I was recently mulling over how the country, and Phnom Penh, has changed in the 4 years since I arrived here. My mother even noted that a lot has changed since she first came here to visit me just 2 years ago. But do you think the pace of change is increasing? And more importantly, where do you see the city, and country in 5, 10, 20 years time?

Without high quality FDI most of the "improvements" are nothing but temporary blips on the landscape. There will be no high quality FDI unless Cambodia tidies up the worst excesses of corruption - not all corruption (see Thailand for example) but the worst of it. When things like railways don't get built, despite being paid for by donor money... there's no hope for a nation. Infrastructure is desperately required and it's simply not being delivered. A lack of viable transport links makes manufacturing here far less attractive than in other places. Chinese, Korean, etc. black money aside - there's nothing of substance to Cambodia's current boom and there appears to be nothing on the visible horizon to change that.

The next election, despite the current cozying up of HE and SR, threatens civil war (again). Anybody placing money on 10-20 year outlooks has no common sense at all.

I would say investing anything until the next election has been held and things have quietened down would be lunacy.

But I guess the carpetbaggers would publicly oppose my view, whilst simultaneously privately planning a Pochentong exit strategy at the first sign of trouble.