Women in upper union positions vital
Female union leaders in the garment industry – where women constitute 90 per cent of the work force – are effective at bargaining for better working conditions, but their voices aren’t being heard in a union landscape dominated by men, a labour expert said yesterday. Veasna ...
Garment Worker Demonstrations Pay Dividends
At the M&V International Manufacturing Factory in Kompong Chhnang province last week, 5,000 workers filed through the gates, sat behind their neat rows of sewing machines and refused to work. A year earlier, hundreds of female workers had fainted at the factory after complaining of ...
PM urges factories to up wages
As the lure of Thailand grows increasingly attractive for cash-strapped and under-employed Cambodians, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday made a public appeal for workers to stay in the country, simultaneously urging the Cambodian market to up its competitive edge. In a speech at the inauguration of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/pm-urges-factories-to-up-wages.html
Charcoal prices rise in urban areas
Deforestation and Cambodia’s strong economic growth have resulted in an increase in the price of charcoal, an energy source the poor are dependent on, charcoal vendors say. The price of charcoal in Phnom Penh had increased at least 200 riel ($0.05) a kilogram compared to 2012, charcoal ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022661597/Business/charcoal-prices-rise-in-urban-areas.html
Koh Kong pagodas threatened
Prak Thon says he will give up everything to stop a Chinese company from destroying his pagoda in Koh Kong province’s Kiri Sakor district. “I’ll allow them to demolish my house, but I will not allow them to destroy the pagoda. I’m satisfied if I die, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070257150/National-news/koh-kong-pagodas-threatened.html
Preah Vihear villagers protest soldiers' SLC
Villagers who allege authorities and armed forces in Preah Vihear province have been burning their houses and clearing farmland of 400 families, to create a social land concession, protested yesterday, calling on intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen. The 5,557-hectare SLC in Kulen district’s Srayang village ...
Former anti-drug czar’s appeal begins
Disgraced anti-drug czar Moek Dara’s appeal against his life sentence for convictions in 25 separate cases of bribery and masterminding a criminal enterprise began yesterday morning in Phnom Penh. Co-accused, former Ministry of Interior anti-drug police department chief Chea Leng also appeared at the Court of ...
Hun Sen Seeks Garment Factory Vote
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday asked some 4,000 garment factory workers for their votes in July’s national elections at a rally in Phnom Penh attended by members of several CPP-aligned unions, according to those in attendance. Cambodian Union Federation president Choun Mom Thol said ...
Facing Chinese Dam, Monks Fight for Temple
Monks residing in Koh Kong’s remote Areng Valley have begun raising funds online to renovate their local temple, despite plans in store for a large Chinese backed hydropower dam that would leave the site completely inundated. The 108-MW hydropower dam, to be built by ...
Kuch Naren and Kene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/facing-chinese-dam-monks-fight-for-temple-31987/
Kingdom’s crafts can be hit in Korea
Cambodian handicrafts and home decor products could take off with South Korean buyers if certain obstacles – conceptual design, development techniques, and slow delivery services – are overcome, business owners and merchants said yesterday. Speaking at a seminar on Korean Market Access for Cambodia’s textiles at ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/kingdom%E2%80%99s-crafts-can-be-hit-korea
The battleground seats
A guide to the provinces where the fighting may be fiercest. Siem Reap 6 seats Though Siem Reap has long been a ruling-party stronghold (the CPP won four of six seats here in 2003, increasing their spoils to five of six seats in 2008), if recent opposition rallies ...
Rubber to give economy a bounce
Cambodian officials say they will focus on nine different sectors in a bid to diversify and ensure continued national economic growth. Among the nine priorities, rubber will play a crucial role in Cambodia’s trade integration strategy. After opening a workshop on Cambodia’s trade strategy for the coming ...
Hun Sen Thanks Student Land-Titling Volunteers
Student volunteers from across the country yesterday took a break from their land-measuring duties to attend a pre-Khmer New Year ceremony at Phnom Penh’s Koh Pitch where they were presented with a thank-you letter from Mr. Hun Sen. Since Mr. Hun Sen launched the land titling ...
Google Launches Khmer Translation Service
Internet search giant Google on Friday launched a new service that for the first time allows users to instantly translate Khmer script into other languages. Khmer is the most recent addition to the 66-strong collection of languages between which words, sentences or whole websites can be ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/google-launches-khmer-translation-service-19417/
AEON widens HP to farmers
AEON Microfinance (Cambodia) Co Ltd says it has expanded its installment payment services into the agricultural sector, a new business type industry insiders say could be successful, but will still not be enough to strengthen one of Cambodia’s most crucial economic sectors. “We will co-operate with ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052365789/Business/aeon-widens-hp-to-farmers.html
Father Suing Rubber Firm for Beating His Three Children
The father of three children attacked with wooden sticks and steel poles by employees of well-connected DM Group in Ratanakkiri province has filed a lawsuit against the firm, and is asking for tens of thousands of dollars in compensation. .. The provincial court has charged the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/father-suing-rubber-firm-for-beating-his-three-children-22805/
Cambodian police clash with thousands of garment workers, 23 hurt
At least 23 workers were hurt in Cambodia on Monday when police using stun batons moved in to end a protest over pay at a factory that makes clothing for U.S. sportswear company Nike , a worker and a trade union representative said. Police with riot ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/27/cambodia-garments-workers-idUSL3N0E829T20130527
Against the Grain
On the palm-studded plains of Cambodia, rice farmers’ eyes light up with the prospect of sending their crop northward to China. The poor Southeast Asian nation had been trying for several years to export rice to the mainland but only last year did it gain ...
http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/china-rice-demand-market-import
Sugar firm under fire
Asia’s largest sugar company has been accused of torching hundreds of homes, orchestrating the imprisonment of a pregnant activist and using security forces to beat villagers – among a raft of other grave human rights abuses – by communities in Oddar Meanchey province. The allegations levelled ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060366024/National/sugar-firm-under-fire.html
Work-related deaths, injuries rose in 2012
The number of officially recorded workplace deaths in Cambodia increased by more than 25 per cent from 2011 to 2012, while the vast majority of those injured at work were women, National Social Security Fund figures released yesterday reveal. A total of 59 people were reported ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061466277/National/work-related-deaths-injuries-rose-in-2012.html