• Strategic Framework and ActivityPlan for Capacity Strengthening of Cambodian Senate
• Master Plan for Senate 2008

• ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization
• International Cooperation Cambodia
• Inter-Parliamentary Union
• Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum
• Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development

1- Brief background and the current status of the Cambodian Senate
1.1- Brief background of the Cambodian Senate

Over than six decades so far, Cambodia has gone through several bitter events. From one to another period all State institutions experienced radical change and reorganization in order to adapt to the new political regime by which Cambodia has had to follow. As a matter of fact, the Cambodian Parliament has also had suffered from a historical change and turmoil. From 1947 to 1970, Cambodia adopted the monarch system of Bicameral Chamber, from 1970 to 1975 the republic regime of Bicameral Chamber, from 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime with Mono-cameral Chamber, from 1979 to 1993 under the People's Republic and State of Cambodia regime, Cambodia adopted a Mono-cameral Chamber. From 1993 Cambodia has adopted a regime of Constitutional Monarch. These kinds of frequent and abrupt changes have made the Cambodian Parliament and other State institutions' operation unsustainable.

The 1993 elections organized by the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) were the historical events which determined a new turning point for Cambodia development. The result of the election created a Constituent Assembly which later, after adoption of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, became the National Assembly. The National Assembly of the first legislature was fully operational for five years. After the general election in 1998, Cambodia has had encountered political crisis arisen from the rejection of the result of the election. But the crisis was settled by Cambodia itself during a summit of the high ranking leadership of the major political parties on November 12 and 13, 1999 under the supreme auspice of His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk at the Royal Palace. The summit decided to create the Senate by making amendment to the Constitution which provided the opportunity for Cambodia to adopt the Bicameral Chamber system. The first legislature of the Senate was an appointed Senate up to 2006. There were 61 senators who came from three political parties in the first legislature of the Senate. The Senate which was just established after the non-universal elections on January 22, 2006 is commencing its second legislature. There are three political parties which control the seats in the Senate. There are 61 senators including nine women. The Senate has an autonomous budget. It has one Permanent Committee (12 members), nine specialized commissions and the General Secretariat which serves as the Chief of Staff of the Senate. The Senate is considering creating its regional offices in the eight regions.

1.2- Current status of the Cambodian Senate

The elections for the three legislatures of the National Assembly and the 2006 Senate elections have made possible for the larger roles of the Senate in representing Commune/Sangkat Councils throughout the country which are implementing decentralization and deconcentration policies.

A/ Presently, the institutional development are increasingly important, but in implementing its duty, it faces a number of problems due to:

- Examination of the bill: bills are mainly initiated by the executive which is similar to the other democratic countries, lack of resources and comprehensive procedural standard
- Limited resources at the specialized commissions in terms of research and technical advice
- The implementation of decentralization and deconcentration by the State since 2002 is going along with continued creation of required laws and regulations
- Technical and expertise of the Secretariat staff is still limited.
- No systematic consultation process with citizen and the civil society

B/ In its capacity of an institution to monitor the government's work, members of the Senate have a lot of tasks relating to the complaints filed by local people which need to communicate with the Royal Government and to do the reality checks on the sites. But as legislative review is a heavy burden, the specialized commission cannot spend much time to communicate with the government's representatives and to do the reality checks on the sites. A number of adopted laws have not been fully enforced due to the limited dissemination and the delayed process of creating the implementing regulations by the government.

C/ As representative of the Commune/Sangkat Councils, members of the Senate lack resources and means to travel to the regions to inform the constituents about its activities and to build relationship with local people as much as it was expected. In this context, the Senate must develop its regional offices. The primary goal of establishing these offices is to monitor the evolution of Commune/Sangkat and receives citizen's complaints from the regions which should be forwarded directly to the Senate for taking action according to the procedure.

D/ In the past five years, the Senate has tried its efforts to implement its five-year strategic planning (2003-2008) which consists of five important objectives and has recorded remarkable results. The five strategic objectives include:

Objective 1: Human Resources Management and development

To implement this objective, the General Secretariat has put in practice its policy on creating Job Description for all officials and positions in the General Secretariat of the Senate and developed policy on human resources management and development which provided just, fair and equitable appointments. A long with this, the General Secretariat of the Senate, in cooperation with its development partners, has sent 34 staff, including seven women, to conduct a study tours to gain understanding and get experiences from the legislative bodies of other countries. With regard to the implementation of measures to motivate women staff to participate in all activities and positions, the General Secretariat has implemented policies toward women in the Secretariat by providing them the opportunity to take part in State's affairs and insure that there is justice and equality between male and female of the senate staff. In the appointments of officials at all levels and positions, the General Secretariat has appointed 48 female staff to the management positions (from deputy bureau chief and up ) which amounted 51% out of all the 95 female and 38% out of the total of 188 officials (dated up to December 2006).

With regard to training development of human resource, the General Secretariat has achieved remarkable results since 1999:

a/ In-country training

-1999 trained 37 staff
-2000 trained 81 staff
-2001 trained 200 staff
-2002 trained 341 staff
-2003 trained 379 staff
-2004 trained 1069 staff
-2005 trained 505 staff
-2006 trained 882 staff

b/ International training

-2001 trained 01 staff
-2002 trained 02 staff
-2003 trained 10 staff
-2004 trained 11 staff
-2005 trained 04 staff
-2006 trained 05 staff

In-country training was organized on based the annual activity planning of the departments under the General Secretariat of the Senate. This faces a lot of difficulties due to the fact that the Human Resource Department has been newly created and the latter has not developed its master plan for human resource training. We hope that in the year 2007, a master plan for human resource training will be developed and put into implementation. On the other hand, in cooperation with UNDP, the general Secretariat of the Senate has studied and drafted a master plan to develop the institution as follows:

- Master plan to develop legislative capacity
- Master plan to develop library and archives
- Master plan to develop Information Technology
- Master-plan to develop communications

We hope these master plans can be implemented in the years to come if the donor countries provide full support. Besides, training on legal assistance, legal research, legal analysis and training of trainers has not been fully implemented as development partners have mainly provided with short term training which was not feasible because these kinds of training require long term commitment if it were to be effective. The General Secretariat will try to urge development partners to change their priority goal to long term training so officials could gain concreted skill in the future.

Objective 2: Structure, System, Policy and Procedure

We have good result in implementing this objective. The Senate has created the Law on Election of Senators on time. Research and the creation of the Law on Congress between the Senate and the National Assembly have been developed and completed its first draft. Regulations on the precise role of senators and services to be provided by the General Secretariat of the Senate to senators has been fairly implemented, but still not fully satisfied.

Besides, the General Secretariat of the Senate has developed the Law on the Statute of the Legislative staff (Kram#NS.RKM.0203-007 dated on February 13, 2003) in order to insure long term and sustainable institutional development, and to integrate the statute of the officials by smoothly transferring them from the former statute to the new one. On January 1, 2005, the General Secretariat of the Senate developed eight policies and put them into practice. The followings are the eight policies:

1- Policies on recruitment of officials
2- Policies on recruitment of contractual and non-contractual staff
3- Policies relating to Job Description
4- Policies on training and development of human resources
5- Policies on motivation and encouragement of legislative staff at the General Secretariat of the Senate
6- Policies on women at the General Secretariat of the Senate
7- Policies on appointment of officials to the management positions in the structure of the General Secretariat of the Senate
8- Policies on Pension and Professional Disability Funds for the legislative staff of the General Secretariat of the Senate

The General Secretariat of the Senate has been drafting Policies on Evaluation form and other resolutions:

- Policies on Effective Management of Interns
- Policies on Putting officials on Leave Without Pay
- Policies on Placing officials outside the Original Cadre
- Policies on Dispute Resolution Within the General Secretariat of the Senate
- Resolution on the Creation of Pension and Professional Disability Funds
- Evaluation Form for Official Taking Responsible Position
- Evaluation Form for Contractual Staff
Along with the above mentioned, there is a successful completion of the works on the update of the new structure of the General Secretariat and the Internal Rules and Procedure of the General Secretariat of the Senate. All departments attached to the General Secretariat of the Senate which were created under the new structure have completed their individual internal working process in order to insure work efficiency, clear responsibility and sustainability of the departments' work. The General Secretariat of the Senate has been gradually working on the electronic management in the areas of finance, audit and inventory. As for the recording system, with assistance from Japan, the General Secretariat has been organizing the audio-visual system and hansard service for the plenary session, the Permanent Committee and the specialized commissions' meetings by installing new system and modernizing the existing system so that the latter works will be better.

Objective 3: IT System
In implementing this objective there has been some tension and difficulties as Network and IT systems have not been installed. There is a need for fund raising from donor countries in order to meet the requirements on equipping the General Secretariat with IT system and to implement the IT system. In spite of this, the General Secretariat has already be prepared in the training of officials specialized in IT technology and electronic repair and maintenance. Even facing some difficulties, the General Secretariat has been working on raising funds from development partners. As a matter of fact, UNDP which is a development partner of the General Secretariat of the Senate has helped to install an Internet Cafe for senators and staff of the General Secretariat so that they step by step do research. As for the Senate Website, the General Secretariat has worked on the update and adjustment for the Senate Web Page;

It is noted that development partners usually provide support in skill trainings but do not have any principles in helping with operational material and equipments.

Objective 4: Information Dissemination
There have been also some difficulties encountered in this objective as it is related to budget issue which should be spent. Actually, the General Secretariat of the Senate has not created its own printing house and studio to produce and disseminate the information. As this project requires high cost which beyond the capacity of the Senate, there is a need to raise funds from development partners in order to purchase these equipments. However, the General Secretariat of the Senate has developed documents and other information related to the Senate and to disseminate them through public and private print and electronic media. Additionally, we have prepared in the training of staff in the areas of management, operation, maintenance, techniques of the information dissemination. The General Secretariat has also step by step worked on the upgrade and amelioration of the quality of the Senate Bulletin by inserting more important activities of the Senate especially those related to the legislative, oversight, and representative roles of senators. As for the ability to create a Documentation Center; even now the General Secretariat of the Senate has not yet worked on; it has established the Archive Unit to store the Senate's documents. As for the library, although it is not yet electronically organized, there have been efforts to provide books and documents to serve the general citizen; as a matter of fact there were 15,105 and 21,109 people who respectively came to read and looked at the Senate Website. Besides, the training of 10 trainers on the information service and document the General Secretariat has not yet fully implemented.

Objective 5: Relationship with national and international Institutions

There has been good achievement in this objective. In the area of public relation, the General Secretariat has developed a strategy with broad characteristics including dissemination through documents, audio-visual and good relationship with media so activities of the Senate are publicly informed. Publication of official documents of the Senate and the distribution to the citizen has also been well done. Furthermore, the General Secretariat of the Senate has also been making good relationship with the institutions of the National Assembly, royal government and NGOs in order that they provide supports to the Senate since its creation until today. In addition, the General Secretariat of the Senate has trained its staff on the role of public information and public relation so they can help increase the efficiency of the public relation work of the General Secretariat of the Senate. The General Secretariat of the Senate has set an open door policy so that the general citizen, civil servants, monks and students can come to visit and understand about the Senate. Along with this, we have allowed students from faculties and universities and poor youth to have internship in various departments of the General Secretariat.

On the front of international relation, since 1999 the General Secretariat has taken into consideration that international relation is the core work for the development of the Senate institution. Actually, the General Secretariat has developed cooperation with foreign parliaments in the world, with Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Organization (AIPO), Association of Francophone Parliaments (APF), etc.., and with international development partners such as Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF), in order to raise funds to support training and capacity strengthening of the officials and staff of the General Secretariat of the Senate.

From one year to another, there has been good progress in the international relation work within regional and international framework. Actually, every year the Senate and General Secretariat of the Senate send many groups and delegations abroad for visits, study tours, meetings, and conferences in order to learn the experiences from other countries. On the other hand, numbers of foreign delegations who come for visit and meetings in Cambodia have been increased form one year to another. Among foreign delegations who come to visit Cambodia, it has been noticed that some of the high ranking ones were led by Presidents of the parliaments. As a matter of fact, up to now there have been delegations led by the President of Parliaments from France Belgium, Australia and Canada. Along with this, the Senate has also established Groups of Cambodian Senate Friendship with friendly Parliaments in the world for the purpose of strengthening friendship and cooperation among Cambodian Senate and Parliaments in the world. In summary, the Cambodian Senate has been paid great attention from the international circles as we open up for the broad relationship with the international organizations. We have noted that under the international relation work there have been remarkable results in funds raising. From the creation of the Senate in 1999 up to now, the General Secretariat of the Senate has received assistance from friendly countries' governments and parliaments and development institutions for a total amount of USD 4,510,196.16 namely:

- The government of the People's Republic of China had provided five times of donations to build the plenary session hall of the Senate, the library building, the offices of senators , and restoration of the infrastructure of the Senate in the amount of USD3,079,499
- The Royal government of Japan had provided four times of donations to renovate old buildings office material and equipments for the Senate studio in the amount of USD 1,325,702.16
- Government and the parliament of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam had provided three times of in- kind donations as office material and floor curtain in the amount of USD155,000
- The government of the Republic of Korea donated one vehicle, the Republic of Indonesia donated modem furniture for one room, and the Government of Brunei Darussalam donated USD 20,000.

As for the human resource development, the General Secretariat of the Senate has tried to make relationship and raised funds from friendly countries and development partners to help train human resource of the General Secretariat of the Senate. Actually, since 1999 up to now, development partners such as UNDP, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Cambodia-Canada Legislative Support Project (CCSLP), etc.., have provided 223 training sessions to officials of the General Secretariat of the Senate. As for the international training, the General Secretariat of the Senate has many times sent officials to long-term training in Australia, Japan and New Zealand; short term training to Singapore, France, Japan, and Canada; and study tours to Australia, Canada, Thailand, Sweden, the Philippines, Vietnam, China, France, Laos, India, etc.., . Along with this, the Department of Protocol and International Relations has been trying to upgrade better its capacity in the international relations and cooperation in order to respond to the role and duty of the department and to meet the international standard.

Looking in general at the five objectives in which the Senate has been trying to achieve form 2003 up to the first quarter of 2007, we can see that we achieve good results in three objectives, i.e. objective 1, 2 and 5, and this can be translated to an overall of 70 to 80. Besides, the objectives 3 and 4 can only reach up to 50 to 60 as they are subject to high costs of equipment which is beyond the ability of the Senate and need to fully rely on assistance and support from outside.

E/ Strengths and Weaknesses
E.I Strengths

- The leadership of the Senate has good will and full accountability towards their work
- High quality and efficiency in the capacity in management of the leadership of the Senate
- There is a smooth transition from the first to the second legislature of the Senate
- The Senate developed law on election of senators. Internal Rules of Procedure of the Senate, and other import legal instruments
- Senators have taken part in reviewing and adopting laws with transparency and in a timely manner
- The Senate has made its five-year plan (2003-2008)
- Having raising funds continually from outside for the development of the Senate institution
- Having appropriate working space equipped with appropriate material
- Senators fulfill their tasks well according to the Constitution and gain good knowledge and experiences in politics
- Senators have built good solidarity among their peers and enjoy good cooperation from members of the National Assembly, foreign parliaments, and international development partners
- Officials of the General Secretariat of the Senate have good will and accountability in providing support to senators, thus increasing development of the Senate institution

E.2 Weaknesses
- Lack of standard in the review and law drafting
- Officials in the specialized commissions do not have full capacity to legal opinion and research and budget oversight to commissions and senators
- Lack of high standard in the monitoring of the implementation of the executive institutions by senators
- Senators who represent Commune/Sangkat Councils do not regularly visit their locality in the eight regions
- Limited dissemination of information for public awareness through radios, TV, magazines, Website, etc..,
- New senators have not received full and in-depth training on the work of the Senate
- Lack of strong legal documentation center, modern library, information center which capacity to insure inflow of information, and parliamentary center which can insure human resource and technology development for the Senate institution
- Lack of partnership between the Senate and the Audit Authority in order to control national budget
- Lack of knowledge and in-depth implementation of gender in the Senate

F- Opportunities and Threats
F-l Opportunities

- The process of the 2006 elections of senators for the second legislature was conducted smoothly
- Having support and assistance from the National Assembly, royal government, and friendly countries
- Having the Constitution which is the guiding principle to review and adopt legislation
- Having aid from foreign countries in looking at the long term development of the Senate institution
- Having good cooperation with partner organizations in training to strengthen the capacity of senators and officials of the General Secretary of the Senate
- Having foreign legal experts to help provide legal consultation to senators and officials
- Having participation in international study tours and meetings to learn and exchange the experiences on parliamentary work
- Having and support and good cooperation from foreign parliaments, Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), ASEAN Inter Parliamentary Association (AIPA), Association of Francophone Parliament (APF), and other international Parliamentary Friendship Groups
- The State has provided with adequate remunerations, monthly salary and other allowances which help increase the quality of the work of the Senate
- International partner organization installed an Internet Cafe which helps facilitate, to a certain extend, the research of the Senate.

F. 2 Threats

- Very limited timeframe in the review and examination of the bills and proposals referred from the National Assembly
- Some ministries and institutions have not yet provided broad access to important documents to the Senate
- International partner organizations are slow in providing printing equipments to the printing house which is contributing to the dissemination of information the general citizen and to expand public relations
- Donors have not yet installed the IT system in office buildings of the Senate
- Political deadlock after 2003 general election
- Within the first and second legislature, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has been slow in the disbursements of budget for travel to contact with voters (Commune/Sangkat Councils)
- Capacity of the national budget is limited as compared to the huge needs for institutional development (expansion of office space, installation of equipments, recruitment of new officials or highly specialized experts)

2- Why strengthening the capacity of the Cambodian Senate

To strengthen the capacity of the Senate in order to fulfill the three important roles (legislative, government oversight, representative) along the line with democratic principle is the most demanding factor. This factor requires broad support and cooperation from national and international communities through a clearly defined short, medium and long term strategy.
New development indicates that there are efforts from the royal government and the legislative body in order to achieve progress toward global goal in strengthening the role and capacity of the Cambodian Senate.

Support from major development partners for the last decade such as United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Cambodia-Canada Legislative Support Project (CCLSP), the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF), French Parliament and partners have proven the importance and necessity in the development of the Senate in the process of democratic development and building the rule of law..

Therefore, the above mentioned points require a need for continuation of support to further strengthen the capacity of the Cambodian Senate for the following reasons:
- It is the strong will of the Senate to raise its capacity
- It is needed to strengthen the role in government oversight: the government must be accountable before the Senate for its policies. The Senate must evaluate and closely monitor the national budget allocation and the implementation of the income and revenue of the royal government, especially issues related to financing the Commune/Sangkat Councils, the implementation of the decentralization and deconcentration policies, and the process socio-economic and cultural development of commune/sangkat. Furthermore, the Senate must urge the royal government toimplement its policies with transparency under the framework of good governance and rule of law.
- It is needed to strengthen the role in making legislation and monitor the law enforcement: the Senate must examine and adopt the bill and proposal with professionalism and good judgment. Furthermore the Senate must monitor the actual implementation of laws and regulations issued by the royal government when they are adopted. In law making process, the Senate must encourage the public consultation in order to give advance knowledge and to make the enforcement more efficient when it is adopted.
- It is needed to strengthen the representative role of the Senate in representing commune/sangkat councils: The Senate must be aware of the situation of the citizen and settle their complaints by forwarding them to the executive or competent institution. Along with this, the Senate must put efforts on strengthening its capacity in order to be the secretariat of the nation in decentralization and deconcentration works, thus becoming the strong support of the commune/sangkat councils throughout the country in the policies of socio-economic and cultural development of the localities.

3- Prospect of Cambodian Senate for the next ten years

Strengthening Cambodian Senate is the core factor for the success of the country in integrating Cambodia into ASEAN and other regional and international forums.

Many views that the Parliament must strengthen its capacity in order to fulfill roles and tasks in the consolidation of rule of law, maintaining economic growth in a sustainable manner, thus contributing to the development of people's living standard and to push for development of decentralization and deconcentration policies. On the international arena, the Cambodian Senate must provide ratification on some important treaties, conventions and pacts. Cambodia must position itself as good member of ASEAN, United Nations, World Trade Organization, and also a responsible signatory of international protocol, treaties and conventions. At the same time, the Senate has good cooperation with the executive and the judiciary, the Senate must further strengthen its capacity and abide by the principle of separation of power. As the legislative power, it should be clearly define between the power and competence of the Senate and the National Assembly.

In the future, the Senate should be:

3.1 Legislative body with full capacity in law making
- The Senate must show its courage and full capacity in reviewing and making recommendations to any proposed legislation so that they have better quality comprehensive and consistent. The Senate must show its high standard of expertise which is not owed to taking side or oppose the royal government as the National Assembly. The Senate must show its maturity, balanced judgment in order to end the unfair criticism that the Senate is just a rubber stamp.
- The Senate must have enough time to examine bills and proposals even if they are urgent and need a special procedure for proper examination. In this case, there should be a study on the amendments of some articles of the Constitution to make it possible that the Senate must have at least 60 days so that it can comprehensively fulfill its legislative work with public consultation process.
- Senators must have professional and technical knowledge to proper examine bills and proposals.
- Specialized commissions currently consists of nine in the Senate should not be overloaded with work of examination of bills and proposals. If deemed necessary, a special commission should be created for each bill and proposal.
- Specialized commission should organize public consultation and must have full access to information from experts, practitioner and the civil society.
- Assistants to specialized commissions should have full capacity to provide opinion to commissions during the examination of bills and proposals.
- Coordination among specialized commissions should be ameliorated. Some bills such as bill on financial law should be discussed by the commission and Finance and Banking with participation from other commissions whose jurisdiction fall under any chapter of the bill. This has been implemented and should be defined into a systematic procedure. Especially, each specialized commission should have more opportunities to meet with the concerned ministry in order to collect data related to the past implementation and to learn exactly what is required to implement in the coming years.
- The Senate may provide recommendations to the royal government to draft a bill on special issue if deemed urgent.
- In accordance with the Constitution, the competent members of Senate shall initiate legislation.
- The Constitution stipulates that the official language and script is Khmer. The Senate should initiate ideas with the Royal Academy of Cambodia to develop a new glossary or terminology in order to clearly define the currently used terms and reduce ambiguity in the law.
- The Senate must push for the development of a law defining the Congress of the National Assembly and the Senate in order to increase the accountability role of the legislative body as stipulated under the Constitution.

3.2 Legislative body with full capacity in oversight and monitoring of the Executive
- The royal government should be accountable before the Senate in the implementation of its policies.
- The Senate should increase its constructive discussion with the royal government.
- The Specialized commission should have enough time in monitoring the government's affairs according to its individual competence.
- The specialized commissions of the Senate should have made regular enquiry investigation and recommendations to the Senate on any issues related to its responsibility.
- The specialized commissions should organize public consultation.
- Activity related to oversight and monitoring of the Senate can be done if there is enough training on skills and capacity of the officials of the General Secretariat of the Senate especially research and documentation skills.

3.3 State institution truly representing the Commune/Sangkat Councils
- Public recognition of the role of the Senate: Knowledge from the general public, major economic operators, and the society vis-à-vis the Senate and members of the Senate is still limited. Communication between citizen and the commune/Sangkat council and their representative is still limited. The Senate should further try to establish different methods such as booklet, magazine, radio program, television, web site, and to develop public relations policy and the information center to disseminate information to people, all institutions and Commune/Sangkat councils in order to raise people's broader awareness on the Senate.
- Increase systematic contacts and missions at the local level: To fully implement the role as representative of members of the Senate, there should be proper network to get the updated information from the locality members of the Senate relating the issue of efficiency, good process of the government policies, people and Commune/Sangkat's expectation and complaints, etc. The Senate should continue to organize local visit especially at the commission level. Officials of the regional offices of the Senate should increase their capacity in order to respond to people's need and provide services, according to the role of the regional offices, analyze local information and report to members of Senate and the specialized commissions.
- Public consultation: In implementing the process of making law and the oversight role especially at the commission level, the Senate should be able to get true feedback and assessment in order to see whether provisions in the bills or proposals are acceptable by the citizen. Specialized commission has the competence to define detailed procedure on public consultation to get recommendations on bills and proposals at national and local levels. In order to upgrade the quality in law making and government oversight, the Senate should conduct public consultation with participation from citizen, NGOs so that opinions and ideas can be expressed.
- Each senator who is the representative of the Commune/Sangkat Council should build close relationship with the locality through contact system, forums and other regular program.

3.4 The Senate with efficiency in insuring information flow
- Rule and procedure of the Senate should be defined in such a manner to ensure communication between the National Assembly and the Executive as needed by the Senate.
- In parlkiament system, the Senate should consist of Permanent Committee, Special Commissions, Specialized Commission, Inter-parliamentary Organization, and Friendship Groups to fulfill specific tasks as stipulated in the procedure. Statute and Internal Rules of the Senate. Members of the Senate should receive accurate and systematic information on any decisions of other institutions which relates to law-drafting and follow up processes and internal affairs of the Senate. The information should be given on time in accordance with rule and procedure whether in hard or electronic copies as well as in its website. Documents published by the public institutions should be made available to other members of the senate.

3.5 The Senate with quality support services
- In order to implement the three roles-legislative, government oversight, representative-the Senate should receive support services from the General Secretariat so that it can effectively fulfill its tasks. Besides the support services for the three roles, the General Secretariat should provide other support services such as preparation of important memo, report, research, documentation, and assistance in the organization of the plenary session and meeting at specialized commissions.
- Officials of the Senate should have capacity and specific skill. There is a need to train advisor with specialization in procedure and research in order to provide support services more efficiently.
- The Senate has a Research Department, Library, and Information Department and currently we have the strategic plan to increase the capacity of these departments by developing a strong Research Center, a modernized library, information center with capacity to ensure quick flow of information. The establishment of the Senate's printing house is an urgent need that will contribute to the dissemination of information relating to law to the citizen and to expand the Senate's public relations.
- The Senate should focus on the training of its officials to become the expertise on socio-economices and culture in order to provide research services to specialized commissions and senators.

3. 6 The Senate with reputation in implementing international relation
- The Senate should actively contribute to the promotion of national interest and reputation in regional and international framework through building good bilateral relation between parliaments of friendly countries, and multilateral relation under the framework of Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Association (AIPA) Association of Francophone Parliaments (APF) and other organizations.
- Through the good cooperation and broader openness, the Senate should put more effort in exchanging experiences in parliamentary affairs, and attract support and assistance in order to achieve quick institutional development.
- The Senate should gain fruitful relationship with friendly Embassies and international organizations accredited in Cambodia. The Senate should prove its responsibility to encourage the good cooperation especially good relationship with development partners who have been helping or come to help the Senate.

3.7 Vision of the Senate

For the next ten years, the Senate's vision would be to achieved the following expectations:
- The Senate operates in conformity with the democratic parliamentary standard and being a good partner of other democratic parliaments in the region and the world over.
- The Senate fulfills its main role as representative of the Commune/Sangkat Councils, being the driving force to insure the success of the implementation of decentralization and deconcentration policies and all-field development of Commune/Sangkat Councils
- Members of the Senate achieve their three roles: legislation, oversight and representative.
- Specialized commissions achieve their three roles as a real Mini-Senate: legislation, oversight, and information.
- The General Secretariat gains full capacity in services in all fields and expertise to the institution of Senate and senators through the administrative system of modem parliament and equip with modem IT system.
- Officials and staff of the General Secretariat gain knowledge and all kinds of expertise and high capacity in foreign language who can provide necessary services with quality and efficiency.
In order that the said vision can yield concrete result and success, the Senate should have a mechanism of potential institution by putting efforts in creating:
- Legal Center: to be a strong base for legislative work
- Information Center: be a strong base strengthening and developing public relations
- Center for Budget Development and Monitoring: to be the strong base for monitoring government's works
- Center for Socio-Economic-Cultural Research: to be the strong base for the work of Specialized Commission
- Modem library: to be the strong base for research services
- Regional Offices: to be the strong base for strengthening representative work
- Parliamentary Center: to be the brain and insure sustainable institutional development Our Senate is looking at an optimistic vision which bears the hope that the Cambodian Parliaments will reach a system of Equally Bicameral which opens two-door options for the government to either send a bill to any Chamber for initial adoption.

4-Activity Plan

According to the Strategic Principles and Activity Plan for Strengthening of the Capacity of the Senate, and the General Assessment done in March 2006, there are facts which demonstrate that in Cambodia there all indicators which lead to a strong commitment on the principle of good governance and the rule of law through effective capacity strengthening of the Parliament. There is recognition that to make the Senate's operation effective there need to be a strong commitment from the Senate and participation from development partners. Based on broad consultation, the Senate has developed this strategic plan which contains not only short and medium, but also long term prospect.

The Senate has determined this strategic plan based on new study, assessment and broad consultation.

In fact, to modernize the Senate, there is need to be active support from development partners for at least 10 to 15 years.

The following activity plan was developed based on joint consideration of the Senate and representatives of UNDP, CIDA-CCLSP, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and other organizations whose works involved with the Senate since its establishment in 1999.

The Senate has the good will to put forward the following activity plans:

Short-term activity Plan (2007-2009)

In the short term, the strategic principles of the Senate should focus on the amelioration of the three roles-legislative, oversight, and representative. Along with this, the Senate has taken into consideration of strengthening human resources and institutional development in order to help increase the capacity of the officials in response to the huge need of members of the Senate. In this context, the Senate has got through a thorough thinking and created activity plan and set priority for a number of work to be implemented for the short-term. The implementation of this short-term activity plan should be done in various stages in accordance with the capacity of the Senate and the assistance from development partners.

1- Strengthen the role of the Senate

A/ Strengthening legislative role
- The Senate should cooperate with the National Assembly and the Royal Government in order to develop an annual legislative program and schedule. The Senate and each specialized commission should develop weekly, monthly and yearly legislative program and schedule.
- Members of the Senate will receive experiences on the participation of examination of the bills and proposals through consultation, recommendation and the development of the rule of procedures.
- In development of the role of the specialized commissions on the process of examination and analysis of the bills and proposals, there need to be adequate resources such as data, reference documents and research.
- The specialized commissions will get adequate knowledge and techniques in reviewing the bills and proposals from experts such as advisors, university professors, representatives of civil society, national and international organizations.
- Members of the Senate should establish constructive discussion with the Executive on any agendas relating to the bills and proposals.
- The communication of information from the commissions to other members of the Senate should be organized through report on the examination of the bills and proposals which should be published and distributed on time.
- Bulletin of the Senate specialized commissions should be regularly published the important information relating debate of the bills and proposals included in the agenda of the plenary session.
- Procedure for floor debate and adoption of the bills and proposals during the plenary session of the Senate will be ameliorated.
- The Senate participates in the process to ensure the use of proper Khmer language in laws of the country and the consistency the State legal system.
- Law shall be taken into consideration of gender sensitivity, special attention on the particular interest of the regions and other social circles of the nation.
- Law on Congress between the Senate, National Assembly and the Autonomous Budget of the Parliament will be adopted.
- The Senate should increase its capacity to take charge of the bills relating to decentralization, deconcentration, and Commune/Sangkat financing.

B/ Strengthen the government oversight/monitoring role
- Through the specialized commission, the Senate should monitor the development of regulations developed by the royal government in order to implement the law in force.
- Members of commissions specialized in finance and banking should monitor the implementation of the budget adopted by the National Assembly.
- Help ameliorate techniques in raising questions (written and verbal questions) in monitoring law enforcement and implementation of government policies.
- Development of the role of government oversight for the specialized commissions.
- Development of the capacity in information collection and investigation by the specialized commission through hearing and visit to the locality.
- Regular talks will be established between line ministries and the specialized commissions on the implementation and the coming into force of all laws (including budget law) adopted by the Parliament.
- The Senate raises questions through public hearing or going for sight visits if the Senate considers it as necessary.
- The specialized commissions of the Senate increase official visits to the ministries, departments, municipalities, provinces in order to collect information, investigate, evaluate and provide recommendations to the royal government on issues of sensitivity and actuality.

C/ Strengthen representative role
- Specialized commission may organize and manage public hearing on bills and proposals outside the Senate to provide opportunity for the citizen to contribute ideas and express their concern relating to the bill or proposals.
- Amelioration of the publication of laws adopted and promulgated for better dissemination to the citizen.
- The Senate organizes the public meeting with civil society and the general public on some important laws.
- Increase the relationship between members of Senate, the citizens and Commune/Sangkat Councils in the regions.
- Establish formal coalition between the Senate and NGOs, civil society, National League of Commune Sangkat Councils, National Association of Commune/Sangkat Councils in provinces and municipalities.
- The Senate should contribute to the Commune/Sangkat Council to make sure that new roles and duties assigned from the State to the localities, as defined in the laws, will be attached with additional resources and appropriate measure so that they can effectively fulfill their individual responsibilities.
- Establish larger communication strategy and develop public relations efforts (through information dissemination, website-media, radio and TV programs).
- Cooperate with Ministry of Education Youth and Sports to organize and create school curriculum on the role of Parliament and the representative role in a democratic society from secondary, level education.
- Organize visit to constituency and visit commune/Sangkat councils. In the future, Senate will organize visit by students in regions to come to the Senate and organize member role play (Youth and Children Senate). A study should be conducted to consider an expenditure item for meeting with voters (Electorate Allowances), and another budget for contribution to the development of Commune/Sangkat Councils, the case happened in other parliaments.
- Organize seminar on legal opposition views in order to provide benefits to all who involve in politics. This type of seminar may also have participation from the members of the media.
- Broad dissemination of the daily order of business of the Senate.
- The Senate develops and creates a strategy to broaden relationship with the citizen.
- Establish regional offices to provide effective support services to the members of the Senate at the local level.
- Organize joint forum between the Senate and the National League of Commune/Sangkat Council once a year in the Senate's compound, and Organize joint forum between senators in various regions and Association of Commune/Sangkat Councils at least once a year in regions, provinces or municipalities; in order to increase communication, working relations, and good mutual cooperation. This is a forum for sharing information and contribution to the resolution of problems at the local level.
- The Senate should contribute to the local development especially the implementation of "One Village One Product" Policy by organizing, in the Senate's compound, the annual Exhibition of People's Achievement in Commune/Sangkat Councils throughout the country, in order to encourage citizen in villages, communes and Sangkats. In this objective, the Senate can organize market stalls to sell local handicraft product, souvenirs in the Senate's compound for foreign guests and public citizen to prove the connection between the Senate and the collective territory throughout the country. All souvenirs used by the Senate are all the local products.

D/ Procedure on the review of Bills and Proposals
- Format and the substance of the Bills and Proposals shall be examined by the Senate.
- Before adopting a new law, the Senate should discuss with the royal government (line ministries) on purpose, expected outcome, value, level of importance, and the impact on citizen, regions or Commune/Sangkat Councils.
- Procedure to review the bills and proposals includes consultation by the Senate with civil society organization, practitioners and other stakeholders. The specialized commissions play an important role in this process.
- Procedure on review of the bills and proposals will be recommended by experts and senior advisors.
- Proceeding of the Senate shall be recorded in the minute timely and distributed to all members.
- Specialized commission should add more work in the review of bills and proposals which bear urgent characteristics.
- Procedure on examination of the bills in plenary session should be defined perfectly : total agreement of the bills without amendment, request some amendments to the National Assembly, or total dismissal should be clearly specified with conditions such as:
a- Total agreement without amendment can be done through three formats: without opinion, with opinion, or with attached recommendations.
b- Request to the National Assembly to make some amendments can be done in three formats: without opinion, with opinion, or with attached recommendations.
c- Total dismissal can be done in three formats: without opinion, with opinion, or with attached recommendations.
d- The fact that the Senate have not made any recommendation to the bills at a defined timeframe should be clearly specified with conditions such as:
- d. 1 bill is urgent or too long (tens of chapters or hundreds of articles) that the specialized commission does not have enough time to review
- d.2 bill does not contain complete format (lack of reference documents such as statement of purpose, typos, or skipping articles)
- d.3 author of the bill does not come to defend the bill in front of the commission on time
- d.4 the Permanent Committee is not able to convene its meeting (because of lack of quorum) to assign the bill in the agenda of the plenary session
- d.5 or other conditions

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