A delegation from Thailand's Senate was in Phnom Penh on September 28 to meet their Cambodian counterparts to discuss strategies for fighting corruption and enhancing cooperation.
The Thai delegates were from its Senate’s Committee on Studying and Inspecting Corruption, Misconduct and Strengthening Good Governance. They were led by the committee chairman, Sithawat Wongsuwa, in their meeting with Cambodian Senate president Say Chhum to learn about the fight against corruption in the country.
Sithawat said their visit aimed to strengthen and expand cooperation and exchange experience to increase mutual understanding on anti-corruption work.
"Thailand strongly hopes that the Cambodian legislature will join the Thai parliament in the fight against corruption and for cooperation in other areas in order to strengthen state-to-state and people-people ties," he said.
Chhum said he considered the visit an opportunity to contribute significantly to the expansion of strategic exchanges of views and better cooperation for the benefit of the peoples of both countries.
He said he is highly optimistic about the relationship and what they can accomplish through cooperation between the Cambodian and Thai parliaments in all areas, including the fight against corruption, among others.
Chhum affirmed that Cambodia-Thailand relations have in recent years been considerably enhanced with high levels of mutual support between them in both bilateral and multilateral frameworks.
Transparency International (TI) released its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2021 in late January, ranking Cambodia 157 out of 180 countries. Cambodia was ranked 160 the previous year.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan said at the time that TI’s CPI scoring and index did not reflect reality and ignored the government’s ongoing efforts in combating corruption.
“[TI] may not know that Cambodia has a social accountability programme at the sub-national level to combat corruption. I think it’s likely that they don’t have a clear understanding of Cambodia,” he said.
