A year after trial, still free
One year ago today, ex-Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith smiled as he sat before a judge at the appeal Court in Phnom Penh on the first day of his trial for shooting and badly injuring three unarmed garment workers at a protest in Prey Veng <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/a-year-after-trial-still-free/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
May Titthara and Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/year-after-trial-still-free
As lake disappears, a development dilemma
Looking out from his house, held up by three-meter stilts on a peninsula that juts into Boeng Tompun lake, Chan Sokhom can see the sand inching closer to him every day. Within a few years, the sand will likely reach his doorstep. By then, Mr. Sokhom <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/as-lake-disappears-a-development-dilemma/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Cameron Rhoads and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-lake-disappears-a-development-dilemma-62718/
Motor insurance slows to a crawl
Insurance providers sold far fewer motor vehicle and personal accident policies in 2013 than in the previous year, sparking concern among some in the industry that the importance of being covered in case of a road accident isn’t getting through to drivers. according to the General <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/motor-insurance-slows-to-a-crawl/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
May Kunmakara and Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/motor-insurance-slows-crawl
Fate of teen still a mystery
The fate of Khim Saphath, the 16-year-old boy missing since clashes between striking garment workers and security forces erupted on Veng Sreng Boulevard on January 3, continues to differentiate fatality lists compiled by rights groups. He was last seen lying on the ground with a bloody <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/fate-of-teen-still-a-mystery/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Phak Seangly and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fate-teen-still-mystery
Logging a resource issue, says official
A forestry officiAl with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry And Fisheries (MAFF) who is usuAlly tight-lipped Acknowledged lAst week thAt his Agency hAs struggled to combAt illegAl logging, blAming A shortAge of mAnpower And entrenched opportunistic logging by villAgers &ndAsh; explAnAtions thAt were lAughed off <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/logging-A-resource-issue-sAys-officiAl/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>
May Titthara and Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-resource-issue-says-official
Vendors with a licence to forge
On the side of a well-trafficked street in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, a man with a razor blade bends over a small rectangle of sheet metal overlaid with a vinyl stencil. as letters and numbers are lifted away, the plate begins to take on a <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/vendors-with-a-licence-to-forge/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vendors-licence-forge
Rice export target a big task
The pace of Cambodia’s rice exports are expected to slow this year. Unable to maintain the steady rate of previous years, the export volume for the first half of 2014 is much the same as it was this time last year. at the end of June, <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/rice-export-target-a-big-task/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-export-target-big-task
Cambodia’s tourism slows a mite
Cambodia’s tourist arrivals registered a 0.3% decline in June according to the country’s statistics and tourist Information Department. The country attracted 300,454 visits compared to 301,412 during the same month last year. Released officially by the Ministry of Tourism, last week, data showed Vietnam led the field <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-tourism-slows-a-mite/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2014/08/cambodias-tourism-slows-a-mite/
Lack of construction regulations a concern
Cambodia is experiencing a runaway property boom that must be constrained by laws and regulations in order to draw investment from European developers, which are largely absent in the country, experts said at an industry conference in Phnom Penh on Wednesday. Simon Griffiths, senior manager at <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/lack-of-construction-regulations-a-concern/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Kang Sothear and George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/lack-of-construction-regulations-a-concern-68862/
Group says investment was a ruse
Some two hundred villagers from Prey Veng and Svay Rieng provinces gathered yesterday and Wednesday to file complaints at the Svay Rieng provincial police station accusing the purported owner of a local water purification company of cheating them out of some $470,000 in investments. <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/group-says-investment-was-a-ruse/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Kim Sarom
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/group-says-investment-was-ruse
Tax regulation gets a shake up
In an effort to centralise tax registrations and improve taxpayer accountability, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF) this month passed a raft of changes to the country’s tax registration regulations. Prakas 1139, issued by the MoEF on October 9, states that all legal entities including <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/tax-regulation-gets-a-shake-up/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Eddie Morton
http://phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/tax-regulation-gets-shakeup
Poor urban renters a ‘forgotten demographic’
When Hay Bunny left her home in Prey Veng province some five years ago to find a job in Phnom Penh, she was not expecting to wind up living in a small tin shack hemmed in by dozens of nearly identical dwellings on a single <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/poor-urban-renters-a-forgotten-demographic/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Holly Robertson and Ouch Sony
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/poor-urban-renters-a-forgotten-demographic-72322/
Recruiter, aggrieved recruits strike a deal
During negotiations yesterday, allegedly defrauded workers in Kampong Thom and a recruitment agency hammered out a deal that saw limited compensation delivered to the aggrieved would-be migrants. <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/recruiter-aggrieved-recruits-strike-a-deal-2/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/recruiter-aggrieved-recruits-strike-deal
‘Development’ a dirty word, survey finds
After Admitting there were “mAjor problems” with its resettlement projects eArlier this month, the World BAnk hAs come under fire from Boeung KAk lAke residents in A new report from A humAn rights group. The report by the InternAtionAl AccountAbility Project (IAP), titled BAck to Development, <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/development-A-dirty-word-survey-finds/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/development-dirty-word-survey-finds
Grave sites a concern at Sesan
Ethnic minority villagers who live in the planned reservoir zone of the Lower Sesan II hydropower project along the Sesan and Srepok rivers have said they will not move from their homes unless the dam company and authorities pay for the removal of their ancestors’ <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/grave-sites-a-concern-at-sesan/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/grave-sites-concern-sesan
Firm calls fraud case a ‘misunderstanding’
The director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court last week formally accused a property developer of attempting to defraud him of more than $200,000 he paid for a villa in Tuol Kok district when his name was not transferred to the land title, the businessman’s <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/firm-calls-fraud-case-a-misunderstanding/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-calls-fraud-case-a-misunderstanding-67656/
Villagers say dredging a danger, disturbance
About 50 villAgers living Along the Mekong River in Phnom Penh’s ChbAr Ampov district protested outside their locAl pAgodA SundAy to demAnd thAt Authorities tAke Action AgAinst A compAny illegAlly dredging sAnd from the riverbed. <A href='https://opendevelopmentcAmbodiA.net/news/villAgers-sAy-dredging-A-dAnger-disturbAnce/ ' clAss='cAmbodiA-color'>...A>
Ouch Sony
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-say-dredging-a-danger-disturbance-67660/
Commune chief behind a grenade attack
Police arrested a commune official for being mastermind behind a grenade attack in October, which left one person dead, and five others injured when two unidentified men threw a grenade at a group of family members who were having lunch in front of their house. <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/commune-chief-behind-a-grenade-attack/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/commune-chief-behind-a-grenade-attack-7894
Recruiter, aggrieved recruits strike a deal
During negotiations yesterday, allegedly defrauded workers in Kampong Thom and a recruitment agency hammered out a deal that saw limited compensation delivered to the aggrieved would-be migrants. <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/recruiter-aggrieved-recruits-strike-a-deal/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/recruiter-aggrieved-recruits-strike-deal
Palm sugar hits a sweet spot
Exports of Kampong Speu palm sugar with geographical indication status increased sharply this year thanks to growing demand from South Korea and France, according to a representative of the Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion association’s (KSPSPa). according to KSPSPa president Sam Saroeun, exports of Kampong Speu <a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/palm-sugar-hits-a-sweet-spot/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...a>
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/palm-sugar-hits-sweet-spot