About half of the land concessions granted since 1994 are in the hands of Chinese companies, according to data released yesterday by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. Ouch Leng, CCHR land reform project coordinator, said that from 1994 to 2012, the Cambodian government granted 4,615,745 href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/china-reaps-concession-windfalls/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

While AirAsia, one of the world’s largest low-cost airline, is gearing toward an expansion in the region, the company’s chief executive said that serving Cambodia was expensive due to high airport fees. Airport charges are high and restrictive, as are over-flight fees, compared to other countries in href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/fees-too-high-airasia-ceo/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

For political economist Sophal Ear, this view is more nuanced. In his book ‘Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermined Democracy‘, published by the Columbia University Press (2012), years of dependency are not showing positive results in the rehabilitation of Cambodia, its democracy and war href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodian-scholar-suggests-pernicious-effects-of-aid-dependence/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Railway freight services between Phnom Penh and Touk Meas commune, in Kampot province’s Banteay Meas district, the location of a Siam Cement factory about 40 kilometres north of Kampot town, began yesterday, finally putting the Toll Royal Railways concession on an earning basis. According to Toll Royal Railways href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/rail-freight-services-begin-2/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A decade-old rubber plantation project beset with disputes with local residents has had its 9,000 hectares relocated to an intact forest in Stung Treng. A sub-decree signed by the Council of Ministers in March said 9,787 hectares would be provided to Horizon Agriculture Development as “compensation” href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/conflict-ridden-land-concession-moved-to-new-forest-area/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Human Rights Watch (HRW), long one of the most strident critics of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling party, again slammed the government on Wednesday for its failure to uphold human rights in Cam­bodia, with the release of its World Report 2016. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/rights-group-blasts-government-over-events-in-2015/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Phnom Penh Autonomous Port plans to buy a rice-polishing machine from China, and will also look to build a rice storage facility in Kandal province. These moves, officials said, were intended to push along Cambodia’s rice trade during a period of uncertainty for the industry. Facilities href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/phnom-penh-autonomous-port-to-push-rice-exports/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Thai company set to build Laos’s Xayaburi hydropower dam will not begin construction until a study determines the dam’s environmental effects on the Mekong River, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Friday. Yingluck reaffirmed her commitment to the study, which Mekong River Commission countries href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/yingluck-vows-to-halt-xayaburi/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Transparency International Cambodia is set to step up its presence in the Kingdom with the launch of a $2.5 million three-year program to monitor and record corruption. On a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean), Cambodia ranks 2.1, according to the organisation, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/corruption-targeted-by-2-5-million-program/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Nine months after Cambodia’s stock exchange was officially launched, the country’s first share started trading Wednesday, with the initial public offering of state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority. PPWSA’s stock, priced at 6,300 riel (US$1.57), jumped 48% to 9,300 riel, according to the data from the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-finally-starts-stock-trading/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The World Bank has blacklisted an arm of the company that carried out a much-criticised study into the Xayaburi hydro dam project, it has confirmed. According to the bank’s website, Pöyry Management Consulting Oy Finland has been banned from conducting business with the bank for three href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/world-bank-raps-dam-study-firm/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

TK Garment Co Ltd, a leading Thai original equipment manufacturer for fashion lines in Thailand, is relocating its largest production site to Cambodia to escape high wage costs, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday. According to Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-cheap-labour-attracts-interest/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

There was a sense of déjà vu at the Peace Palace yesterday as a week of largely closed-door ASEAN meetings kicked off in earnest with the same contentious issue that so dominated April’s ASEAN Summit: a code of conduct for the South China Sea. With China href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/south-china-sea-centre-of-asean-talks-again/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Little more than a week after garment workers were granted a US$10 monthly increase in allowances and bonuses, thousands of workers at a number of factories joined strikes with a clear message yesterday: they need more. Workers rallied outside factory gates and some marched to the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/factory-workers-hold-out-for-more/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The two US-backed media outlets and a local NGO’s news service whose broadcasts in Khmer were yanked off the airwaves by government officials before Sunday’s elections aren’t staying silent about the effect of such a move, with one calling it a giant step backward for href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/arbitrary-decision-decried-by-silenced-outlets/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Four workers have gone missing after the collapse of an in-progress hydropower dam in Western Cambodia, apparently due to a leak in the structure. The Associated Press reports that the Saturday collapse occurred at the Stung Atay Hydroelectric Project, a $255-million dollar dam on the Atay href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/dam-collapse-in-cambodia-leaves-four-workers-missing/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A garment factory in the capital’s Meanchey district yesterday denied hiring a group of 10 “gangsters” to beat and injure workers as they protested. Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) official Ney Bunthoeun said a gang of thugs hired by Haiyun garment factory bosses href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/factory-allegedly-hires-thugs-to-hurt-strikers/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A resolution reached on Monday in the wake of a violent strike at two SL Garment factories that supply Levi’s and Gap resulted in employees returning to work yesterday – for the second time in days. Ek Sopheakdey, a Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/sl-employees-back-to-work-after-resolution/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The European Union had provided more than US$265,000 to a land reform project that aimed to shift political will and opinion towards land and human rights in Cambodia, development partners said yesterday. The Cambodian Centre for Human Rights will spearhead the Cambodian Land Law Reform Project, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/eu-assists-land-reform/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Old Place Seafood, a Chinese restaurant that cost $4 million, has opened in Phnom Penh. A representative of the restaurant, which is opposite the Chinese embassy, said the growing number of Chinese people in the Kingdom had justified such an investment. Luu Meng, president of the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/4m-restaurant-reflects-growing-chinese-presence-in-cambodia/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...