Monitoring questions mount
Official from Cambodian immigration, law enforcement and diplomatic circles were either unaware of, or unwilling to talk yesterday about, an alleged request from the Thai government to help monitor Cambodian Muslims crossing into the country. News of the alleged monitoring surfaced on Monday when Thai ...
Try Pheap Firm in Talks to Replicate Timber Deal
Well-known timber magnate Try Pheap is preparing to expand cross-country with a scheme that already gives him exclusive rights to buy all the wood felled on economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, a spokesman for the businessman said. The Agriculture Ministry’s Forestry Administration in February ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/try-pheap-firm-in-talks-to-replicate-timber-deal-48511/
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/
Angkor corruption alleged
An anonymous group on Saturday filed a corruption complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit against senator Sok Kong’s Sokimex company’s management of the Angkor Wat temple complex. The complaint, dated March 10, alleges Sokimex has siphoned the majority of funds recouped from tourist entrance fees to the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012031254983/National-news/angkor-corruption-alleged.html
The knowledge economy
Like many children in Cambodia, Puthea* learned from a young age that good grades don’t come cheap.Before leaving for school, the grade 3 student collects lunch money from his mother along with a bribe he pays to his teacher in exchange for what should be ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/knowledge-economy-0
PM: Gov’t to inject millions to modernise Calmette Hospital
Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that the government will provide $30 million for the state-run Calmette Hospital to continue the construction of a new 12-storey building. Estimated to cost $39.7 million, the building is currently only 17 per cent complete. In a Facebook ...
Soth Koemsoeun
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-govt-inject-millions-modernise-calmette-hospital
RDB set to distribute $50M to rice millers to sustain paddy market
The state-owned Rural Development Bank (RDB) has announced that it will distribute $50 million in loans to private rice millers to sustain the paddy market for farmers. The Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) said the funds will be used to purchase nearly 300,000 tonnes of paddy ...
Thou Vireak
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rdb-set-distribute-50m-rice-millers-sustain-paddy-market
Cambodia opening its doors to investment
With GDP growth averaging around 9% for the past decade, Cambodia is certainly attracting interest from potential investors. It has possibly the most investor-friendly environment in Asean with no exchange controls, no restrictions on repatriation of profit, and no discrimination between foreign and local investors. Moreover, ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/311715/cambodia-opening-its-doors-to-investment
MP urges government to scrap Koh Kong dam project
A dam project set to flood thousands of hectares of protected forest and displace about 1,500 indigenous minority villagers in one of Koh Kong province’s most precious ecosystems should be scrapped, opposition Sam Rainsy Party MP Son Chhay said yesterday. The 109-megawatt dam project in the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042055676/National-news/dont-dam-minority-mp-says.html
Questions over China dams
Some questions remain about whether hydro dams on the upper Mekong River in China exacerbated conditions during Cambodia’s devastating drought of 2010, environmental groups say, as China’s dam program powers ahead. When the first power-generating unit was switched on last month at China’s giant 262-metre tall ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102359350/National-news/questions-over-china-dams.html
New Draft Law Could Legalize Land Grabbing
A law on the management of farmland currently being drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture is a threat to private landowners as it imposes criminal penalties for farmers who do not abide by new powers the government would have to demarcate land, a human rights ...
Thailand Dam Deal Spurs Court Complaint from Thai Villagers
Villagers belonging to a Thai activist group filed a complaint to Thailand’s Administrative Court yesterday for the cancellation of an agreement form the country’s Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to buy power from a controversial mainstream Mekong dam in Laos, an NGO representative said yesterday. “According ...
Vehicle Imports up 45 pct in first half
Ministry of Commerce officials maintained that low import taxes and increased demand from consumers were the causes behind the 45.26 increase in vehicle imports in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year. The data showed 486,827 vehicles, of all makes and ...
Cambodian miner Khmer Resources plans to tap Hong Kong capital market
Khmer Resources Investment, which is backed by the Cambodian government, aims to list in Hong Kong within two years, chairman Cao Yunde said. “We intend to leverage the capital market of Hong Kong to finance our growth through a public listing so as to maximise the ...
Water Supply Begins to Return to Sihanoukville
Anco Water Supply, a private company that is supplying Sihanoukville with access to fresh water has alleviated a water shortage that began when a state-owned reservoir dried up more than a week ago. Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Sbuon Sarath said that running water had been restored ...
Cambodia’s city port reports 34 pct rise in cargo shipment in Q1
Cargos entering and leaving through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, the kingdom’s 2nd largest port, increased by 34 percent in the first three months of this year due to rising trade activities, a senior port official said Thursday. During the January-March period this year, the state-owned port ...
Hun Sen Says Water, Power Shortages to Stay
Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that the rapid growth of Phnom Penh’s population coupled with the rampant construction of new property projects means that there would always be a shortage of water and electricity in the capital. Speaking to a crowd of thousands who had ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-says-water-power-shortages-to-stay-29063/
Critics Say Hun Sen’s Land Title Program Is Biased
A controversial land titling program set up by Prime Minister Hun Sen has been suspended ahead of the July 28 elections, but critics say the program should not be restarted. The titling program itself began in December 2012 and is expected to end after elections scheduled ...
New Cafe to Enter Growing Cambodian Market
Caffe Bene, South Korea’s second-largest coffee chain, on Tuesday announced plans to open in Cambodia, according to a Korean media report. But while its entrance adds one more competitor to the more than half-a-dozen coffee chains already in the country, local franchises said the market is ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/new-cafe-to-enter-growing-cambodian-market-36434/
Chamber wants new tax laws
The private sector has called on the government to review Cambodia’s taxation law, a statute that business leaders say is outdated and needs to change if Cambodia wants to continue to attract foreign investment. Led by Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC) president Kith Meng, a delegation ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/chamber-wants-new-tax-laws