DPM Sok An Receives Thai Senate Delegation

AKP Phnom Penh, July 28, 2012 – 

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers (OCM) H.E. Dr. Sok An yesterday afternoon held talks with a 25-member delegation of Thai Senate led by H.E. Suradet Jiratiticharoen, OCM’s Press and Quick Reaction Unit (PRU) said. 

In the meeting, H.E. Dr. Sok An raised about Cambodia’s position to reach the joint development proposal on the Overlapping Claims Area (OCA) for the benefit of the two countries. 

H.E. Dr. Sok An said in the meeting that Cambodia’s breakthrough proposal for Joint Development Area (JDA) concerning the OCA with Thailand will benefit the two countries in many ways, according to the PRU. 

The Cambodia’s proposal of sharing the profit 50:50 from the joint development of OCA would be a best practice, given many countries used this approach to solve their issues of OCA, explained the Cambodian deputy prime minister. 

“Cambodia’s approach would take a couple of years to solve the OCA issue,” said H.E Dr. Sok An, adding that Thailand’s approach would take much longer time. 

“Both Cambodia and Thailand need the resources of oil and gas to develop our respective countries, so we should not leave our natural resources of oil and gas to continue to sleep under the seabed,” H.E. Dr. Sok An said in the meeting. 

The OCA is believed by experts that it is rich in natural resource of oil and gas, said Deputy Prime Minister Sok An who is also chairing the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA). 

H.E. Dr. Sok An also said that the two nations have spent more than 10 years—including a memorandum of understanding on a proposed joint development signed by Cambodia and Thailand in 2001—an effort to seek a proper solution; yet no solution has been found since. 

For his part, Senator Suradet Jiratiticharoen—who is also the Committee Chairman on energy of Thai Senate—said in the meeting that his legislative body would support a move of the government of Thailand in solving the OCA issue with Cambodia. 

Thailand would also look to support Cambodia in the area of building power plants, through investment, near the border as well as accepting Cambodian trainees to study in Thailand in the area of energy. 

By KHAN Sophirom