Defiance Greets World Bank's Funding Freeze
Government officials yesterday dismissed the World Bank’s recently revealed decision to freeze funding for new projects in Cambodia to protest a Phnom Penh real estate project that has forced thousand of families out of their homes. A housing rights group closely following the evictions said ...
Kingdom set for IT growth over next decade
Cambodia’s information technology sector is looking to leapfrog its current capacities in the next decade as the Kingdom chases other countries in the region, industry experts say. As much as 40 per cent of the country could be online within 10 years, Dell general manager of ...
Tourism turmoil continues
Cambodia Association of Travel Agents president Ang Kim Eang yesterday released a statement denying all allegations of wrongdoing against him by some members of the association’s board who have called for his resignation. Last Wednesday, 11 of CATA’s 15 board members signed and thumb-printed a petition ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011122753627/Business/tourism-turmoil-continues.html
Certification Quandry Stunts Sugar Exports
In April 2010, Kampot Pepper and Kompong Speu palm sugar both gained a geographical indication (GI) from the Ministry of Commerce that recognized their unique qualities and protected their name. But while Kampot pepper producers export almost all of their 17-ton annual production at high ...
Cambodia steps up Internet surveillance
As Burma loosens its grip on the media, Cambodia has begun to rank high among the countries repressing internet and telephone freedom in the name of national security, safety and social order. It is still not comparable to China or Vietnam, but Cambodia is moving ...
http://asiancorrespondent.com/88383/cambodia-internet-circular-surveillance-radio/
Anti-Eviction Activists Conjure Up Curses to Bolster Cause
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Borei Keila neighborhoods yesterday sprinkled a concoction of chili, salt and black rice into flames of a small fire in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to “curse” the court officials they accuse of unjustly charging and ...
Cambodia Takes Aim at the Dominant Dollar
PHNOM PENH—In its home country, the Cambodian riel has long played second fiddle to the U.S. dollar—but a new stock exchange and government de-dollarization policies could bolster it in coming years, policy makers and experts say. Dollars change hands with greater frequency than riel in the ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303772904577336784184598356.html
Memorial to Be Held in Koh Kong for Slain Forestry Activist
An estimated 600 people who say their livelihoods have been affected by illegal logging and deforestation across the country are scheduled to gather in Koh Kong province on Friday at the site where environmental activist Chut Wutty was shot dead on April 26. The group will ...
National Rail Project Heralded by Eviction Notices in Poipet
Poipet City authorities have given dozens of families living along a section of railway slated for renovation 10 days to move or face forcible eviction. Poipet City Deputy Governor An Vanak said that the eviction notice was sent Monday to about 40 families, only eight of ...
ANZ chief says Cambodia should de-dollarise
ANZ chief executive Mike Smith says Cambodia should decouple the riel from the US dollar to a stand-alone currency and align itself to the Chinese renminbi (RMB), given the shift in global trade flows. At the Cambodia Outlook Conference in Phnom Penh yesterday, Smith said: “I ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022161527/Business/anz-chief-says-cambodia-should-de-dollarise.html
Cambodia Joins Stocks Party
Cambodia tapped into the growing global interest in Southeast Asia with the start of trading in the sole stock at its gleaming new stock exchange on Wednesday. Ordinary Cambodians and local businesses scrambled to buy into the country’s first initial public offering—of shares in a local ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304331204577351551608365784.html
PM institutes land concessions moratorium
Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued an immediate and indefinite moratorium on the granting of new economic land concessions and called for a review of all existing concessions, a regulation signed by the premier yesterday states. Dated to an April 27 Council of Ministers’ meeting, the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050856036/National-news/conceding-a-problem.html
Factory Owners Agree to Provide More Benefits
Garment factory owners have agreed to provide workers with an additional $9 in monthly benefits for transportation, housing and attendance in order to reduce growing protests in the sector, Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) officials said yesterday. “We will provide $3 in attendance bonuses and ...
Workers ditch factories for fields
At some point during the planting season this year, Pheap Srey Ngoun will leave her garment factory floor for a rice paddy in Cambodia’s Prey Veng province. Like many fellow garment workers she will leave her position, with permission from the factory, to lend a hand ...
Phnom Penh Court Charge Four Officials Of Land Ministry Over Corruption
The media release from ministry of land management, urbanization and construction on August 10 said: after getting information of irregularity on implementing the social economic land for former armed forces and poor families which published in media on June 14,2012. Ministry set up a committee to monitor the ...
Massive strike nearing: union
The Free Trade Union has vowed to stage a mass strike in the garment and footwear industries if its demands for an extra US$30 per month of bonuses for workers are not met, union president Chea Mony said yesterday. The union sent a letter to Minister ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062556997/National-news/massive-strike-nearing.html
Dozens of City Offices Privatized
The government last month privatized more than a dozen department and commune offices in some prime locations around Phnom Penh, and will move many of them to Sen Sok district, according to documents and officials. A sub-decree dated June 27 and signed by Prime Minister Hun ...
Slain activist Chut Wutty's death still a mystery
On Saturday, the family of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty will commemorate the 100 days, or thereabouts, that have passed since his death in a case that remains unresolved even though six eyewitnesses have already been questioned. The official story is that he was killed by ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072757667/National-news/the-chut-wutty-mystery.html
Sam Rainsy deleted from Voter Registration
The National Election Committee (NEC) has removed opposition leader Sam Rainsy from the voter list for next year’s national election on the grounds that he is a convicted criminal, an NEC official said yesterday. The decision means that even if Mr. Rainsy is granted a royal ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sam-rainsy-deleted-from-voter-list-for-election-5229/
Cambodia: shrinking forests breed violence
Hang Serei Oudom told his 7-month pregnant wife that he was going out to meet a source. A journalist for Vorakchun Khmer Daily, he was investigating illegal logging for luxury woods in the jungles of Cambodia’s northeastern Ratanakkiri province. Three days later, on Sept. 11, he ...