Tobacco Harvest Hurt by Rains, Fewer Farmers
Rainfall during this year’s dry season and fewer farmers cultivating tobacco has resulted in a shortage of raw tobacco and a steep price increase, industry officials and farmers said yesterday. Tola Ponlu, head of corporate and regulatory affairs at British American Tobacco (BAT) in Phnom Penh, ...
Families Told to Prepare to Vacate Land Needed for Railway Station
Government officials met with more than 200 Phnom Penh families on Friday to lay out the state’s case for ownership of their land and the compensation they can expect when they are evicted from their homes situated along the city’s railway tracks. The $142 million project ...
100 Kg of Fish Killed by 6-ton Chemical Spill
An estimated 100 kg of fish were killed and about 1,000 villagers were told not to drink from a stream that was contaminated with 6 tons of an unknown chemical substance in Kompong Chhnang province on Tuesday night, police said. A truck carrying 22 containers of ...
Trade show starts on Wednesday
After a two-year hiatus, the CamBuild, CamFood and CamHotel exhibitions are back at Diamond Island this week, starting on Wednesday and going through to Friday. Andrew Siow, director of the Kuala Lumpur-headquartered AMB Exhibitions, says the three industry shows at the same time should attract more ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012100859159/Business/trade-show-starts-on-wednesday.html
Majority of Packages Sent Abroad Contain Local Delicacies
Seventy percent of all outbound parcels leaving Cambodia via the state-owned postal service contain local food products that are delivered to Cambodians living abroad, an official at Cambodia Post said yesterday. Ork Bora, general director of Cambodia Post, said that of the total 26,678 packages, not ...
Phnom Penh Clerk Charged With Taking $250K
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged one of its own clerks [Kruoch Borath] with breach of trust for taking $250,000 dollars that was paid to the clerk to facilitate a speedy trial without “problems,” officials said. [Another clerk for Judge Lim Meng] Mr. Khen ...
MTZ to set up Belarus-Mekong joint venture in Cambodia
Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ trademark) will make a monetary contribution to the authorized capital of a private company Belarus-Mekong that is being set up in Cambodia. Upon the suggestion of the Industry Ministry of Belarus, the Belarusian company will transfer 32 million Cambodian riels (about ...
General Accused of Smuggling $1M In Goods
Military police in Preah Sihanouk province said yesterday that they impounded four trucks carrying retail goods worth about $1 million that a lieutenant general in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces had imported from Thailand without paying tax duty. The unpaid import duty amounted to about ...
Still No Donor to Take Over Communal Land Titling From Canada
The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) said yesterday that it had still found no replacement donor to commit long-term to carrying on its work helping indigenous ethnic minority groups secure communal land titles once it pulls out in May. Kan Vibol, project field manager for CIDA’s ...
Striving to make finance accessible
Access to finance could reduce violence, empower the most vulnerable in society and improve the livelihoods of Cambodia’s poorest people, a conference on community-led funding heard on Wednesday. Sarah Sitts, country manager of the international NGO Pact, introduced the funding model of savings-led micro-finance (SLMF). In ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032964776/Business/striving-to-make-finance-accessible.html
Workers, cop injured as strike turns violent
Violence broke out twice yesterday at the Maru Chuen garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district – first, between police and strikers, and later, between strikers and employees who remained at work. In the morning, seven workers and one police officer were injured after police intervened ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032164547/National/workers-cop-injured-as-strike-turns-violent.html
Village forest activists strike back at 3 firms
A community forest patrol group trying to fight the destruction of protected forest in Kratie province’s Snuol district have, for the second time in two weeks, seized equipment from those they accuse of illegal logging. About 100 people from Svay Chreah, Snuol, Sre Cha, Pi Thnou ...
Land Case Involving Minister’s Wife Is Heard
The Court of Appeal yesterday heard the case of a land dispute between a 70-year old woman from Kompong Chhang province and a company owned by the wife of the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy over a 3,000 square meter parcel of land. In May ...
Micro-life insurance on rise
When 46-year-old Than Thol got a $900 loan from Samic Microfinance last year, he took advantage of a little-known and lengthily worded insurance program called Measure for Economic and Accelerated Development for All, or MEADA. MEADA provides coverage for families of mostly lower-income borrowers in the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060466033/Business/micro-life-insurance-on-rise.html
Union calls for stable rent for workers
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) urged all apartment landlords to not increase their rent because garment and footwear employees get only a basic salary of $80 per month. A statement issued Monday said the wage increase from $61 per month to $80 will be implemented ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NzI2NDk4N2M2YTA
Thousands go on strike at factories
About 5,000 workers went on strike at the M&V garment factory in Kampong Chhnang province yesterday, adding to the list of incidents at the factory in the past two years that has also included mass faintings. Elsewhere, about 700 workers from the Pine Great (Cambodia) ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050965503/National/thousands-go-on-strike-at-factories.html
Two Held For Razing Huts In Land Dispute
Ratanakkiri provincial police on Monday arrested the chief of staff of a Vietnamese rubber concessionaire and his Cambodian translator who are believed to have burned down more than $5,000 worth of property related to a land dispute in O’Chum district, police said. Meas Pov Bora, chief ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051565632/National/two-held-for-razing-huts-in-land-dispute.html
Jarai Man Exiled After He Opposes Land Deal
Commune authorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district have allegedly banished a local resident for persisting with a lawsuit that accuses them of selling 500 hectares of community forest to two Cambodian developers for $300,000. Romas Svang, who is a member of the ethnic Jarai minority, filed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051765682/National/jarai-man-exiled-after-he-opposes-land-deal.html
Chartered carrier takes off
Newly established Wat Phnom Airlines completed its maiden flight to Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport on July 10. But its predecessor, grounded Tonlesap Airlines, is said to owe the same airport more than $50,000 in landing fees. The local chartered carrier “is officially in business after it ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/chartered-carrier-takes
Workers claim intimidation
About 4,000 employees at one of Asia’s largest garment-processing factories have stopped work, as union workers demand the company sever ties with a shareholder who ordered a military police presence there. Workers at SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd began demonstrating on Monday, about two weeks after ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-claim-intimidation