Nov 17: The United Nations Industrial Development Organ-isation (UNIDO)

celebrates its 30th anniversary.

UNIDO's Director-General Mauricio de Maria y Campos said the organisation implemented

$120 million worth of field projects and brokered in excess of one billion dollars

of investments each year.

According to a UNIDO statement, the organisation's cooperation with Cambodia began

in 1994 and has resulted in technology transfer in agricultural machinery and capacity

building in small and medium industries.

Nov 18: Agence Khmere de Presse reported: Cambodian Foreign Minister Ung

Huot attended the third meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation

between Cambodia and Laos in Vientiane from 18 to 21 Nov. The Commission was set

up in Feb 1994 with the aim of strengthening the relationship between the two countries.

Nov 18: Reuters reported: Parliament passed Cambodia's first environmental

law, but analysts said the legislation was too weak to tackle the country's environmental

problems.

But Minister of Environment Mok Mareth told Reuters he believed the spirit of the

law, which contains general provisions for natural resource management, was significant

nonetheless.

The law contains requirements for a national environmental plan, environmental impact

assessments of development, evaluation of natural resources and the creation of an

environmental fund.

Nov 21: Reuters reported: Cambodia and Laos are on track for Asean membership

in July 1997, but ASEAN members must provide development support if the two needy

nations are to function effectively in the group, officials said Nov 21.

Representatives of the Study Group on Cambodia and Laos called for a policy of "constructive

intervention" on the part of ASEAN members who include Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia,

the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"ASEAN should move beyond a talk show or a diplomatic club and become more action-oriented,"

according to Kao Kim Hourn, a member of the group that conducted the study and executive

director of the Cambodian Institute of Cooperation and Peace.