More than half of Cambodians living in rural areas still do not have access to treated water, about 200 people heard yesterday at a forum at the Phnom Penh Hotel. The event was sponsored by WaterSHED, an NGO funded by USAID’s Regional Development Mission-Asia and the Stone Family Foundation. According href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/looking-to-increase-water-access/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) will forgo an opportunity to voice opposition to the Xayaburi dam project – which member state Laos began building in November – when it meets for its annual council meeting next week. Surasak Glahan, communications officer with the MRC secretariat, confirmed href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/xayaburi-dam-not-on-agenda/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (FTB) and Tong Yang Securities (Cambodia) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding on financial consultation services and trade co-operation that is hoped to expand banking and securities business in the country. The MoU should bring the bank and the securities firm into href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ftb-signs-mou-with-tong-yang/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Sri Lankan agricultural group Lankem Ceylon PLC says it plans to plant 20,000 hectares of rubber in Cambodia as part of a diversification strategy. Lankem chairman A Rajaratnam disclosed the strategy in the company’s annual report for the year to March, 2012, released by the company href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/sri-lankan-company-to-plant-20000-hectares-of-rubber-in-cambodia/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s production of paddy rice is forecast at about 9.3 million tonnes this year, unchanged from last year’s estimate but up from 8.8 million tonnes in 2011, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said Thursday. In its latest quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, the UN href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-rice-output-forecast-to-be-similar-to-last-year/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Phnom Penh is one of the fastest-growing cities in Southeast Asia. It added nearly 500,000 people between 2000 and 2010, for a total of 1.4 million. That has meant a lot of changes in a short period: more congestion, more markets, more housing. And, newcomers href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/growing-pains-as-capital-keeps-expanding/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Informal workers, a class that includes beer promoters, tuk tuk drivers and farmers, are among those who stand to benefit most from the upcoming trade-union law, observers say – and workers say it can’t come soon enough. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/workers-waiting-for-a-bargain/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A senior agricultural official is concerned by the prevalence of fake fertilizers that cause stunted rice crops and reduce farmers’ profits. Ngin Chhay, director of the Rice Crops Department in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry, told the Development Research Forum in Phnom Penh yesterday the products were href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/fake-potash-reduces-rice-profits-and-farm-output/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, the largest pooling of financial resources among Southeast Asia’s 10-member bloc, held its first board meeting in Manila last week, but the extent to which Cambodia will borrow from the non-concessional fund has yet to be determined, experts said. ASEAN countries and href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/newest-asean-fund-may-be-out-of-reach-for-cambodian-govt/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Access to the region’s largest collective financial resource, the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, could be easier than expected for Cambodia, according to an Asian Development Bank economist. Initiated in May, the fund is expected to lend up to US$4 billion and leverage up to $13 billion for href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/asean-infrastructure-fund-could-be-within-cambodias-reach/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

An estimated 600 people will travel to parts of the Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong province to investigate illegal logging and commemorate the death of slain environment activist Chut Wutty tomorrow. Communities from eight provinces that have been affected by deforestation will travel to Koh Kong href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/leader-lost-but-activists-fight-on/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Fuelled by downward pressure on internet pricing, state-owned Telecom Cambodia had dramatically increased its fibre-optic link with Vietnam, officials and experts said. The new 10-gigabyte connection would further lower prices and boost the speed of Cambodian internet connections in a market where demand for bandwidth was driven by href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/bandwidth-boost-underway/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia has urged Laos to halt construction of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in the country’s north, a letter obtained by the Post yesterday reveals. “Preliminary construction on Xayaburi dam has continued despite the lack of regional agreement,” Minister of Water Resources and Cambodia National Mekong Committeechairman Lim href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/water-minister-urges-laos-to-halt-xayaburi/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Ford assembly plant in Preah Sihanouk province will supply Cambodia’s limited but growing car market, the American carmaker’s local representative RMA Cambodia announced yesterday. The US$3 million investment, wholly owned by RMA, has a capacity of up to 6,000 vehicles per year, and is expected href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ford-plant-opens-in-sihanoukville/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Cambodian military has concluded that one of its own police officers killed a prominent environmentalist then took his own life in an incident in a forest rife with illegal logging. Chut Wutty had been taking photographs on Wednesday in a forest where a Chinese company href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodian-officer-killed-environment-activist-then-took-own-life-army-says/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A London court on Friday convicted three British men of conspiracy to commit fraud following an investigation by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into a British biofuel firm that swindled investors in its Cambodian venture. Gary West, the former director of Sustainable Agro Energy (SAE); James href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/three-convicted-in-uk-over-cambodian-biofuel-scam/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings will team with Toshiba to manage power grids in Cambodia, hoping to secure a new earnings source as the utility grapples with soaring cleanup costs for the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/tepco-toshiba-to-manage-power-grids-in-cambodia/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

About 50 civil society groups and unions called for the release of human rights activist Koet Saray, president of Khmer Student Intelligent League Association (KSILA), who has been placed in pre-trial detention. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/resounding-call-to-release-human-rights-defender-koet-saray-charged-for-incitement-in-preah-vihear/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Fishery resources could fall this year because of a lack of flooding along rivers and waterways impeding fish from travelling freely or finding food to encourage their growth, a fishery official says. Sam Nov, deputy general director of Fishery Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/fish-output-likely-to-drop/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance yesterday urged companies intending to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) to buy insurance to bolster public confidence. Vice President Bo Chanpiro of the Financial Industry Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance said the finance sector relies not only href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/insurance-urged-for-csx-listings/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...