Cambodian ruling party faces test over next 5 years
Cambodian political analysts said Prime Minister Hun Sen needs to make “serious and deep reforms” over the next five years to restore his popularity after his party survived with a slim majority in July’s disputed general election. Sok Touch, deputy director of the Royal Academy ...
Global Times
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/829846.shtml#.Up_bWNIW2ls
Investors Play Down Impact of Labor Strikes
Economists and analysts on Thursday shrugged off the opposition CNRP’s threat to stage nationwide labor strikes, arguing that while such a move could lower profits for companies in the short term, it would not significantly deter foreign investors. Mr. Rainsy, who mentioned the possibility of strikes ...
Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/investors-play-down-impact-of-labor-strikes-43694/
Cambodia Garment Wages Set to Rise as H&M Pushes New Approach
Swedish clothing giant H&M recently announced a program to boost wages for garment workers in its sub-contractor factories around the world, including in Cambodia, where the company is a leading buyer. H&M’s announcement comes at the end of a turbulent year in the garment sector ...
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodian-garment-wages-set-rise-hm-pushes-new-approach/1803179.html
After Arrests, NGOs Continue Petitioning to ‘Free the 23′
Following the arrest of 11 activists on Tuesday as they attempted to deliver a petition to the U.S. and French embassies seeking the release of 23 jailed protesters, NGO representatives quietly delivered similar petitions to the Japanese Embassy and European Union headquarters Wednesday. The petitioners, representing ...
Aun Pheap and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-arrests-ngos-continue-petitioning-to-free-the-23-50966/
Life as Living Nightmare Along National Route 6a
Two years after Prime Minister Hun Sen broke ground on a Chinese-funded project to widen National Road 6a in order to expand its capacity as a major trade and tourism thoroughfare, life for the tens of thousands of families living along the 50-km stretch of ...
Hul Reaksmey and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/life-as-living-nightmare-along-national-route-6a-51156/
Reforestry Claim ‘A Stretch’
The government reforested 80,693 hectares of land between 2008 and 2012 as part of its efforts to combat deforestation, a recent agriculture ministry report says, but these seemingly impressive statistics were reached by counting rubber trees and other agricultural crops as adequate replacements for forests. The ...
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/reforestry-claim-%E2%80%98-stretch%E2%80%99
Lead-up to poll saw SLCs spike
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 ban on the allocation of economic land concessions was supposed to halt the unpopular practice of turning over large swaths of property to developers. And going by the numbers last year, it worked. But in the vacuum, according to local rights ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lead-poll-saw-slcs-spike
Maids set to work abroad, but safety fears linger
After a three-year moratorium on sending maids overseas—sparked by a spate of serious abuses by recruiters and employers—momentum is building to once again send hundreds of thousands of Cambodian women to work overseas as domestic servants. Since Prime Minister Hun Sen shut down the industry in ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/maids-set-to-work-abroad-but-safety-fears-linger-58853/
Gov’t criticizes media coverage of strike violence
The high-ranking government officials and global clothing brand representatives who took part in a meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday both raised concerns about the media coverage of last month’s lethal repression of a nationwide strike by garment workers and its aftermath. The meeting was called ...
Alex Willemyns And Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-criticizes-media-coverage-of-strike-violence-52979/
Cambodian delegation joins Southeast Asia Policy Dialogue on ECCC in Indonesia
FacebookTwitterEmailShareCambodian delegation led by Dr Om Romny, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS), attended the Southeast Asia Policy Dialogue on Early Childhood Care and Education (SEAPD on ECCE) held in Jakarta, Indonesia on July 25-26 under the theme “Transforming ...
Khmer Times Staff
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/1332881/cambodian-delegation-joins-southeast-asia-policy-dialogue-on-eccc-in-indonesia/
Hunters and Hunted
Unable to effectively police the Cardamoms alone, the Cambodian government partners itself with several international NGOs. The forests directly north of Highway 48 arc patrolled with the help of Wildlife Alliance. Beginning in 2002 with two ranger stations, Wildlife Alliance now operates six outposts in the ...
Kratie Village Sealed After Girl’s Killing
Kratie city – Soldiers and military police yesterday blocked all access to a village where a 14-year-old girl was shot dead by security forces on Wednesday while the authorities launched a massive operation to evict hundreds of families from the area under a cloak of ...
Last days of a valley damned
Yong Yim’s voice rises to a high-pitched quiver when she talks about a planned dam in the Areng Valley that would inundate land her family has inhabited for hundreds of years to form what amounts to a giant battery. Now they are staring at ...
May Titthara, David Boyle and Danson Cheong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861238/National/last-days-of-a-valley-damned.html
Sihanoukville Runs Dry During Water Crisis
A water shortage in the tourist town of Sihanoukville has led authorities to advise scores of businesses to dig their own wells as only 50 percent of local demand is currently being met after high temperatures dried up the water supplier’s only reservoir. On March ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sihanoukville-runs-dry-during-water-crisis-16609/
Ex-Environment Minister Says Deforestation Exaggerated
Former Environment Minister Mok Mareth on Tuesday accused the media of having “twisted the truth” in reporting on illegal logging in Ratanakkiri province, where rights groups and independent forestry monitors say the natural environment is being pillaged and ethnic minority communities impoverished by illegal loggers ...
Ben Woods and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ex-environment-minister-says-deforestation-exaggerated-47930/
Herbalife Promises Cambodians Health, Wealth
The offices of Herbalife, a so-called multilevel marketing company that has moved into the protein powder market in Cambodia, stand like a beacon of promise in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district: Six stories of glass and white paneling, crisp lime-green signage and a four-story-high banner ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/herbalife-promises-cambodians-health-wealth-48828/
CAMBA Business Expo Looks to Invigorate Cambodian Businesses Both Home and Abroad
The fourth annual Business and Culture Expo hosted by the Cambodian American Business Association, an event designed to bring together business owners, entrepreneurs and Cambodian community members, will be held Sunday August 25 in the parking lot of the Mark Twain Library. However, the event that ...
Mekong basin countries target double-digit tourism growth
Five Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam, are targeting a double-digit growth rate of international visitors annually by 2015 under the theme “Five Countries – One Destination”, according to Hoang Tuan Anh, Viet Nam’s Minister of Culture, Sport and Tourism. In a ...
VietNamNet Bridge Staff
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/travel/84268/mekong-basin-countries-target-double-digit-tourism-growth.html
Cambodia's Hun Sen, Sam Rainsy 'Narrow Differences' in Election Stalemate
Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties are “narrowing their differences” in talks aimed at ending a standoff over recent elections, officials said Tuesday, as protesters ended three straight days of mass demonstrations against poll results. Both the leaders led their parties in the discussions, which were ...
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/talks-09172013181436.html
Cambodian Unions Call for Doubling of Minimum Wage for Factory Workers
Four trade unions on Tuesday demanded that Cambodia’s garment and footwear manufacturers raise the minimum wage of their workers and provide them with additional benefits, threatening a nationwide strike and demonstrations if they do not comply. In a joint letter to the Van Sou Ieng, president ...
Radio free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-11262013151923.html