In a dimly lit ballroom at a Tokyo luxury hotel, Sok Chenda Sophea, the secretary-general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia and the minister attached to Prime Minister Hun Sen, persistently asked about 200 Japanese businesspeople to invest in Cambodia.
"Cambodia is not mini-China, come [visit]," Sophea said at the Cambodian Investment Forum on March 5. Sophea's 30-minute speech mentioned everything from special economic zones to Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA).
But Cambodia's major crackdown on dissent and its ban on the main opposition party before last year's election were not on his agenda. When questioned by Human Rights Watch about whether the Cambodian government has concrete strategies to ensure rights protections for the Cambodian people amid a growing number of foreign investments and development projects, Sophea dodged the question.