor of seriously malnourished people." The report predicted that

without large-scale external food and equipment assistance there will be widespread starvation between now and next February... Slave labor and starvation rations for half the nation's people (probably heaviest among those who supported the republic) will be a cruel necessity for this year, and general deprivation and suffering will stretch over the next two or three years before Cambodia can get back to rice self-sufficiency.

The Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh and took power in 1975, changing the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea, led by Pol Pot. They immediately evacuated the cities and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century. They also discarded Western medicine, with the result that while hundreds of thousands died from starvation and disease there were almost no drugs in the country.

Estimates vary as to how many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime:

• Father Francois Ponchaud, author of Cambodia: Year Zero, suggested 2 million.
• United Nations investigators estimated 2-3 million.
• The Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea government carried out a house-to-house survey and reported 3 million dead.
• Kimmo Kiljunen's "Finnish Inquiry Commission" estimated 1 million dead, including 75-100,000 from executions.
• Cambodia specialist Michael Vickery accepts a range of excess deaths from 740,000 "of whom perhaps half were victims of execution" to "something over one million."
• Cambodia specialist Ben Kiernan of the Yale Cambodian Autogenocide Project estimates 1.7 million.
• Amnesty International estimated 1.4 million.
• The Documentation Center of Cambodia carried out a mass graves survey and estimated over 2 million, including over 1.1 million executed.

Hundreds of thousands more fled across the border into neighbouring Thailand.

In November 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to stop Khmer Rouge incursions across the border and the genocide of Vietnamese in Cambodia. Violent occupation and warfare between the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge holdouts continued throughout the 1980s. Peace efforts began in Paris in 1989, culminating two years later in October 1991 in a comprehensive peace settlement. The United Nations was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire, and deal with refugees and disarmament.

After the brutality of the 1970s and the 1980s, and the destruction of the cultural, economic, social and political life of Cambodia, it is only in recent years that reconstruction efforts have begun and some political stability has finally returned to Cambodia. The stability established following the conflict was shaken in 1997 during a coup d'état, but has otherwise remained in place. Cambodia has been aided by a number of more developed nations like Japan, France, Canada, Australia and the United States, primarily economically. Money raised in schools and community groups in these countries has gone towards the rebuilding of infrastructure and housing.

Politics and government

Main article: Politics of Cambodia

The politics of Cambodia formally take place, according to the nation's constitution of 1993, in the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic monarchy. The Prime Minister of Cambodia is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system, while the king is the head of state. The Prime Minister is appointed by the King, on the advice and with the approval of the National Assembly; the Prime Minister and his or her ministerial appointees exercise executive power in government. Legislative power is vested in both the executive and the two chambers of parliament, the National Assembly of Cambodia and the Senate.

On October 14, 2004, King Norodom Sihamoni was selected by a special nine-member throne council, part of a selection process that was quickly put in place after the surprise abdication of King Norodom Sihanouk a week before. Sihamoni's selection was endorsed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly Speaker Prince Norodom Ranariddh (the new king's brother), both members of the throne council. He was crowned in Phnom Penh on October 29. The monarchy is symbolic and does not exercise political power. Norodom Sihamoni was trained in Cambodian classical dance. Due to his long stay in the Czech Republic (then part of Czechoslovakia) Norodom Sihamoni is fluent in the Czech language.

In 2006, Transparency International rated Cambodia as 151 of 163 countries making it one of the most corrupt countries on earth. [1]The BBC reports that corruption is rampant in the Cambodian political arena with international aid from the U.S. and other countries being illegally transferred into private accounts. Corruption has also added to the wide income disparity within the population.

Main article: Law enforcement in Cambodia

Administrative divisions

Main articles: Provinces of Cambodia and Districts and Sections of Cambodia

File:Cambodia-map-wiki.png

Map of Cambodia

Cambodia is divided into 20 provinces (khet, singular and plural) and 4 municipalities (krong, singular and plural). There are further subdivisions into districts (srok), communes (khum), villages (phum), and islands (koh).

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Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Cambodia

Main article: Royal Cambodian Armed Forces

Cambodia is a member of the United Nations and its specialized agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. It is an Asian Development Bank (ADB) member, a member of ASEAN, and joined the WTO on 13 October 2004. In 2005 Cambodia attended the inaugural East Asia Summit.

Following a return to political normality, Cambodia has established diplomatic relations with numerous countries; the government reports twenty embassies in the country including many of its Asian neighbours and those of important players during the Paris peace negotiations, including the US, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), Japan, and Russia.

While the violent ruptures of the 1970s and 80s have passed, several border disputes between Cambodia and its neighbours persist. There are disagreements over some offshore islands and sections of the boundary with Vietnam, and undefined maritime boundaries and border areas with Thailand.

In January 2003, there were riots in Phnom Penh prompted by rumored comments about Angkor Wat by a Thai actress wrongly attributed by Reaksmei Angkor, a Cambodian newspaper, and later quoted by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The Thai government sent military aircraft to evacuate Thai nationals and closed its border with Cambodia while Thais demonstrated outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok. The border was re-opened on March 21, after the Cambodian government paid $6 million USD in compensation for the destruction of the Thai embassy and agreed to compensate individual Thai businesses for their losses.

Geography

Satellite image of Cambodia

Main article: Geography of Cambodia

Cambodia has an area of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi), sharing an 800 kilometre (500 mi) border with Thailand in the north and west, a 541 kilometre (336 mi) border with Laos in the northeast, and a 1,228 kilometre (763 mi) border with Vietnam in the east and southeast. It has 443 kilometres (275 mi) of coastline along the Gulf of Thailand.

Tonle Sap Lake

The most distinctive geographical feature is the lacustrine plain, formed by the inundations of the Tonle Sap (Great Lake), measuring about 2,590 square kilometres (1,000 sq mi) during the dry season and expanding to about 24,605 square kilometres (9,500 sq mi) during the rainy season. This densely populated plain, which is devoted to wet rice cultivation, is the heartland of Cambodia. Most (about 75%) of the country lies at elevations of less than 100 metres (330 ft) above sea level, the exceptions being the Cardamom Mountains (highest elevation 1,813 m / 5,948 ft) and their southeast extension the Dâmrei Mountains ("Elephant Mountains") (elevation range 500–1,000 m or 1,640–3,280 ft), as well the steep escarpment of the Dângrêk Mountains (average elevation 500 m / 1,640 ft) along the border with Thailand's Isan region. The highest elevation of Cambodia is Phnom Aoral, near Pursat in the centre of the country, at 1,813 metres (5,948 ft).

Climate

Cambodia's temperatures range from 10° to 38 °C (50° to 100 °F) and experiences tropical monsoons. Southwest monsoons blow inland bringing moisture-laden winds from the Gulf of Thailand and Indian Ocean from May to October. The northeast monsoon ushers in the dry season, which lasts from November to March. The country experiences the heaviest precipitation from September to October with the driest period occurring from January to February.

It has two distinct seasons. The rainy season, which runs from May to October, can see temperatures raise up to 40 °C around April and is generally accompanied with high humidity. The dry season lasts from November to April when temperatures can drop to 22 °C. The best months to visit Cambodia are November to January when temperatures and humidity are lower.

Animals of Cambodia

Main article: Wildlife of Cambodia

Cambodia has a wide variety of plants and animals, and may even be home to the Kting Voar, a mysterious snake-eating cow which may or may not have ever existed.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Cambodia

Despite recent progress, the Cambodian economy continues to suffer from the effects of decades of civil war, internal strife and rampant corruption. The per capita income is rapidly increasing, but is low compared with other countries in the region. Most rural households depend on agriculture and its related sub-sectors. Rice, fish, timber, garments and rubber are Cambodia's major exports, and the United States, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, China, Indonesia and Malaysia are its major export partners.

War and brutal totalitarianism in the 1970s created famine in Cambodia. Desperate farm families consumed their rice seeds and many traditional varieties became difficult to find. In the 1980s the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) reintroduced more than 750 traditional rice varieties to Cambodia from its rice seed bank in the Philippines (Jahn 2006,2007). These varieties had been collected in the 1960s. In 1987, the Australian government funded IRRI to assist Cambodia to improve its rice production. By 2000, Cambodia was once again self-sufficient in rice (Puckridge 2004, Fredenburg and Hill 1978).

The recovery of Cambodia's economy slowed dramatically in 1997–98, due to the regional economic crisis, civil violence, and political infighting. Foreign investment and tourism also fell off drastically. Since then however, growth has been steady. In 1999, the first full year of peace in 30 years, progress was made on economic reforms and growth resumed at 5.0%. Despite severe flooding, GDP grew at 5.0% in 2000, 6.3% in 2001, and 5.2% in 2002. Tourism was Cambodia's fastest growing industry, with arrivals increasing from 219,000 in 1997 to 1,055,000 in 2004. During 2003 and 2004 the growth rate remained steady at 5.0%, while in 2004 inflation was at 1.7% and exports at $1.6 billion US dollars. As of 2005, GDP per capita in PPP terms was $2,200, which ranked 178th (out of 233) countries.

Angkor Wat, the biggest tourist draw of Cambodia

The population often lacks education and productive skills, particularly in the poverty-ridden countryside, which suffers from a lack of basic infrastructure. Fear of renewed political instability and corruption within the government discourage foreign investment and delay foreign aid, although there has been significant assistance from bilateral and multilateral donors. Donors pledged $504m to the country in 2004, while the Asian Development Bank alone has provided $850m in loans, grants, and technical assistance.

The tourism industry is the country's second-greatest source of hard currency after the textile industry. 50% of visitor arrivals are to Angkor, and most of the remainder to Phnom Penh. Other tourist hotspots include Sihanoukville in the southeast which has several popular beaches, and the nearby area around Kampot including the Bokor Hill Station.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Cambodia

A Khmer woman

More than 90% of its population is of Khmer origin and speaks the Khmer language, the country's official language. The remainder include Chinese, Vietnamese, Cham, Khmer Loeu, and Indians.

The Khmer language is a member of the Mon-Khmer subfamily of the Austroasiatic language group. French, once the lingua franca of Indochina and still spoken by some, mostly older Cambodians as a second language, remains the language of instruction in various schools and universities that are often funded by the government of France. Cambodian French, a remnant of the country's colonial past, is a dialect found in Cambodia and is frequently used in government. However, in recent decades, many younger Cambodians and those in the business-class have favoured learning English. In the major cities and tourist centers, English is widely spoken and taught at a large number of schools due to the overwhelming number of tourists from English-speaking countries. Even in the most rural outposts, however, most young people speak at least some English, as it is often taught by monks at the local pagodas where many children are educated.

The dominant religion, a form of Theravada Buddhism (95%), was suppressed by the Khmer Rouge but has since experienced a revival. Islam (3%) and Christianity (2%) are also practiced.

File:Cambodia-demography.png

Number of inhabitants between 1961 and 2001 in thousands. Note the decrease during the Khmer Rouge years (1975–79). FAO Data, Cambodia

Civil war and its aftermath have had a marked effect on the Cambodian population. The median age is 20.6 years, with more than 50% of the population younger than 25. At 0.95 males/female, Cambodia has the most female-biased sex ratio in the Greater Mekong Subregion [2]. In the Cambodian population over 65, the female to male ratio is 1.6:1. UNICEF has designated Cambodia the third most mined country in the world, attributing over 60,000 civilian deaths and thousands more maimed or injured since 1970 to the unexploded landmines left behind in rural areas. The majority of the victims are children herding animals or playing in the fields. Adults that survive landmines often require amputation of one or more limbs and have to resort to begging for survival. In 2006, the number of landmines casualties in Cambodia took a sharp decrease of more than 50% compared to 2005, with the number of landmines victims down from 800 in 2005 to less than 400 in 2006.

Culture and society

Main article: Culture of Cambodia

"Khmer Land" in Khmer writing, a local expression which refers to Cambodia

Khmer culture, as developed and spread by the Khmer empire, has distinctive styles of dance, architecture and sculpture, which have strongly influenced neighbouring Laos and Thailand. Angkor Wat (Angkor means "city" and Wat "temple") is the best preserved example of Khmer architecture from the Angkorian era and hundreds of other temples have been discovered in and around the region. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the infamous prison of the Khmer Rouge, and Choeung Ek, one of the main Killing Fields are other important historic sites.

The exterior of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh

Bonn Om Teuk (Festival of Boat Racing), the annual boat rowing contest, is the most attended Cambodian national festival. Held at the end of the rainy season when the Mekong river begins to sink back to its normal levels allowing the Tonle Sap River to reverse flow, approximately 10% of Cambodia's population attends this event each year to play games, give thanks to the moon, watch fireworks, and attend the boat race in a carnival-type atmosphere. Popular games include cockfighting, soccer, and kicking a sey, which is similar to a footbag. Recent artistic figures include singers Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Sereysothea (and later Meng Keo Pichenda), who introduced new musical styles to the country.

Rice, as in other Southeast Asian countries, is the staple grain, while fish from the Mekong and Tonle Sap also form an important part of the diet. The Cambodian per capita supply of fish and fish products for food and trade in 2000 was 20 kilograms of fish per year or 2 ounces per day per person. Some of the fish can be made into prahok for longer storage. Overall, the cuisine of Cambodia is similar to that of its Southeast Asian neighbours. The cuisine is relatively unknown to the world compared to that of its neighbours Thailand and Vietnam.

Football (soccer) is one of the more popular sports, although professional organized sports are not as prevalent in Cambodia as in western countries due to the economic conditions. The Cambodia national football team managed fourth in the 1972 Asian Cup but development has slowed since the civil war. Western sports such as volleyball, bodybuilding, field hockey, rugby, and baseball are gaining popularity while traditional boat racing maintains its appeal as a national sport. Martial arts are also practiced in Cambodia which include the native art of Pradal Serey, Karate, Judo, Kung Fu, Bokator and Taekwondo.

Transport

A street scene in Phnom Penh.

Main article: Transport in Cambodia

The civil war severely damaged Cambodia's transport system, despite the provision of Soviet technical assistance and equipment. Cambodia has two rail lines, totalling about 612 kilometers (380 mi) of single, one meter gauge track. The lines run from the capital to Sihanoukville on the southern coast, and from Phnom Penh to Sisophon (although trains often run only as far as Battambang). Currently only one passenger train per week operates, between Phnom Penh and Battambang.

The nation's extensive inland waterways were important historically in international trade. The Mekong and the Tonle Sap River, their numerous tributaries, and the Tonle Sap provided avenues of considerable length, including 3,700 kilometers (2,300 mi) navigable all year by craft drawing 0.6 meters (2 ft) and another 282 kilometers (175 mi) navigable to craft drawing 1.8 meters (6 ft). Cambodia has two major ports, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, and five minor ones. Phnom Penh, located at the junction of the Bassac, the Mekong, and the Tonle Sap rivers, is the only river port capable of receiving 8,000 ton ships during the wet season and 5,000 ton ships during the dry season.

With increasing economic activity has come an increase in automobile and motorcycle use, though bicycles still predominate; as often in developing countries, an associated rise in traffic deaths and injuries is occurring. Cycle rickshaws ("pʰʊt-pʰʊts") are an additional option often used by visitors.

Airports

The country has four commercial airports. Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, the main airport in Cambodia, is the largest. Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport is the second largest and serves the most international flights in and out of Cambodia. The other airports are in Sihanoukville and Battambang.

International rankings

Organization
Heritage Foundation	Index of Economic Freedom	102 out of 157
Reporters Without Borders	Worldwide Press Freedom Index	108 out of 167
Transparency International	Corruption Perceptions Index	151 out of 163
United Nations Development Programme	Human Development Index	129 out of 177
World Economic Forum	Global Competitiveness Report	103 out of 125

Cities and Provinces Size

No.	Cities/ Provinces	Size ( km² )
1	CAPITAL CITY OF PHNOM PENH	290
2	KANDAL PROVINCE	3568
3	TAKEO PROVINCE	3563
4	KAMPONG CHAM PROVINCE	9799
5	KAMPONG THOM PROVINCE	13814
6	SIEM REAP PROVINCE	10299
7	PREAH VIHEAR PROVINCE	13788
8	ODDAR MEANCHEY PROVINCE	6158
9	BANTEAY MEANCHEY PROVINCE	6679
10	BATTAMBANG PROVINCE	11072
11	PAILIN CITY	803
12	PURSAT PROVINCE	12692
13	KAMPONG CHHNANG PROVINCE	5521
14	KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE	7017
15	KOH KONG PROVINCE	11160
16	SIHANOUKVILLE	868
17	KAMPOT PROVINCE	4873.2
18	KEP CITY	335.8
19	PREY VENG PROVINCE	4883
20	SVAY RIENG PROVINCE	2966
21	KRATIE PROVINCE	11094
22	STUNG TRENG PROVINCE	11092
23	RATANAKIRI PROVINCE	10782
24	MONDULKIRI PROVINCE	14288
25	GREAT LAKE TONLE SAP	3000
TOTAL AREA		181035

References

• Business in Asia report on airports. Accessed 13 November 2005
• Cambodian Culture website Accessed December 11 2004
• Cambodian Economy Information Accessed January 19 2005
• CIA World Factbook U.S. Department of State website
• Encyclopaedia Britannica's Cambodia Country Page
• Fredenburg, P. and B. Hill. 2006. Sharing Rice for Peace and Prosperity in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Sid Harta Publishers, Victoria. ISBN 1-921206-08-X. pp271
• IFES Summary of 2003 legislative election results. Accessed January 27 2005
• Jahn GC. 2006. The Dream is not yet over. In: P. Fredenburg P, Hill B, editors. Sharing rice for peace and prosperity in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Victoria, (Australia): Sid Harta Publishers. ISBN 1-921206-08-X. p 237–240
• Jahn, GC 2007. Rice and life along the Mekong River. Rice Today 6(2):4.
• Kerlogue, Fiona Arts of Southeast Asia. Thames and Hudson 2004. ISBN 0-500-20381-4
• Ministry of Tourism statistics on tourism. Accessed January 27 2005
• NGO Forum on Cambodia report on 2003 legislative elections. Accessed January 27 2005
• Puckridge, D. 2004. The Burning of the Rice. Sid Harta Publishers, Victoria. ISBN 1-877059-73-0. pp326
• Radio Broadcasting in Cambodia Accessed January 23 2005

External links

Official

• Cambodia Tourism Information
• King of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk Official Website of former King Norodom Sihanouk
• Cambodia.gov.kh Official Royal Government of Cambodia Website (English Version)
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
• Cambodia e-Visa, Applying Travel Visa Online

Overviews

• CIA World Factbook - Cambodia
• Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding Cambodia
• Sharing Growth: Equity and Development in Cambodia - a report by the World Bank, launched on June 12, 2007 at the Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum (CDCF)
• Cambodia Country Factsheet from The Common Language Project
• Overview Article on Cambodia's Contemporary Political Economy: "The Neoliberal 'Order' in Cambodia: Political Violence, Democracy, and the Contestation of Public Space" by Simon Springer, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Other

• CMDGs - Cambodia Millennium Development Goals
• Template:Wikitravel
• Cambodia at Curlie

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