Cambodia to ban beauty contest

Cambodia will ban beauty competition until the country gets rid of poverty, the premier said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Hun Sen made the remarks at a rice planting ceremony in southeastern province of Svay Rieng on Tuesday.

"No Miss Cambodia contest will be allowed," Hun Sen said. "We need money to help farmers and to solve more important issues," he said.

Hun Sen said that the country will have a beauty competition when its poverty rate drops to 15 percent and each Cambodian earns 1,500 U.S. dollars per year.

Cambodia is still one of the poor countries in the region. Some 35 percent of more than 14 million population live under the poverty line.

The premier said that it was on his order to axe the Miss Cambodia 2006 beauty pageant originally planed for August.

Cambodia held Miss Cambodia Competition in 1993 and 1995.

Source: Xinhua