Cambodia

E

Health and Welfare

Cambodia’s chronic poverty and decades of dislocation have led to a very poor public health record. In 2009 average life expectancy at birth was just 60 years for men and 64 years for women. Infant mortality in 2009 was 55 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 1993 Cambodia had around 5,640 doctors, or 1 for every 1,650 people. In 1994 around 3.1 per cent of total national budgetary expenditure went on health care and welfare.

F

Defence

In 2006 Cambodia had an estimated 124,300 personnel in the armed forces, including an army of around 75,000, a navy of 2,800, and an air force of 1,500. A force of about 140,000 Vietnamese troops occupied the country from 1979 to 1989. The government plans to shrink the size of the armed forces by around 30,000 personnel.

G

International Organizations

Cambodia is a member of the United Nations (UN). Cambodia had long held observer status at the Association of South East Asian Nations and was officially admitted as a full member in April 1999, after fulfilling a key membership requirement by establishing a Senate. The country was admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2004.

VI

History

The ancestors of the Cambodians, the Mon and the Khmer peoples, moved into South East Asia before the Christian era, probably from the north, arriving before their present neighbours—the Vietnamese, Lao, and Thai. Indian cultural borrowings transformed the early kingdom of Cambodia, providing a writing system, architectural styles, religions (Hinduism and Buddhism), the concept of the god-king (deva-raja), and a highly stratified class system.

A

Early Khmer States

Funan, the first kingdom to occupy the present area of Cambodia, was formed in the 1st century ad, probably by Mon-Khmer peoples. Funan’s culture came mainly from India. Its port, Oc Eo, on the Gulf of Thailand, was a major trade link between China and India. The kingdom of Chenla, located north-east of Lake Sap, was originally a vassal state of Funan, but in the 6th and 7th centuries it conquered that kingdom. In 706, however, Chenla was split in two. The northern half, Land Chenla, was in Laos, and the southern half, called Water Chenla, in the area of modern Cambodia, fell under the sovereignty of Java.