High interest rates on loans remain a big hurdle for Cambodian farmers
Sitting in front of her small house in the Chey Thorn commune of Kandal province, 35-year-old Sokhun’s face is etched with worry. She would like to plant crops on her four hectares of land, but she only has enough money to cultivate two of them. She could go to a microfinance finance institution ...
REDD Forests Endangered by Loggers, Soldiers
Banteay Ampil district, Oddar Meanchey province – The families of Beng commune have new neighbors: a battalion of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers building a military base inside one of 13 pockets across the province aiming to be the first forest-based carbon trading scheme ...
Family Accepts $9000 over Collapse Death
The family of a worker who was killed when a ceiling collapsed at Kompong Spue province footwear factory lasts week has accepted 9,000 in compensation, and in return has agreed not file a complaint against the company, the deceased’s wife said yesterday. Rim Sarouen, 22, ...
Cash for Siem Reap Market Repair to Come From National Budget
A $300,000 sum to repair Siem Reap City’s fire-ravaged Doeum Kralanh market, originally billed on Monday as a donation from Prime Minister Hun Sen, will actually be taken from the national budget, according to a senior ruling-party official. Less than three weeks before the July 28 ...
Drop-off in beverage imports questioned
Despite the fact that beverage consumption in Cambodia is on the rise, government statistics show that imports of alcohol and non-alcoholic products in the first half of 2013 have declined by 51 per cent year-on-year. The seemingly conflicting figures left some scratching their heads. Meng Saktheara, ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/drop-beverage-imports-questioned
Update says rubber company up to old tricks
Vietnamese rubber firm Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) has failed to keep its commitments to address human rights and environmental abuses at its plantations in Cambodia, Global Witness said in a statement yesterday. In May, the London-based NGO published an investigation into two Vietnamese rubber companies ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/update-says-rubber-company-old-tricks
Labor Ministry Says Brands Hold Key to Wages
The minimum wage for garment factory workers can only be raised if international clothing brands sourcing from Cambodia pay more for their products, a Ministry of Labor official said Tuesday. Khieu Savuth, chief of the Ministry of Labor’s labor conflict commission, laid down the challenge a ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/labor-ministry-says-brands-hold-key-to-wages-47966/
Opposition Voters in Preah Vihear Claim Threat of Eviction
Locals and rights groups on Wednesday said dozens of farmers in a village in Preah Vihear province have been singled out for eviction after supporting the opposition CNRP in last month’s vote, a claim their village chief denied. Residents of Choam Ksan district’s Kom Prak village ...
Petitions piling up for King
Pressure on King Norodom Sihamoni to delay today’s planned opening of the National Assembly ratcheted up a few notches over the weekend as the Royal Palace received two rounds of petitions allegedly representing close to 500,000 citizens requesting more time for party negotiations. The Cambodia National ...
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/petitions-piling-king
Another Court Clerk Arrested for Corruption
A clerk at the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of corruption and bribe-taking, police and Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) officials said, but rights groups said clerks alone are not in a position to determine the course of court cases and that more ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-court-clerk-arrested-for-corruption-44366/
Policing the Police: New Unit Assigned to Traffic Cops
Phnom Penh’s traffic police officers, whose reputation for bribe taking is renowned, will soon be monitored by a new mobile police unit to ensure they uphold the law, the Ministry of Interior said. The Special Team Monitoring Traffic Law Enforcement will ensure that traffic police are ...
Khuon Narim and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/policing-the-police-new-unit-assigned-to-traffic-cops-51859/
Unions plan 2nd round of mass strikes
After the Court of Appeal denied bail to 21 jailed protesters on Tuesday, 16 labor unions and associations announced Wednesday that they will retaliate by calling a nationwide labor strike in the middle of March. The unions, which mainly represent workers in the garment industry, said ...
Mech Dara and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-plan-2nd-round-of-mass-strikes-52078/
Government-formed land dispute committee suspected of bias
The Kompong Chhnang provincial government has set up a new committee to help settle a long-running land dispute between local farmers and a company owned by the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem, but a representative of the villagers has not been invited ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-formed-land-dispute-committee-suspected-of-bias-53851/
Long-awaited draft law limits King’s powers over judiciary
The long-awaited draft law on the Supreme Council of Magistracy continues the practice of secret votes and gives Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana key powers, according to excerpts from the document, but it would reduce the position of King Norodom Sihamoni if passed in its ...
Hul Reaksmey and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/long-awaited-draft-law-limits-kings-powers-over-judiciary-54419/
In debt, out of work
They save for months, borrowing from family and friends, even taking out loans, to pour as much as a year’s worth of earnings into the hands of recruiters that may have no intention and certainly have no guarantee of procuring overseas employment. Recruitment agencies, several of ...
Laignee Barron and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/debt-out-work
Child labor probe on Preah Vihear sugar plantation moves forward
Police in Preah Vihear province say they have uncovered more evidence of child labor on a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation and will send the case to court if further investigation confirms their preliminary findings. A former employee of the Lan Feng plantation filed a complaint last month ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/child-labor-probe-on-preah-vihear-sugar-plantation-moves-forward-55643/
Garment union president in court over incitement allegations
Ath Thorn, the president of the union that led strikes at the SL Garment Factory last year, appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday for questioning over allegations of incitement. The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), headed by Mr. Thorn, spearheaded ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-union-president-in-court-over-incitement-allegations-56136/
Shooting probe urged
UN rights envoy Surya Subedi wrapped up his six-day fact-finding mission to Cambodia yesterday by calling for a thorough investigation into security forces’ role in the deadly crackdown on garment workers early this month. He also offered to act as a mediator between the ruling Cambodian ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/shooting-probe-urged
Factories mostly skip minimum wage meeting
Government officials and union representatives met behind closed doors Thursday to start hashing out a better way to set the minimum wage for the country’s all-important but troubled garment sector at a workshop brokered by the International Labor Organization (ILO). But what was supposed to be ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factories-mostly-skip-minimum-wage-meeting-57337/
GMAC: Announcement on arrival of raw materials for the garment industry and special facilitation measures of the Royal Government of Cambodia
On 11 March 2020, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has announced to the public on arrival of raw materials for the garment industry from China. The announcement said, with intervention from the head of the Royal Government to the Chinese side, raw materials ...
Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia