Pilot scheme plans to send maids to Singapore
Four hundred Cambodian women could be sent to Singapore as soon as the middle of this year to work as maids under a pilot scheme by the governments of Cambodia and Singapore. The Post has obtained an internal circular the Singapore Ministry of Manpower sent to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020461152/National/maids-heading-to-singapore.html
Demand for quality rice seed development
To enhance Cambodian rice yields, the government should encourage private development of rice-seed production and focus its efforts on farmers’ education and regulations that ensure the quality of seed, industry experts say. The Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), under the direction of the Ministry ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042565221/Business/demand-for-quality-rice-seed-development.html
The slaughterhouse blues
It’s 1am and, as Phnom Penh sleeps, the haunting squeals of distressed animals are all that can be heard in the darkness of a field in Russey Keo district. Pigs in open-air sheds have sensed what’s coming: Hundreds of them are about to be slaughtered for ...
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/slaughterhouse-blues
CAMBODIA: Better Factories programme renewed
The Better Factories Cambodia programme has been renewed after a new, three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was agreed. The new agreement, aimed at furthering the initiative’s mission to improve working conditions in Cambodian garment factories, was signed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Cambodian Ministry ...
Richard Woodard
http://www.just-style.com/news/better-factories-programme-renewed_id120127.aspx
Exports of rice to fall short of 2013 goal
Cambodia’s rice exports roughly doubled in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 2012, according to government data released yesterday. But the figures aren’t big enough to meet official goals for 2013. The numbers show that exports of fragrant rice ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/exports-rice-fall-short-2013-goal
Cambodian rice exports fall in Q1
As Thailand sells its rice reserves and reforms in Myanmar are rewarded with more access to markets abroad, Cambodia’s total exports of milled rice are on the decline, falling more than 10 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodian-rice-exports-fall-q1
Migrants in ‘hurry’ to get back to work
A survey of 10 Cambodian provinces is studying the whereabouts and plans of migrant workers who were recently repatriated from Thailand, fearing crackdowns on foreign workers there after the coup. During a workshop hosted by Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM) yesterday, Ministry ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/migrants-%E2%80%98hurry%E2%80%99-get-back-work
Union activist freed, but cops keep fliers
A union activist detained in Svay Rieng province on Sunday for delivering fliers promoting a stay-at-home strike was released after three hours, but police kept the leaflets, he said yesterday. When Kem Chamroeun, 25, of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) brought a stack ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-activist-freed-cops-keep-fliers
Disability initiatives launched as jobs quota not met
For Cambodians with disabilities, the launch of two major initiatives in the past two days designed to improve their lives has brought some optimism about the future—tempered by a note of caution. At Koh Pich island on Thursday, in front of a crowd of more than ...
Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/disability-initiatives-launched-as-jobs-quota-not-met-63276/
Government approves new traffic law
The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a new draft traffic law aimed at improving the safety of Cambodia’s notoriously dangerous roads, with only legislative approval standing in the way of the bill being passed into law. The draft law, which includes changes to 64 articles, ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-approves-new-traffic-law-66675/
Embassy defends handling of maids
Cambodia’s embassy in Malaysia yesterday denied pressuring domestic workers from the Kingdom into renewing their visas, after rights groups told the Post last week that the embassy exploited a legal loophole to keep maids in the country. The statement came as a Malaysian employers association, which has observed the drafting ...
Sen David and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/embassy-defends-handling-maids
IFC offers Acleda Bank $50M for SME lending
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide a $50 million syndicated loan to Acleda Bank to boost lending to small and medium enterprises, of which at least half will support women-owned enterprises, it said yesterday. ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ifc-offers-acleda-bank-50m-sme-lending
Government Mulls Issuing Sovereign Bonds
Cambodia is considering offering sovereign bonds to raise more revenue for the national budget and move away from its dependence on overseas aid, a senior central bank official said Sunday. National Bank of Cambodia director-general Nguon Sokha said the Ministry of Economy and Finance was currently ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/government-mulls-issuing-sovereign-bonds-21989/
Serbian Foreign Minister strengthen bilateral ties
“Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Vuk Jeremic will pay an official visit to Cambodia early next week to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries,” the media release from the foreign ministry said on October 7. “Serbian Foreign Minister H.E. Vuk ...
Cambodia reports 60 pct rise in internet users last year
Cambodia recorded about 2.7 million internet users as of December last year, a 60 percent rise year-on-year, a senior official said Thursday. Meanwhile, he said the country has 6 mobile phone operators. As of last year, those operators had sold out 19.1 million SIM cards, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2013-03/14/c_132234173.htm
Export Values Up 21 Per Cent
Cambodian export values increased more than 21 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, and officials said the rise was a positive sign for the Kingdom’s economic growth. According to the Ministry of Commerce’s export data ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042465194/Business/export-values-up-21-per-cent.html
Seoul visit as tensions mount
In the light of growing tensions between North and South Korea, officials from the Ministry of Labour will head to Seoul on Thursday for a weeklong visit to inform Cambodian workers on emergency evacuation procedures. An estimated 25,000 Cambodians, a figure that includes roughly 5,000 illegal ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040964963/National/seoul-visit-as-tensions-mount.html
Special Economic Zone Strike in Svay Rieng Ends—For Now
An estimated 30,000 garment factory workers will resume work this morning after three days of strike action ended Wednesday when Svay Rieng provincial officials promised to help the strikers achieve their demands from factory owners. The mass strike led the owner of the Tai Seng Special ...
Aun Pheap and Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/special-economic-zone-strike-in-svay-rieng-ends-for-now-49469/
New owners, old story
An existing moratorium on economic land concessions should be no impediment to pouring more cash into the Kingdom’s booming, and highly criticised, rubber trade, industry executives in the capital heard yesterday, as many current ELCs can simply be recycled to a new crop of investors. Ly ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-owners-old-story
Strike action still on table, unions say
Leaders of unions that declared a nationwide garment worker strike said the work stoppage and protests, which they temporarily suspended, will resume unless government officials renegotiate the industry’s minimum wage. The announcement was their first since authorities cracked down on strike demonstrations on January 2 and ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-action-still-table-unions-say