Category: Government and Society

Getting Wired

The Ministry of Mines and Energy announced that by the end of this year, 88% of villages and 75% of households nation-wide will have access to electricity.  The lack of available, cheap electricity has been a major drag on the country’s development and industrialization.  The ultimate goal is for 100% electrification by 2020, with the power coming from hydropower plants, coal-fired plants, and some biomass-fired plants and solar farms.  It’s an ambitious goal but a vitally important one.

NSSF Signup

Cambodia has the beginnings of a social security system, being implemented in three stages.  A couple years ago the first phase was introduced, offering compensation for employees injured on the job.  Now the second phase is coming into play, a general health-care plan.  Today all the 150+ Maryknoll project employees had to come to the Maryknoll office to sign up and have their ID pictures taken.

The neighbors must have wondered what was going on as a mass of people descended on the Maryknoll office located on a rather quiet street.
Once inside, each staff member was photographed against the white background and then issued a National Social Security Fund ID card. It was surprisingly out of character for a government office to set up this registration site for us rather than forcing each employee to visit two separate sites to submit documents.