Toll may lose rail rights
A company with ties to one of China’s top state-owned firms will look to push Toll Royal Railways and its local partner Royal Group of Companies out of a 30-year railroad concession with pledge to invest nearly US$850 million to revamp existing lines and build an additional ...
Resettlement offer to asylum seekers may have breached Cambodia deal
Australian immigration officials have approached asylum seekers within the Nauru detention centre about resettlement in Cambodia, apparently in contravention of the agreement between the two countries. The settlement agreement with Cambodia specifies that offers should be made only to people with refugee status. But it ...
Paul Farrell
http://bit.ly/1DQq6ZR
US offers $9M to boost public accountability NGOs
A $9 million grant to promote government accountability in Cambodia and strengthen nongovernmental groups across the country was announced on Tuesday by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). ...
Janelle Retka
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/brief/us-offers-9m-to-boost-public-accountability-ngos-115386/
China offers Cambodia $53 mln to develop water resources
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged RMB 329 million ($53 million) in assistance to Cambodia on Sunday during a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen, a Cambodian official said. Ieng Sophalet, an assistant to Hun Sen, told reporters that the grant would be used for water resource ...
Government undecided on new resettlement sites for evictees
A Finance Ministry official said on Sunday that the government had yet to decide whether it would comply with Asian Development Bank (ADB) rules that families facing eviction from along the country’s old railway tracks be offered resettlement options better than the ones they have ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-undecided-on-new-resettlement-sites-for-evictees-102214/
USAID Report Offers New Way to Protect Prey Long Forest
The government should abandon its current management of Prey Long forest and shift to a plan that conserves the forst while also optimizing its economic uses, such as agriculture, carbon credits and controlled timber exploitation, according to a recent report by the US Agency for ...
Ministries team up to boost silk industry
Two government agencies got together to sign an agreement to boost and develop the silk sector in Cambodia. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed this month by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MLVT) seeks to boost local raw ...
Sok Chan
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50302968/ministries-team-up-to-boost-silk-industry/
China signs pacts on aid for transport, mines and education
Cambodia and China yesterday signed three agreements on mine clearing, a transportation master plan and renovation of the Royal Palace building in Siem Reap province. The signings came amid the launch of a big finance project to improve education in Cambodia. ...
Chea Vannak
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50502740/china-signs-pacts-on-aid-for-transport-mines-and-education/
Schools get climate change textbook
The Environment and Education ministries have unveiled the official textbook on climate change for upper secondary schools. Under-secretary of state of the Environment Ministry Khut Chandara said at the official launch of the book on Monday that education played an important role in social, economic ...
Pech Sotheary
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50507849/schools-get-climate-change-textbook/
‘Factories, fossil fuels mostly to blame for climate change’
Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra on Wednesday blamed climate change and global warming on greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industrial factories and the burning of fossil fuels in developed countries. He said deforestation is only a small contributing factor. ...
Soth Koemsoeun
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factories-fossil-fuels-mostly-blame-climate-change
Waste production continues to rise
The Ministries of Environment and Tourism have reiterated calls for factories, restaurants and markets to properly handle waste disposal as the amount produced in the Kingdom continues to grow. ...
Pech Sotheary
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50539241/waste-production-continues-to-rise/
ING land revoked after failures
The government has decided to revoke five land titles given to tycoon Ing Bun Hoaw after his company, ING Holdings, failed to develop infrastructure along Boeng Choeung Ek lake and erect a satellite city in Phnom Penh and Kandal province’s Takhmao city. The Council of Ministers ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50623221/ing-land-revoked-after-failures/
PM gives ministers an 'F', lashes out at illegal logging task force
Prime Minister Hun Sen unleashed a tirade against underperforming government officials in a pair of speeches yesterday – musing aloud about reshuffling his Council of Ministers and wondering why rockets had not yet been deployed in the Kingdom’s recent “crackdown” on illegal logging. ...
Mech Dara, Lay Samean and Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-gives-ministers-f-lashes-out-illegal-logging-task-force
Commission to save natural resources
The government created a national commission last week to prevent and crack down on crimes involving natural resources. National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha will head the commission and Hou Sakun, the deputy commissioner general of the National Police, will be second in command. Environment Ministry and ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33006/commission-to-save-natural-resources/
Forestry crimes triple, but fines down: report
Illegal forest clearing is taking place at about three times the rate it did last year, but fines for forestry and wildlife crimes have fallen dramatically, according to a progress report released last week by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries (MAFF). ...
Mech Dara and Jack Davies
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forestry-crimes-triple-fines-down-report
Land dispute rep to appear before court
A representative of more than 100 families involved in a land dispute with a rubber company is seeking the help of a local rights group after being ordered to appear before the Oddar Meanchey Provincial Court on Friday. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-dispute-rep-appear-court
Discrepancy among ministries over garment data
Annual reports from two ministries released on Monday appear to show significantly different numbers of factories, enterprises and garment factory workers in Cambodia last year, and officials at the two ministries contacted yesterday did not explain the contradictory data. ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/discrepancy-among-ministries-over-garment-data
Sesan dam families ask PM for help
Ten representatives of 143 indigenous families affected by the development of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province gathered yesterday to submit a petition to the Interior Ministry and the Prime Minister’s cabinet. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5080579/sesan-dam-families-ask-pm-help/
Child protection plan rolled out
The government unveiled a long-awaited national plan to combat violence against children yesterday, four years after a countrywide survey revealed that more than half of children in Cambodia are physically abused. ...
Daphne Chen
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/child-protection-plan-rolled-out
After budget released, opposition blasts process
With the release of the government’s 2015 draft national budget Thursday, the opposition CNRP, whose 55 lawmakers joined the National Assembly in August, called Cambodia’s budget-drafting process “disgusting and unbelievable” on Friday. The draft 2015 budget calls for $400 million—or about 10.6 percent—more than 2014. ...
Kuch Naren and Chris Mueller
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-budget-released-opposition-blasts-process-71594/