Siem Reap’s Secret Multimillion Dollar Land Swap
Inside the grounds of this city’s old provincial hall, past a green corrugated iron fence, municipal street cleaners and their families are squatting in what was once a bustling government office filled with civil servants. Across the road, the former department of rural development is a ...
Phorn Bopha and Simon Marks
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/selected-features/siem-reaps-secret-multimillion-dollar-land-swap-42375/
Deutsche Bank, IFC Rubber Investments Questioned
Deutsche Bank and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) have poured millions of dollars into Vietnamese rubber companies operating in Cambodia that have engaged in illegal logging and forced evictions of local farmers, the environmental rights group Global Witness says in a new report ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/deutsche-bank-ifc-rubber-investments-questioned-23598/
How ‘public’ is affordable housing?
In the market for lower to middle income housing, the line between ‘public’ and ‘affordable’ has been blurred.Post Property AnalysisLocal property developer, WorldBridge Land, Co. Ltd., and Singapore-based construction company, Strait Construction Group Pte, Ltd, last week announced a $100 million Memorandum of Understanding on ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/how-public-affordable-housing
Gold rush in Prey Lang forest
For four years now, this mineral-flecked land deep inside the Prey Lang forest has drawn thousands of small-scale seasonal miners. There are perks to working the dry season: space is one, avoiding the unofficial “taxation” system is another. For years, development agencies have urged a sweeping ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021361348/National/gold-rush-in-prey-lang-forest.html
Water Cannon Crackdown on Cambodian Land Activists
Cambodian police used water cannons Wednesday to disperse around 200 women demanding a quick resolution to long-running land disputes, knocking at least three of the protesters, including a 72-year-old, unconscious. The move came two days after authorities used stun batons to disperse a protest over wages ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-05292013164116.html
Task of Obtaining Passport Is Adding To Illegal Migration Problem
Thousands of Cambodians cross the border via illegal checkpoints into Thailand every year. Some end up working in slave-like conditions on illegal fishing trawlers. Others work in factories while getting paid under the table. It is often a last resort fraught with danger and uncertainty and ...
Flights planned from Beijing to Siem Reap, Phnom Penh
Chinese flag carrier Air China is expected to launch the first non-stop flights from Beijing to Cambodia as early as November this year, officials said yesterday. Director of the Air Transport Department of Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, Vann Chanty, said that officials from ...
Old Soldiers Won't Fade Away
“I don’t know how to protect the territorial integrity [of the nearby Cambodian-Thai border] – even my three hectares of land I cannot protect,” said Bun Chanthorn, 54, one of hundreds of retired and active soldiers who since 2010 have been battling the local authorities ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050765451/National/old-soldiers-won-t-fade-away.html
Ministers Told to Prepare for Public Scrutiny
During an epic speech on Wednesday that lasted for more than six-and-a-half hours, Prime Minister Hun Sen told his newly approved Cabinet that they would be subject to increased public scrutiny as part of a series of reforms to be undertaken by the CPP over ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/ministers-told-to-prepare-for-public-scrutiny-43405/
Hun Sen’s Cabinet Approves $3.5B Draft Budget
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new Cabinet on Friday approved a 2014 draft budget of $3.5 billion, a 13 percent increase over this year’s budget, but gave no details as to how the money would be spent. The CPP also said it will go ahead with a ...
Hul Reaksmey and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-cabinet-approves-3-5b-draft-budget-45985/
In Siem Reap, Rainsy Again Calls for Hun Sen to Step Down
SIEM REAP CITY – Opposition leader Sam Rainsy was greeted Tuesday by 15,000 supporters and a small dust storm at the CNRP’s first post-election rally in Siem Reap, where he once again called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to stand down. Arriving on a scheduled flight ...
Alex Willemyns and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/in-siem-reap-rainsy-again-calls-for-hun-sen-to-step-down-49065/
Cambodian NGOs Call for Election Committee Selected By Neutral Body
Cambodia’s National Election Committee (NEC), which oversees the country’s polls, should be revamped with representatives picked by an independent panel in a transparent manner with the involvement of all stakeholders, a group of non-governmental organizations said in a report after investigating the latest disputed elections. The ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/committee-12132013175611.html
Questions Raised Over Forms Used for Voters With No ID
Of the nearly 800,000 forms issued to voters without identification for use in the July 28 election, about 270,000 were issued between the end of the voter registration period and the election itself, raising concerns among observers they could have been used fraudulently. According to National ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/questions-raised-over-forms-used-for-voters-with-no-id-41437/
Mekong River Flooding Threatens Parts Of Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh will face flooding in certain areas in the coming days as the level of the Mekong River surpasses emergency level, while heavy rainfall from tropical storm Wutip, which made landfall in Laos from the South China Sea on Friday, prompted the government to ...
Kuch Naren and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mekong-river-flooding-threatens-parts-of-phnom-penh-43841/
No Demolition Yet as Buildings’ Deadline Nears
There was little sign Wednesday that two new buildings near the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, which have been ordered to reduce their height, were any closer to demolition Wednesday, despite the approach of a one-month deadline from City Hall. Phnom Penh municipal officials said last ...
Aun Pheap and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-demolition-yet-as-buildings-deadline-nears-46960/
Cambodia copes with double-digit traffic growth
The Cambodian government recently awarded the operator of its three international airports more than $100 million for upgrades in an effort to accommodate strong passenger growth driven by the country’s nascent tourism industry. Cambodia Airports—the subsidiary of Italian firm Vinci, which serves as the concession ...
Jennifer Meszaros
http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2014-02-05/cambodia-copes-double-digit-traffic-growth
Concern over migration chief’s family connections
The appointment of General Sok Phal to head the Interior Ministry’s newly formed department to monitor migrant workers has raised concerns over his close familial connection to a labor recruitment industry fraught with human rights abuses. Gen. Phal’s sister, Ung Seang Rithy, is the owner of ...
Matt Blomberg and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-over-migration-chiefs-family-connections-57202/
Police make arrest, file complaints in Bavet strike
Police in Svay Rieng province on Tuesday arrested a garment worker for allegedly breaking a car window during a strike that turned violent in Bavet City the day before, and have filed complaints to the provincial court against two union representatives accused of defamation. The arrest ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-make-arrest-file-complaints-in-bavet-strike-57856/
After Chinese company’s visit, villagers fear dam construction
Following a visit by representatives of the Chinese company planning to build a controversial 108-MW hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, local officials and residents say they fear that construction on the project, which will require the evacuation of an estimated 1,500 villagers, ...
Sani Sinary
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-chinese-companys-visit-villagers-fear-dam-construction-53409/
ADB sees strong growth for developing Asia in 2015 and 2016
Developing Asia will maintain its strong economic growth in 2015 and 2016 supported by soft commodity prices and recovery in the major industrial economies, says a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report. ADB’s flagship annual economic publication, Asian Development Outlook 2015 (ADO), released today, forecasts developing ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://bit.ly/1DWutVM