LG Chem will invest a total of 300 billion won ($278.6 million) to expand its petrochemical facilities in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, the company said Tuesday.

With the investment, the company plans to increase the annual production capacities of crude acrylic acid and super absorbent polymer by 180,000 tons and 100,000 tons, respectively.

CAA is used to produce acrylates and other derivatives used in paint, paper, textile, adhesives, specialty coatings. SAP is mainly used in disposable diapers, female hygiene products and adult incontinence products.

When the expansion is completed by 2019, the chemical giant’s annual production capacity of CAA will increase to 700,000 tons and SAP to 500,000 tons. LG Chem expects its annual sales to grow by 300 billion won.

The global market for SAP is expected to post annual growth of 5 percent, with annual demand reaching 6.75 million tons in 2020, from 5.9 million tons this year, the company said in a statement.

A trove of documents left behind by law enforcement officials at a recently shuttered cockfighting ring allegedly owned by the nephew-in-law of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appears to show organised payments to police and government officials across Kandal province.

The documents – trampled into the mud behind the shuttered arena along with scraps of scorecards, tickets, invoices for Budweiser and fake $100 bills – paint a picture of an illegal gambling operation allegedly run by Thai Phany that appeared to exist with the widespread knowledge of local authorities.

Among the documents discovered by Post reporters over the weekend are a Wing note recording $200 transferred to the district police chief; a list of monthly “salary payments” to 40 locals, including the village chief and commune chief; a letter from the commune police chief asking Phany for $600 “to fix the roof”; and a handwritten notebook recording payments to “Bong Mab”, a possible reference to Phany’s nickname “Thy Mab”, “TV media”, “inspectors”, “police” and “village security”.

The documents raise questions as to whether the investigation into Phany, a Ministry of Defence bureaucrat who is married to the prime minister’s niece, should be expanded to other government officials. Phany was charged on December 5 for allegedly operating two cockfighting rings, after a leaked WhatsApp message appeared to show the premier authorising authorities to shoot him if he resisted arrest.

Independent observers said the documents showing widespread bribery should prompt an independent investigation into the illegal cockfighting rings in Kandal and Takeo provinces that were shut down earlier this month.

San Chey, country director of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP), called on the Anti-Corruption Unit to open an investigation.

“There is no need to wait,” Chey said. “I feel very, very disappointed that such a story is happening. That’s why action needs to be taken. If government officials say they are clean, they must commit to fighting corruption as well.”

In plain sight

Locals say the cockfighting ring was operating in Akrei Khsat commune’s Khsach village for roughly a year before a squadron of police, Military Police and soldiers raided the complex earlier this month, bulldozing the arena to the ground and detaining 200 people for questioning.

Phany, the ring’s alleged owner, is the son-in-law of the prime minister’s older brother, Hun San, and a Cambodian-Australian citizen who has a chequered past in both countries.

In 2003, he was caught smuggling more than 300 grams of heroin from Cambodia to Australia and sentenced to five years and six months in prison.

Australian court documents describe Phany as having “strong connections with powerful people in Cambodia” and allege that at one point he paid for an appointment to be a major in the Cambodian army.

In 2010, Phany was arrested in Phnom Penh under the name Thai Sith carrying nearly 500 grams of meth and a gun. His 10-year sentence was eventually commuted by the King in 2015.

Since then, Phany has been working as an official in the Ministry of Defence and leading a ruling Cambodian People’s Party working group in Siem Reap.

But locals in both Takeo’s Bati district and Kandal’s Lvea Em district said he has also been running cockfighting rings in the area, some of which last for just weeks while others have lasted more than a year, like the one in Kandal.

The ring, down a paved road where children fly kites after school, drew wealthy out-of-towners several times a week who parked their luxury cars underneath villagers’ homes and supported a cottage industry of street vendors selling food and drink to the gamblers, locals said.

Phany’s lawyer, Lin Lanin, refused to answer personal questions about her client on Tuesday. When asked about court proceedings, Lanin said only that she “will request to release him on bail at the appropriate time”.

An Australian Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson would not specifically address Phany’s case, saying only that the agency “is providing consular assistance to a dual national Cambodian/Australian man detained in Cambodia”.

“Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment,” they said.

The paper trail

The documents left behind at the Lvea Em cockfighting ring raise serious questions about to what extent local officials knew – and were possibly involved in – the illegal gambling operation.

Of the nine authorities who signed and posted a letter informing the cockfighting ring of its closure, three appear by name in documents recovered by The Post at the scene.

Those include Lvea Em District Police Chief Heng Sophal, who received $200 via Wing, according to a receipt marked with his cell phone number and the word “district” written in pen. The date of the transfer was not visible.

Sophal, when contacted this week, denied having taken money from the managers of the cockfighting ring. When pressed further, he simply laughed.

Ly Chun Ou, a Military Police official whose name and mobile phone number appear on two documents, including one titled “bird sporting champions of 2017”, also claimed to have no knowledge of the cockfighting ring, although he could not explain why he appears in the documents.

Commune Police Chief An Penh, whose signature appears on a letter asking Phany and his wife for $600 to fix the police station roof due to damage, leaks and having “no place to rest”, also denied involvement in the ring.

When asked about the letter, dated October 8, Penh confirmed the document was authentic but said there was nothing improper about a police official asking the owner of an illegal cockfighting ring for money. Penh added that Phany eventually donated the material for the roof but not the money.

Other government officials, like police officials, also denied they had received bribes but hinted at the ring’s powerful connections.

Doch Chan, the Akrei Khsat commune chief who is named as the recipient of a $100 “monthly salary” on a document found at the complex, denied receiving any money from the cockfighting ring. “My capability is unable to shut it down, so I reported it to the provincial police chief from the beginning,” Chan said. “We had no ability to crack down on it because the ring was powerful.”

Village Chief Sao Sava, who is listed as having also received a $100 monthly salary on the same document, also denied taking money.

“We are small,” Sava said. “We cannot do anything without Prime Minister Hun Sen. He [Phany] is a three-star general.”

The list also appears to name nearly 40 locals who were also receiving monthly payments from the cockfighting ring. One villager who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that she and her parents received between $100 to $150 per month from the cockfighting ring.

Also abandoned at the compound was a handwritten notebook that appears to record expenses at the ring between March and September – showing several thousand dollars per week being paid to people nicknamed “Bong Mab”, “Older Brother” and “Older Sister”, as well as entries like “police” ($20), “inspection by authorities” ($250) and “Bayon TV” ($250).

In addition, investigators also left behind a typed document appearing to detail the monthly budget for the cockfighting ring in Takeo – including $10,700 in “provincial spending”.

Among the listed line items are $2,500 to be paid to the provincial court prosecutor and $1,000 to the head of the Military Police.

A picture of the document was widely circulated on social media shortly after the Takeo cockfighting ring bust, raising questions about why it was also found in Kandal.

Journalists and more

Also among the papers were dozens of Wing notes showing payments to local TV and print journalists, usually in $25 or $50 increments.

Kandal Provincial Police Chief Eav Chamroeun emphasised this angle in his public announcements about the case after the ring was shut down, posting photos on his Facebook page of press passes found at the scene. He made no mention of finding any documents implicating government or police officials. Chamroeun could not be reached yesterday.

Most of the local journalists contacted by The Post denied taking money from the cockfighting ring in exchange for turning a blind eye.

But Ieng Yuhak, editor of online news outlet Kapea Promden, acknowledged he had accepted $25 once, describing it alternately as “for gasoline”, “to show compassion and kindness” and “because they were illegal, therefore they gave us the money”.

“We are journalists,” Yuhak said. “We do not have the right to close the cockfighting ring. We’re not judicial authorities.”

“They [the authorities] also took money like us,” he added. “The authorities want to damage our reputation. Without journalists reporting about it, there would have been no crackdown.”

What’s next?

When asked whether the court would expand the investigation, Kandal court spokesman So Sarin said he did not know. “This is the investigating judge’s work,” Sarin said.

However, corruption experts said the discovery exposes a conflict of interest on the part of investigators. “Such an open illegal gambling cannot be operated without collusion of different local authorities and their superiors,” Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia said in an email. “And of course, corruption facilitates such an arrangement.”

Kol called on the government to appoint an independent body to take over the investigation staffed by the Anti-Corruption Unit. “It is impossible to have an objective and independent investigation conducted by the implicated authorities or their close allies within the same network,” he said.

Anti-Corruption Unit Director Om Yentieng refused to comment on the case when contacted on Tuesday. “There’s nothing new,” Yentieng said. “This is old rice.”

China’s industrial output is expected to rise by around 6.5 per cent this year, marking the best performance since 2010, as the Made in China 2025 strategy helps to boost productivity and revenue growth.

The increase is 0.5 per centage points higher than the targeted growth, partly driven by strong efforts to boost the use of new technology at traditional enterprises, Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said on Monday.

“The country’s industrial economy has maintained steady and sound growth thanks to the implementation of the Made in China 2025 strategy. It effectively promoted the integration of manufacturing and new technologies such as the internet, big data and cloud computing,” Miao added.

The ministry also predicted that the country’s industrial output is likely to grow by around 6 per cent next year, with revenue from the telecommunications, internet, and software and information technology service sectors increasing by 50 per cent, 30 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.

Wang Peng, deputy director of the China centre for Information Industry Development, said: “The expected strong momentum comes mainly from the supply-side structural reform in the industrial sector, such as cutting overcapacity, which propelled the vitality of the whole industry and improved economic quality.”

In 2017, China has met the goal of reducing steel capacity by more than 50 million metric tons, and cutting overproduction in other industries such as cement, as the country deepens industrial restructuring.

According to Miao, the country will also publish guidelines on promoting the development of digital economy. Official data show that the country’s digital economy amounted to 22.58 trillion yuan ($3.43 trillion) last year, ranking second globally and accounting for around 30 per cent of national GDP.

Figures released by the government showed unemployment stoof at 2.7 percent last month while jobs-to-applicants ratio improved slighty, up 0.01 percent from the previous month to 1.56 in November — the highest level in almost 44 years.

The latest data come as Japan has notched up seven straight quarters of economic growth — the longest positive run for 16 years — with the upcoming 2020 Olympic Games giving the economy a shot in the arm.

Confidence among Japan’s biggest manufacturers is also at an 11-year high, a key central bank survey showed earlier this month, as the world’s number-three economy picks up pace.

However, consumer spending has remained weak and deflation continues to stalk the economy.

Japan has battled deflation for many years and the central bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy appears to be having limited impact.

Other data showed that Japan’s consumer prices rose for the 11th straight month in November, but inflation was still far from the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) two-percent inflation target seen as crucial to revive the world’s third-largest economy.

The core inflation rate was a 0.9 percent rise year-on-year in November, according to data published by the internal affairs ministry, far below the two-percent target set by the BoJ.

Market consensus was a 0.8 percent rise, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

When the volatile prices for fresh food and energy were stripped out, prices rose by even less — 0.3 percent, the ministry said.

November household spending — seen as key for exiting deflation — expanded 1.7 percent from the same month a year earlier — much stronger than market consensus of a 0.5 percent rise.

Household spending had remained flat in October after falling by 0.3 percent in September and rising by 0.6 percent in August.

A patchy picture of spending reflects a slow pace of rise in wages and seasonal reasons, analysts say.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has pressed the country’s major companies to raise their employees’ salaries in an annual wage negotiations, often dubbed as the “government-made labour offensive”.

Japan’s weak inflation stands in sharp contrast to other major economies whose central bankers are looking to wind up their easing policies.

The US Federal Reserve last week announced a widely expected quarter point rate hike, and US policymakers have forecast another three rate hikes in 2018.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank has announced it would halve its massive bond purchases from January as the eurozone recovery gathers pace, allowing the Frankfurt institution to begin winding down its crisis-era stimulus measures.

KINGDAO HARNSIRICHAI was dressed in Thai traditional costume while walking around the Dali University campus for the whole day on December 15, waiting to perform a Thai classical dance to greet foreign ministers and delegations from the Lancang Mekong Cooperation (LMC), who were there for diplomatic meetings.

Kingdao

“I’m the only Thai student here so they told me to greet and perform a dance to show Thai guests, but I don’t know about the meeting,” she said.

While there are training opportunities and scholarships under the LMC framework, Kingdao studies the Chinese language at the university based on her own interest and pays for it herself.

“I know China is rising and growing. People of my generation keep saying that China will give us opportunities to make money,” she told The Nation. “So I saved all my money and came here to learn Chinese.”

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in education from Dhonburi Rajabhat University, which has an exchange programme with Dali University, Kingdao said she hoped that learning Chinese would help her to be prepared in the future when China has more engagement and stronger relations with Thailand.

“I want to open a language school in Bangkok when I return. Since I graduated to be a teacher, teaching Chinese language would be a perfect job, right?”

The picturesque Dali University campus is among the Chinese educational institutions designated to support the LMC human development project to improve China’s status and spread Chinese knowledge, technology and know-how among people from other Mekong basin countries.

Long before the establishment of the LMC in 2015, Dali University had cooperative relations with many Thai universities including Burapha, Chiang Mai and Prince of Songkla. There have been more than 800 students and academics involved in several cooperation and exchange programmes since 2003, according to Duan Lin, chairman of the Dali University Committee.

The university has particularly strong programmes in medicine and biodiversity.

Kingdao said she had learned about Dali University after attending a one-month exchange programme three years ago.

“It would be better if our educational institutes in Thailand gave us more information and scholarships,” Kingdao said. “I’ve struggled a lot to enrol here since I have to pay 14,250 yuan [Bt71,250] a year for my education.”

However, she has a teaching assistant job at the university’s Thai Language Department that contributes to her tuition.

In Tianjin, where a high-speed train can reach Beijing in only 40 minutes, Pattana Traisikkha, a 20-year-old vocational student at the Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Science (TSGUAS), said his life was a bit easier after he had obtained a partial scholarship.

Pattana (with glasses) demonstrates robot controlling to his junior classmate

The Thai-Chinese student, who is also known also as Tang Zi Qing, finished his vocational certificate in electronics from Chitralada Vocational School three years ago before coming to Tianjin.

Initiated during the first visit of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to the university in 2013, the cooperative effort enrolled an initial group of six Thai students at the campus, all of whom have finished their education, said Professor Zhang Xinghui.

Pattana is in the third class and plans to finish his diploma in mechatronics next year. “With a half scholarship from Chitralada, I have to pay Bt70,000 for the tuition fee, which is still relatively expensive compared to our standards,” he said.

“But it’s worth it, I think since I have learned a lot of advanced mechatronic technology and robotics,” he said. Mechatronics refers to a multidisciplinary field including electronics, mechanics and computer engineering.

“I’m learning about robot controls, which will be useful for assembly line production. Pneumatics and hydraulics are also my subjects, Pattan told The Nation, while showing junior classmates, including an Indonesian and Cambodian, how to control a robot in manual mode.

Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang announced in the first summit of LMC leaders in March last year that China would provide 18,000 scholarships and 5,000 training opportunities for students from Mekong countries over three years.

Both Dali University and the TSGUAS were designated in the plan, and officials and students from Mekong countries have subsequently poured into the campuses.

Students Pakamon Chaiyawan and Puri Boonyoprakan finished their degrees in agriculture from Lopburi Agriculture and Technology College before obtaining full scholarships for media and movie studies at TSGUAS’s Faculty of Art.

“Everything from the language to our major subjects was very hard when we started a year ago,” said Pakamon. “But it’s okay now since we can adjust and hope we will finish our degree here.”

In the future, students who do not have sufficient funds or are struggling with the Chinese language should be able to study in their home countries after Li announced vocational education and training centres in its Mekong partner countries.

Zhang, who is the Chinese Communist Party secretary at TSGUAS, said the university had already set up the Lancang-Mekong Vocational Training Centre in Cambodia. “In five years, we will make the training centre become an international training centre in Cambodia to serve all Mekong countries and Asean nations,” he said.

The LMC and the training centres, as well as many other mechanisms for cooperation in the region, are being developed to serve China’s strategy of the “One Belt One Road Initiative” for growth and development, he said.