Cambodian PM unveils 5-year strategy, vowing deep reforms
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday announced his new government’s five-year strategy, vowing to deepen reforms in all fields to ensure sustainable growth and poverty reduction. “Reforms are the top priority for Cambodia and the country will continue deepening reforms in all fields in order ...
Nguon Sovan
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-09/25/c_132749682.htm
Cambodia’s high court drops case against men wrongly jailed for 2004 murder of labor activist
Cambodia’s Supreme Court ordered the release of two men Wednesday who were wrongly convicted and jailed for the 2004 murder of a prominent opposition activist. The court’s decision to drop all charges came amid renewed calls to free the men, whom leading international rights groups have ...
The Washington Post News Staff
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/cambodias-high-court-drops-case-against-men-wrongly-jailed-for-2004-murder-of-labor-activist/2013/09/25/2170fc90-25c2-11e3-9372-92606241ae9c_story.html
Cambodian ambassador speaks highly of mutual exchanges with Vietnam
This year, the Cambodian people celebrate their 60th National Day as well as the birthday of the Cambodia Kingdom’s royal army under the bright leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk, who relentlessly struggled against the French colonialists to gain independence (09-11-1953 – 09-11-2013). In 2010, Father ...
Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=NTQ0YTNhY2QzOTQ
Japan to Assist Cambodia With Election Reform
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to help Cambodia with electoral reforms, following a request by Prime Minister Hun Sen to send experts to the country ahead of future polls and amid an ongoing dispute over national elections held more than three months ago. The ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/japan-11182013183828.html
Cambodia to feel an energy crunch, but growth to remain stable: report
Energy demand in Southeast Asia is expected to increase by more than 80 per cent by 2035, fuelling some $240 billion in oil spending, a new report from the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) shows. In its “Southeast Asia Energy Outlook” published yesterday, the Paris-based IAEA ...
Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia-feel-energy-crunch-growth-remain-stable-report
Opposition Asks ADB To Suspend Funding to Cambodia
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has asked the Asian Development Bank to suspend funding to Cambodia, whose government he says was not formed legally following the July elections. In a letter to ADB President Takehiko Nakao, Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, said the ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/opposition-asks-adb-to-suspend-funding-to-cambodia/1766436.html
Demolition Order for 2 Buildings Near Royal Palace
Government officials have ordered the immediate demolition of two buildings located within blocks of the Royal Palace because the structures are taller than the allowed limit for buildings surrounding the palace, officials said Wednesday. One building, owned by Vattanac Properties, is located a block from the ...
Aun Pheap and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/demolition-order-for-2-buildings-near-royal-palace-45306/
Cambodia Upgrades Diplomatic Relations With Japan
Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to upgrade Cambodia’s diplomatic relations with Japan to a “strategic level” during talks in Tokyo on Sunday, but also thanked his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, for making efforts to mend relations with neighbor China, according to media reports. During a state ...
Phorn Bopha and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-upgrades-diplomatic-relations-with-japan-49386/
Borei Keila residents ‘occupy’ unfinished apartment block
Residents embroiled in a long-running land dispute in the Borei Keila area of Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district on Wednesday tore down three metal fences and occupied an unfinished apartment block at the site. The fences were felled with axes by irate residents, who took the ...
Khuon Narim and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-residents-occupy-unfinished-apartment-block-52083/
End right to unionize, businesses ask Hun Sen
Prime Minister Hun Sen told business leaders and government officials Tuesday that he will not tolerate “illegal” labor strikes that harm investment, but avoided judgment on a request to withdraw ratification of a U.N. convention protecting workers’ rights to unionize. Speaking at the 17th Government-Private Sector ...
Hul Reaksmey and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/end-right-to-unionize-businesses-ask-hun-sen-53516/
Cambodia’s parliament OKs dam compensation plan
Cambodia’s energy minister allayed concerns in parliament over inadequate compensation offered to villagers who face relocation for a proposed China-backed dam on a Mekong River tributary, saying the government has allocated to villagers more than four times the area taken over for the project. Minister of ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-06192014195419.html
Sar Kheng Accuses CNRP of Launching ‘Constitutional Coup’
Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng became the latest senior member of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP government to accuse the opposition CNRP of attempting to “topple” the government though what he claimed is a “constitutional coup.” In a posting to the Interior Ministry ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sar-kheng-accuses-cnrp-of-launching-constitutional-coup-51186/
Royal Group denies report that Cellcard seeks investor
Royal Group executives, owners of Cambodia’s leading mobile phone operator Cellcard, vigorously denied the veracity of a London-based media report on Friday that claimed the phone company is looking for investors and wants to sell off its telecommunications towers because it is unable to raise ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/royal-group-denies-report-that-cellcard-seeks-investor-53741/
Lao Dam troubles Mekong waters
Being landlocked and poor has always placed Laos at a disadvantage to its more powerful neighbors. The only body of water that offers Vientiane an international reach is the Mekong River, which flows through the heartland of Southeast Asia. Now, that river, which laps the western ...
Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/magazine-regional/lao-dam-troubles-mekong-waters.html
Growing Unease Over Direction of the Country, Survey Finds
There was a shift of almost seismic proportions between January and November 2013 as the number of people who believe the country is being steered in the right direction fell sharply, while the number of discontented citizens rose, according to a new report. Launching its annual ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/growing-unease-over-direction-of-the-country-survey-finds-51034/
ADB Admits Fault in Rail Project, Pledges Compensation
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has for the first time admitted to major flaws in its efforts to protect the roughly 4,000 families losing land to a $143 million project it is funding to rehabilitate Cambodia’s dilapidated railway system. On Friday, the ADB said it would ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-admits-fault-in-rail-project-pledges-compensation-51210/
Slow start for joint electoral reform commission
The ruling CPP agreed in principle to two of seven proposals put forth by the opposition CNRP on Monday during the first meeting of a joint electoral reform commission. Emerging from a four-and-a-half hour meeting at the Senate, leaders of the CPP and CNRP working groups ...
Mech Dara and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/slow-start-for-joint-electoral-reform-commission-53427/
Aeon microfinance booms with mall on horizon
When Sor Songheng, a manager for an accountancy firm, wanted to replace his cheap Nokia phone a few months ago, he set his heart on a top-of-the-line iPhone 5S worth $780—nearly his entire monthly salary of $800. But instead of scrimping and saving for months to ...
George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/aeon-microfinance-booms-with-mall-on-horizon-58122/
NGOs begin to stop the rot of Cambodian teeth
Every day for weeks on end, 6-year-old Srey Nuch was tormented by severe pain caused by several of her teeth rotting away. Her mother, Lay Vicheka, despaired when she heard her daughter’s cries, knowing the family was far too poor to pay a dentist to fix ...
Holly Robertson and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/ngos-starting-to-stop-the-rot-of-cambodian-teeth-59490/
Cable shows cartel’s reach
A sex-trafficking network that included “high-ranking” government officials and had infiltrated Cambodian law enforcement agencies and NGOs for years worked to cover up Vietnamese sex rings and collect payoffs from illegal prostitution establishments in Phnom Penh. However, four years after a court finally convicted the police ...
Daniel Pye, Taing Vida and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cable-shows-cartels-reach