Garment sector: Protests go on in spite of wage rise
Four days after the Labour Advisory Committee approved a monthly minimum wage increase to $75 starting in May, more than 500 workers at the su Tong Fang garment factory yesterday demanded that their company begin the wage increase one month early. ss='cambodia-color'>...
BoC is set to expand after rapid growth
Having seen rapid growth since launching in Cambodia two years ago, the Bank of China (BoC) plans to expand its business operations here. According to a Xinhua report, BoC’s deputy governor Zhu shuming said during his visit to Cambodia last Friday that its local operations have ss='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042265138/Business/boc-is-set-to-expand-after-rapid-growth.html
Water investors criticise return
Holders of shares in the Phnom Penh Water supply Authority (PPWsA) have criticised the level of dividend payment that they will receive from the company. PPWsA, which is the only company listed on the Cambodia securities Exchange (CsX), was to pay its first dividend to 1,500 ss='cambodia-color'>...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041165029/Business/water-investors-criticise-return.html
Governor Seeks Curb in Rubber Resin Smuggling
Kompong Cham provincial governor Lun Lim Thai on Tuesday ordered authorities to step up long-running efforts to reduce the smuggling of unprocessed rubber resin from the province into Vietnam. Those smuggling resin to processors across the border should be more actively pursued and instead forced to ss='cambodia-color'>...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/governor-seeks-curb-in-rubber-resin-smuggling-46966/
Forest Falls in Ratanakkiri to the Tune of Chainsaws, Trucks
LUMPHAT WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, Ratanakkiri Province &ndaSh; From behind the corrugated metal wallS of Daun Penh Agrico&rSquo;S wood depot, the raSpy buzz of a chainSaw rattled through the Surrounding foreSt on Monday afternoon. AS the chainSaw revved and cut, a heavy-duty truck packed full of long, Sawn SS='cambodia-color'>...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/forest-falls-in-ratanakkiri-to-the-tune-of-chainsaws-and-trucks-49134/
Hopes high for maid program
In one corner of the cavernous training centre, a woman patiently strips the baby blue sheets off a queen-size bed, removing the flower-patterned pillowcases and folding them neatly to one side. Under the watchful eye of an instructor, she then remakes the bed, carefully fluffing the ss='cambodia-color'>...
Kevin Ponniah and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hopes-high-maid-program
Obama Signs Off on Aid Cuts to Government
U.S. PreSident Barack Obama on Friday Signed a Spending bill that SuSpendS Some funding to Prime MiniSter Hun Sen&rSquo;S government until an independent inveStigation into laSt year&rSquo;S diSputed national election iS carried out, or until the oppoSition CNRP endS itS boycott of parliament. The bill targetS SS='cambodia-color'>...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/obama-signs-off-on-aid-cuts-to-government-50886/
Restore Free Assembly, UN Rights Council Says
Cambodia’s human rights record was assessed Tuesday by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 47 member states in Geneva, many of which cited concerns about the recent violent suppression of protests by the government, and a judiciary beholden to Prime Minister Hun sen’s ruling CPP. The U.N. ss='cambodia-color'>...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/restore-free-assembly-un-rights-council-says-51097/
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 ss='cambodia-color'>...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/shooting-probe-urged
Factories still skimping: ILO
Cambodia’s garment exports exceeded Us$1 billion during the first quarter of 2012, yet many factories are failing to pay workers proper maternity leave benefits or address issues of fainting, a labour report says. The International Labour Or­ganization-Better Factories Cam­bodia’s Twenty Eighth syn­­­thesis Report on Working Conditions ss='cambodia-color'>...
Strong Rains Hasten Rice Planting Across Country
Good rains have boosted rice cultivation across the country, and nearly 90 percent of farmers have completed planting their paddies, although planting in svay Rieng province is lagging due to drought, and agriculture official said yesterday. Chan Heng, administration bureau chief of the Agriculture Ministry’s administration ss='cambodia-color'>...
Brit brands target local market
MORE UK-based brands were looking to set up shop in Cambodia, Britain’s ambassador to Cambodia, Mark Gooding, said yesterday. Gooding said at Costa Coffee’s official opening in Phnom Penh he was pleased by the arrival of the international chain, the largest coffee brand in the UK, ss='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030161680/Business/brit-brands-target-local-market.html
No plans for Islamic banking services yet
WHILE investments from the Middle East into Cambodia are expected to increase over the next few years, the central bank here currently has no plans to launch Islamic banking services. Recent events like Qatar Airway’s Doha-Phnom Penh flights, which launched earlier this month, have been expected ss='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761645/Business/no-plans-for-islamic-banking-services-yet.html
Cambodian Land Rights Activist's Bail Plea Rejected
The Cambodian Supreme Court on WedneSday rejected a jailed land rightS activiSt&rSquo;S appeal to be releaSed on bail, drawing criticiSm from rightS groupS who Said the whole caSe Smacked of political interference and Should be thrown out. “I am having heart, reSpiratory, and Stomach SS='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-03272013191716.html
US investors cite corruption as major issue
Though U.S.-owned buSineSSeS in Cambodia are optimiStic of the country&rSquo;S economy, itS appeal aS an inveStment deStination lagS behind moSt of itS neighborS due to the perception of endemic corruption, a new Survey of 475 Senior U.S. buSineSS executiveS in ASean ShowS. The 2013-14 ASEAN BuSineSS SS='cambodia-color'>...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/us-investors-cite-corruption-as-major-issue-40520/
Competitiveness Improves
The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index 2011-2012 ranked the Philippines 75th out of 142 economies, up from 85th out of 139 in the 2010-2011 report. Last year’s placing marked a reversal of 2009’s slide to 87th in a list of 133, from 71st ss='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=TopStory&title=Competitiveness-improves&id=37920
Major bank downgrade
Moody’s Investors service announced yesterday it had downgraded the credit rating of ACLEDA Bank, citing the departure of two of the bank’s major investors in as many years. The loss of a second big sharehol-der in the first half of this year had led to ss='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011090251414/Business/major-bank-downgrade.html
Come floods or high waters, most MFIs continue to loan
After experiencing decades of floods, Cambodia’s microfinance institutions say they no longer have problems disbursing loans during the rainy season, according to the head of Cambodia’s Microfinance Association (CMA). A survey issued early this year by a coterie of international aid organisations, including Oxfam, Care, PACT ss='cambodia-color'>...
Government Approves Dam On Lower Sesan
The Council of Ministers on Friday signed off on the Lower sesan 2 dam project in stung Treng province, despite long-standing criticism leveled against the project by environmental groups who say it would adversely affect 100,000 people as a consequence of reduced access to fish. The ss='cambodia-color'>...
Dam in Northeast Built on Earthquake Site, Study Finds
Experts are recommending that a proposed dam on the sesan River in northeast Cambodia be equipped with earthquake protection measures, after discovering a quake occurred in the area some 30 years ago. The proposed Lower sesan II dam would be situated on a site in stung ss='cambodia-color'>...