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
Cambodia's per capita GDP to reach 1,036 USD this year: PM
Cambodia’s per capita GDP was projected to hit 1,036 U.S. dollars in 2013, up from nearly 1,000 U.S. dollars in a year earlier, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday. The premier said the country has enjoyed full peace and political stability in the last 15 ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-09/21/c_132737987.htm
Families allege flood aid graft
More than 10 families in Pailin province are claiming that flood aid proffered by Cambodia Red Cross officials is being unfairly distributed by commune and village authorities. Kim San, 61, a member of one of 16 severely flood-affected families in Sala Krao district’s Stung Trang commune ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/families-allege-flood-aid-graft
Lumber Tycoon Denies Allegations of Illegal Deforestation
The assistant of a lumber tycoon accused of major deforestation and forced evictions rejected Thursday the findings of a recent report by local rights groups. The Cambodian Human Rights Task Force said in its report that some 1,400 families had been pushed from their land by ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/lumber-tycoon-denies-allegations-of-illegal-deforestation-cambodia/1794954.html
Cambodia's special economic zones attract 1.65 bln USD investment since inception
Cambodia’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have received a total investment of 1.65 billion US dollars since their inception in 2006, according to a government report released on Friday. Since 2006 to now, the zones have attracted 172 investment projects, mostly from China, South Korea and Japan, ...
Global Times News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/817196.shtml#.Ult7xz_vrbw
Officials demanded bribes, teacher say
A teacher at Tea Chamrath High School in Pursat town has accused school director Bou Sovannarith and deputy director Chhub Buntha of forcing students to pay bribes in the form of, among other things, enrolment fees for matriculation into the 2013-2014 academic year. Phat Malin, the ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-demanded-bribes-teacher-says
Garment workers told to go back to factories
About 30,000 garment workers from 40 factories in Svay Rieng province yesterday were told to return to their jobs after being sent home Monday amid fears a strike over the minimum wage would turn violent. Has Bunthy, a provincial department director at the Ministry of Labour, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/garment-workers-told-go-back-factories
Cambodia flood death toll climbs to 122
The death toll from Mekong River and flash floods in Cambodia has risen to 122 in the past four weeks, a senior disaster control official said Monday. “To date, the floods have killed 122 people and affected some 1.5 million people,” Nhim Vanda, vice-president of the ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-10/14/c_132797207.htm