Unions to Form Committee to Focus on Minimum Wage
The leaders of seven major unions and labor confederations announced yesterday in a joint statement that they will form an inter-union committee to rally the government on raising the country’s minimum wage of $61, with the unions believe is too low. ...
TI calls for reforms at polls
Low-income factory workers and illiterate citizens risk being left behind in the country’s voter registration process if current policies remain unchanged, Transparency International Cambodia warned yesterday, as it forwarded a list of recommendations to the National Election Commission. ...
Vong Sokheng and Ethan Harfenist
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ti-calls-reforms-polls
Fight Illegal Logging From Top, World Bank Says
Echoing longstanding calls from conservation groups, the World Bank says in a new report today that governments need to look past low-level criminals to tackle illegal logging and to follow the money the illicit trade generates instead. That trade of illegal logging generates up to $15 ...
Fake fertiliser cuts crop yields
FARMERS’ crop yields are being undercut by unregistered middlemen selling fake fertiliser, and government efforts to combat this have proved ineffective, according to independent research from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). CDRI’s preliminary research, conducted as part of a larger program investigating agricultural policies for ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030161683/Business/fake-fertiliser-cuts-crop-yields.html
Controversial Pöyry tapped for Xayaburi
Multinational consulting and engineering firm Pöyry has signed a contract with the Lao government to supervise construction of the divisive Xayaburi hydropower dam in the country’s north, it announced Friday. This work, carried out by its Energy Business Group, will include reviewing the design and ...
Kingdom boasts less time to file trademark
While still relatively small, the number of trademark applications has grown in Cambodia and the country’s low volume means that the Kingdom boasts among the fastest times in Southeast Asia for registering a trademark, a government adviser told a business workshop yesterday. ...
Sor Chandara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/kingdom-boasts-less-time-file-trademark
Hun Sen laments impact of foreign competition in rice sector
Cambodia’s rice industry faces a plethora of challenges—both internal and external—that have led to low prices and prevented exporters from achieving a lofty tonnage target set by the government in 2010, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday. ...
Kang Sothear and Anthony Jensen
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-laments-impact-of-foreign-competition-in-rice-sector-106387/
Rice bank project awards contracts
Thaneakea Srov (Kampuchea) Plc, the recipient of a low-interest $15 million loan from the state-run Rural Development Bank, inked contracts yesterday with three companies to build and outfit its massive 200,000-tonne capacity silo and warehouse facility in Battambang province. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-bank-project-awards-contracts
Productivity cuts into growth
Cambodia’s GDP growth fell below the 7 percent mark for the first time since 2011 last year, signalling a need for the government to address the country’s low productivity and insufficient public infrastructure spending, according to a World Bank report released yesterday. ...
Matthieu de Gaudemar
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/productivity-cuts-growth
High feed costs driving people away from snakehead farming
One year after lifting a decade-old ban on snakehead fish farming, the number of aquatic farms growing the fish remains surprisingly low, with the high cost of feeding them driving many away from what could otherwise be a very lucrative business. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5088049/high-feed-costs-driving-people-away-snakehead-farming/
Cambodia finds new target for real estate: Chinese investors
Across this traditionally low-rise Cambodian capital, a building boom is becoming more noticeable as it pushes higher into the sky, and its largest projects are often geared towards Chinese investors, who have only recently taken interest in the nation’s real estate market. ...
Chris Horton
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/business/cambodia-real-estate.html
Angry villagers chase Vietnamese fishermen down Mekong river
Following a two-hour low-speed boat chase down the Mekong River in Kandal province early Thursday morning, some 100 angry villagers led by a local opposition official detained five Vietnamese nationals they say have been using illegal fishing techniques for the past three months. ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angry-villagers-chase-vietnamese-fishermen-71455/
Garment factories, unions edge closer to wage deal
Some of the unions that have been demanding a hefty $77 raise to the current monthly minimum wage of $100 for the country’s garment workers said Thursday they were willing to go as low as a $35 increase, though others refused to budge. ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-factories-unions-edge-closer-to-wage-deal-70154/
Union Law worries garment sector investors from Hong Kong
A visiting delegation from the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which handles tens of billions of dollars in regional investment, says it raised concerns about the low threshold for forming unions in a pending new law during meetings with government officials Monday. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/union-law-worries-garment-sector-investors-from-hong-kong-91376/
Decline in price of rubber leaves farmers scrambling
For Sam Phat and her family, the decision 10 years ago to plant rubber trees on their hectare of land was an easy one. Because of booming demand, mostly from China, rubber prices were high, and the startup cost of planting trees was low. ...
James Reddick and Ros Chanveasna
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/14261/decline-in-price-of-rubber-leaves-farmers-scrambling/
New Kampot Salt Farm Has Big Ambitions
TOEK CHHOU DISTRICT, Kampot province – A donor-backed project launched here on Saturday aims to produce Cambodia’s first export-quality sea salt and invigorate the struggling local salt industry. In a ceremony among Kampot’s vast fields of coastal saltpans and low levees, company representatives from Asia Salt ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/new-kampot-salt-farm-has-big-ambitions-20505/
Moody's: Cambodia's rating constrained by narrow economic base, policy limitations
Global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday that despite rapid growth, the small size and the narrow diversification of Cambodia’s economy constrained its B2 rating. The limited effectiveness of monetary policy due to a high rate of dollarization was also a rating constraint, the rating ...
Xinhua News Staff
http://www.china.org.cn/world/Off_the_Wire/2013-08/22/content_29799938.htm
Shift in focus for donors may spell trouble: study
Dwindling donor funding for combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis could have a critical impact on low-income countries like Cambodia, a new study has found, with some health workers in the Kingdom saying that the squeeze is already being felt. ...
Yesenia Amaro
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/shift-focus-donors-may-spell-trouble-study
Government prepares housing plan for poor
The Royal government through Ministry of Land Management, Urban and Construction held a workshop with local and international organizations and real estate companies to design strategic and financial planning for housing project for low-and-medium-income people, especially vulnerable group. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/government-prepares-housing-plan-for-poor-8992
Government prepares housing plan for poor
The Royal government through Ministry of Land Management, Urban and Construction held a workshop with local and international organizations and real estate companies to design strategic and financial planning for housing project for low-and-medium-income people, especially vulnerable group. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/government-prepares-housing-plan-for-poor-8992