Strikers, police clash
A woman was killed and at least six others shot yesterday morning when police fired live ammunition into a crowd of hundreds of rioting garment workers in the capital’s Stung Meanchey district. UN reports said police also arrested 37 people, including seven monks, as a result ...
Sean Teehan, Mom Kunthear and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strikers-police-clash
Cambodian Opposition Holds Protest Rally Amid Vote-Tampering Suspicions
A top court ordered Cambodia’s electoral body on Monday to unseal voting records in a second province as the main opposition party held a 20,000-strong rally with an ultimatum to the government to set up an independent probe on widespread irregularities in recently-held national elections ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/elections-08262013195332.html
Cambodia Garment Wages Set to Rise as H&M Pushes New Approach
Swedish clothing giant H&M recently announced a program to boost wages for garment workers in its sub-contractor factories around the world, including in Cambodia, where the company is a leading buyer. H&M’s announcement comes at the end of a turbulent year in the garment sector ...
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodian-garment-wages-set-rise-hm-pushes-new-approach/1803179.html
Reforestry Claim ‘A Stretch’
The government reforested 80,693 hectares of land between 2008 and 2012 as part of its efforts to combat deforestation, a recent agriculture ministry report says, but these seemingly impressive statistics were reached by counting rubber trees and other agricultural crops as adequate replacements for forests. The ...
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/reforestry-claim-%E2%80%98-stretch%E2%80%99
Maids set to work abroad, but safety fears linger
After a three-year moratorium on sending maids overseas—sparked by a spate of serious abuses by recruiters and employers—momentum is building to once again send hundreds of thousands of Cambodian women to work overseas as domestic servants. Since Prime Minister Hun Sen shut down the industry in ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/maids-set-to-work-abroad-but-safety-fears-linger-58853/
The rector versus the tycoon
The morning before the verdict was handed down at the Appeals Court on March 12, the mood among those working on the defence team for Heng Chheang and his wife Tep Kolap was almost optimistic. They, along with relatives of the couple and academics from Phnom ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032355213/National-news/the-rector-versus-the-tycoon.html
Made in Cambodia: Foreign Industry Calls on Cambodia as the Next “Low-Cost” Alternative in All Things Manufacturing
About a decade ago, global manufacturing firms staged a mass exodus to Asia in search of low-cost alternatives to increasing domestic wage demands and operational costs. The consensus was the continued development of a regional supply chain that had formed in countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, ...
Herbalife Promises Cambodians Health, Wealth
The offices of Herbalife, a so-called multilevel marketing company that has moved into the protein powder market in Cambodia, stand like a beacon of promise in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district: Six stories of glass and white paneling, crisp lime-green signage and a four-story-high banner ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/herbalife-promises-cambodians-health-wealth-48828/
Cambodia's Hun Sen, Sam Rainsy 'Narrow Differences' in Election Stalemate
Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties are “narrowing their differences” in talks aimed at ending a standoff over recent elections, officials said Tuesday, as protesters ended three straight days of mass demonstrations against poll results. Both the leaders led their parties in the discussions, which were ...
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/talks-09172013181436.html
Cambodian Unions Call for Doubling of Minimum Wage for Factory Workers
Four trade unions on Tuesday demanded that Cambodia’s garment and footwear manufacturers raise the minimum wage of their workers and provide them with additional benefits, threatening a nationwide strike and demonstrations if they do not comply. In a joint letter to the Van Sou Ieng, president ...
Radio free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-11262013151923.html
Report calls out Pheap
Logging tycoon Try Pheap’s rapidly expanding land empire, criticised by rights groups for displacing families and encroaching on protected forest areas, has grown to almost 70,000 hectares in size and is helping to facilitate a cross-border illegal logging operation, a report released today alleges. The Cambodian ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/report-calls-out-pheap
Demining Rats Get All Clear to Begin Testing
The battle against landmines could soon have an unlikely new weapon after a pioneering Belgian NGO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government on Monday to begin testing teams of sharp-sniffing rodents in Cambodia, with the goal of pitching them into the ongoing ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/demining-rats-get-all-clear-to-begin-testing-47951/
No Results in Protest Shooting Investigations
At 10 a.m. on January 3, about 2,000 members of the security forces, mostly military police, advanced down Phnom Penh’s factory-lined Veng Sreng Street, spraying AK-47 assault rifle fire into a crowd of about 100 protesters who had been throwing stones and crude Molotov cocktails. ...
Khuon Narim and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-results-in-protest-shooting-investigations-51325/
Myanmar’s siren song
Unions and labour rights groups have spent recent months unashamedly drilling home a stark reminder: Cambodia’s minimum garment wage, at $61 per month, compares poorly with those in Thailand – where workers earn more than $200 a month – and Vietnam, which has a base ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031861998/National/myanmar-s-siren-song.html
Phnom Penh Governor Leaves Behind Mixed Legacy
During his speech last week at the swearing-in ceremony of Phnom Penh’s new governor, Pa Socheatvong, Interior Minister Sar Kheng noted that managing Cambodia’s capital is by no means an easy task. While critics of [former Phnom Penh governor] Mr. [Kep] Chuktema note his failure ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-governor-leaves-behind-mixed-legacy-22697/
EU Fish Ban Blamed on Cambodian-Flagged Vessels
A ban on imports of Cambodian seafood proposed by the European Commission (E.C.) is in direct response to Cambodian-flagged vessels complicit in illegal fishing in international waters, Jean-Francois Cautain, European Union (E.U.) ambassador to Cambodia, said Wednesday. The E.C. on Tuesday announced that Cambodia was “non-cooperating ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-fish-ban-blamed-on-cambodian-flagged-vessels-48065/
CNRP’s Next Challenge—How to Compromise
Over the past three days, the CNRP conducted one of the most significant campaigns of mass demonstrations against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government in years. For three days, more than 20,000 people packed into Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park for daily appearances from opposition leaders Sam Rainsy ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/cnrps-next-challenge-how-to-compromise-42580/
Despite Ban, $1.5M of Cambodian Sand Turns Up in India
A huge haul of river sand dredged in Cambodia has been quarantined at the southern Indian port city of Cochin since its arrival in April despite a ban on sand exports instituted by Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2009. India’s Deccan Chronicle newspaper reported on Tuesday ...
Alex Willemyns and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-ban-1-5m-of-cambodian-sand-turns-up-in-india-46753/
Phnom Penh Trash Collectors Dance for Demands
Piles of garbage festered on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday as hundreds of workers employed by the city’s refuse collection company, Cintri, continued to strike for higher wages and better working conditions. At the company’s truck depot in Dangkao district Tuesday morning, more than ...
Ben Sokhean and Alice Cuddy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-trash-collectors-dance-for-demands-51432/
Evicted railway families await ADB’s help
In 2011, Oeun Phirun took out a $450 loan from the Asian Development Bank, using half to buy a used motorbike and spending the rest on a small flock of ducks and chickens he hoped to raise. His family and about 1,000 others have been evicted ...
Zsombor Peter and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evicted-railway-families-await-adbs-help-56128/