On 30 May 2008, I attended a meeting held by Development and Partnership in Action (DPA) on Mineral Extraction. The meeting was conducted in order to update information on this extraction industry and to find ways if non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could together form network to disseminate information and advocate for mineral related issues. As discussed among NGOs from Phnom Penh and provinces, it was agreed to form networks. However, it is not clear yet with regard to shape, missions and sustainability of the network. At another day, NGOs will talk about this again.

During the meeting, what I was interesting was about presentation made by foreign staff rather than by Cambodian staff. Among four speakers, three were foreign staff coming from DPA, EWMI and NGO Forum. They presented five topics while the Khmer speaker from DPA presented only one topic. One more interesting was questions and answers which mostly made by and interacted among foreign participants. Seeing this, I can see that there are more rooms for Cambodians to stock knowledges otherwise we can only hire foreign staff to tell and guide.