Local Groups Say They Must Protect Forest, as Government Fails
Local watchdog groups say they have been forced to take forest protection into their hands, due to a failure of government to do so. “As we have seen: the National Assembly, the Senate and the government do not work,” Ouch Leng, head of the Cambodian Human ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/local-grouos-say-they-must-protect-forest-as-government-fails/1800429.html
Gambit by CNRP an ‘all-in’ move
In its switch to a strategy of nonstop demonstrations calling for a new election, the opposition party has made a calculated decision to go “all-in” and toughen its stance in a bid to ramp up domestic pressure on the ruling party, political analysts said yesterday. Since ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gambit-cnrp-%E2%80%98all-%E2%80%99-move
Leave King Out of Politics, Royal Cabinet Demands
The Royal Palace has released a statement demanding that King and Queen Mother’s names be left out of politics and asked people not to “exploit” their names for political ends, state media claimed Thursday. “The Royal Secretariat of Her Majesty Queen-Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk has issued ...
Colin Meyn and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/leave-king-out-of-politics-royal-cabinet-demands-50990/
RFA, VOA accused of ‘Serving’ opposition
The government has slammed broadcasters Radio Free Asia and Voice of America as “political instruments serving the interests of the opposition party” and accused them of fabricating news in a speech delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Tuesday. The US-government-funded broadcasters have been taken ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rfa-voa-accused-%E2%80%98serving%E2%80%99-opposition
US Broadcaster Rejects Cambodian Claims of ‘Bias’
The Broadcasting Board of Governors, the US agency that oversees the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, has rejected claims by the Cambodian government that its broadcasters fabricate or manipulate news. In a statement responding to a report by the Cambodian Council of Ministers this ...
VOA Khmer
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/us-broadcasters-rejects-cambodia-claims-of-bias/1841443.html
Groups tell ILO to retract ‘right to strike’ claim
An employers and businesses federation that took out paid newspaper advertisements claiming Cambodia’s workers have no fundamental right to strike has hit back at the International Labour Organization (ILO), asking it to retract comments it made in response to the ads. Last week, the Cambodian Federation ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/groups-tell-ilo-retract-%E2%80%98right-strike%E2%80%99-claim
Chinese-built dam in Cambodia starts testing operation
The Lower Russei Chrum River hydroelectric dam, which is the Cambodia’s largest hydropower plant, has begun testing operation after it has been constructed for three and a half years, a company’s official said on Saturday. The 338-megawatt hydropower dam, situated in the jungle in Mondol Sima ...
Want China Times News Staff
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20140209000067&cid=1102
Poverty gains ‘precarious’
Cambodia’s poverty rate fell dramatically between 2004 and 2011 – from more than 50 per cent to roughly 20 – but those gains are so precarious that a slight economic shock could send millions plunging back below the poverty line, according to a World Bank ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/poverty-gains-%E2%80%98precarious%E2%80%99
Cambodia fights to balance Vietnam, China
When an ethnic Vietnamese crashed his motorcycle into an ethnic Khmer’s car in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district last Saturday night, he was attacked by Khmers shouting the racially charged term for Vietnamese — “yuon” — and beaten to death. That an ordinary traffic accident turned into ...
The China Post News Staff
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/special-to-the-china-post/2014/02/24/401368/Cambodia-fights.htm
Strike justified, suppression not, experts say
Garment workers’ calls for a $160 minimum wage are justified and should be honored, a new report by an international team of academics and labor experts has found. The authors—including a team from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, South Korean and ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/strike-justified-suppression-not-experts-say-53255/
As fish stocks vanish, locals flout law to survive
Khan Thea, a subsistence fisherman who lives and works along this sprawling, 7,000-hectare lake fed by the Mekong River, was not having a good day on the water. Struggling to net even a single fish, he finally resorted to a dangerous—and illegal—technique: fishing with electric current. ...
Phorn Bopha and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-fish-stocks%E2%80%88vanish-locals-flout-law-to-survive-63567/
Housing loans up in 2013, growth expected to continue in ’14
Last year across Cambodia’s cities, more and more people decided to take the plunge and invest in housing. This should be obvious to anyone who lived in Cambodia last year. The sounds of construction or renovation were more noticeable than before in cities across the Kingdom. Data ...
Sum Manet
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/housing-loans-2013-growth-expected-continue-%E2%80%9914
Fake Orphanage Ordered Closed After Alleged Migrant Scam
The Ministry of Interior has suspended the operation of an orphanage after it found that its director had colluded with a recruitment agency to cheat migrant workers out of an alleged $600,000, officials said Tuesday. “The Ministry of Interior temporarily suspends all activities of Our Friends ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fake-orphanage-ordered-closed-after-alleged-migrant-scam-51114/
No Government Meetings for International Trade Unions
International buyers and trade union representatives have been unable to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen or other government officials, despite a request following deadly worker demonstration crackdowns last month. Major international buyers signed on to a joint letter condemning the violence and urging the government ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/no-government-meetings-for-international-trade-unions/1844164.html
Hun Sen unveils new roadmap for foreign trade policy
Prime Minister Hun Sen presided over a ceremony at his Peace Palace in Phnom Penh on Tuesday to unveil a new report that assesses the government’s foreign trade policies over the past seven years and lays out a policy roadmap for the next five. The report, ...
Khy Sovuthy and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-unveils-new-roadmap-for-foreign-trade-policy-52600/
More than 100 garment workers in two factories faint en masse
More than 100 garment and shoe factory workers fainted in two separate incidents Thursday, the first reported factory faintings of the year, according to local officials. Eighty-two garment workers fainted at the Crystal Martin factory in Kandal province after inhaling fumes from leaking battery acid, a ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-than-100-garment-workers-in-two-factories-faint-en-masse-53332/
Three arrested in land dispute with Governor
Villagers involved in a long-running land dispute with a company alleged to be owned by Pailin Governor Y Chhien were arrested Monday for failing to heed an order from Mr. Chhien to vacate the disputed land, rights workers said. Pich Sothea, 47, Orm Sam Ath, 44, ...
Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-arrested-in-land-dispute-with-governor-55402/
RCAF plates still widely used, despite ban
When the 2007 Traffic Law was passed, it required that the myriad private vehicles on the road bearing Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) number plates be removed and switched with civilian plates within one year. But more than six years after this deadline, the sight of ...
Hul Reaksmey and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rcaf-plates-still-widely-used-despite-ban-58449/
Huge haul of smuggled ivory came from Kenya
The three-ton haul of illegal elephant ivory seized by port officials on May 9 originated in Kenya and was then shipped through Malaysia to Cambodia in two freight containers, the chief of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port’s customs and excise department said Thursday. Most of the elephant ...
Khy Sovuthy and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/huge-haul-of-smuggled-ivory-came-from-kenya-59451/
Vietnam’s fish industry dominates in Cambodia
At Chraing Chamreh wholesale fish market in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district, men frantically scoop dark, snake-like Trey Phtok fish out of a huge steel tank and into a wicker basket. The flickering pile of tails and gaping mouths is placed on a scale and weighs ...
George Styllis and Kang Sothear
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/vietnams-fish-industry-dominates-in-cambodia-60676/