Government lauds NEC efforts, dismisses concerns about lack of EU participation
The National Election Committee (NEC) was hailed by the government on Tuesday for saying that there would be 45,000 observers for the July 29 national elections. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said that the large number of registered election observers would dispel criticism and ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/government-lauds-nec-efforts-dismisses-concerns-about-lack-eu-participation
What lies ahead for Cambodia after its next election?
Cambodia’s upcoming general election on 29 July looks set to be its most controversial since its first national election in 1993. In late 2017, the main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was dissolved and 118 of its senior members were banned from ...
Chheang Vannarith
http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/07/20/what-lies-ahead-for-cambodia-after-its-next-election/
Phnom Penh City Hall unveils disaster plan
City Hall yesterday released Phnom Penh’s first ever disaster response plan, which promises to better prepare the capital for emergencies, especially floods and fires. The 73-page Emergency Response Preparedness Plan (EPRP) will be distributed to officials down to the commune level and designates responsibilities for preparing ...
Ouk Suntharoth and Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/phnom-penh-city-hall-unveils-disaster-plan
Elections coalition has $170K shortfall
About $170,000 remains to be found for a coalition of watchdogs and civil society observers known as the “situation room” to successfully monitor all of Cambodia’s 2017 commune elections for irregularities. ...
Martin de Bourmont
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/elections-coalition-has-170k-shortfall
Voter rolls accurate: Comfrel
Two election monitoring groups have conducted an audit of National Election Committe-issued NEC voter lists in 252 communes and found them to be 98 percent accurate, potentially quelling, at least in part, past anxieties over the quality and veracity of these lists. ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/voter-rolls-accurate-comfrel
PM blames Cambodia’s logging problem on opposition
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blamed Cambodia’s rampant deforestation on local villagers who he claimed had been “incited” by the opposition to clear the forestland, though conservationists were quick to point out that those behind illegal logging are actually often powerful tycoons connected to the ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-blames-cambodias-logging-problem-opposition
PM gives recommendations at Asean veterans assembly
Prime Minister Hun Sen left recommendations for the Veterans Confederation of Asean Countries (Veconac) to help it attain new achievements in the interest of the general welfare of veterans in each member-nation. The recommendations were made on Tuesday at the 19th General Assembly of the ...
Niem Chheng
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-gives-recommendations-asean-veterans-assembly
Cambodia's Free Trade Union offers minimum wage plan
In the latest bid for an increase in garment-industry wages, Free Trade Union (FTU) president Chea Mony yesterday called on the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) to come to the table and discuss a $120-per-month minimum wage. A few days after Cambodian Confederation of Unions ...
Illicit Crocodile Farms Causing Price Collapse
An abundance of illegal crocodile smugglers operating without a license and exporting animals to Vietnam has led to the price of crocodiles dropping by more than half compared to the same period last year, breeders said yesterday. Loun Nam, president of the Crocodile Feeder Association, ...
R’kiri minorities say land’s sale improper
Fifty Tampuon ethnic minority families protested yesterday in front of the Soeung Commune Hall in Bakeo district against their commune chief, who they allege sold land that belonged to the Ratanakkiri community. In a complaint filed to rights group Adhoc yesterday, the families claim that commune ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031962012/National/r-kiri-minorities-say-land-s-sale-improper.html
Challenging business for startups
The World Bank recently ranked Cambodia 184th out of 189 countries for ease of starting a business, but you wouldn’t have known it at Phnom Penh’s recent Startup Weekend. Pitches for Cambodia’s first commercial organic chicken farm and for an app to connect tuk-tuk drivers to ...
Justine Drennan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/challenging-business-startups
US Government Clothes Producer Denies Abuses
A representative of the Zongtex Garment Manufacturing company in Phnom Penh on Tuesday denied employing workers as young as 15 to make U.S. government clothing, following an exposé by The New York Times on poor standards in factories producing U.S. government attire. On Sunday, The Times ...
Khy Sovuthy and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/us-government-clothes-producer-denies-abuses-49654/
Cambodia’s garments to ship piece by piece
Cambodia’s garment manufacturers might sell fabrics from unfinished clothing orders worth millions of dollars to factories offshore in a last-ditch attempt to meet looming buyer deadlines. The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) issued a letter to the Cambodian government yesterday requesting it to “facilitate” exports ...
Eddie Morton and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia%E2%80%99s-garments-ship-piece-piece
Telcos to form association
Cambodia’s nine phone service operators plan to establish an independent body to debate issues within the industry, according to a statement yesterday from the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia (TRC). Forming the Association of Telecommunications Operators in Cambodia, or the ATC for short, was agreed upon in ...
Eddie Morton and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/telcos-form-association
Made here, owned there
At the end of a well-paved road just past the city’s airport sits a cluster of factories. Each one is barely discernible from the next – grey concrete walls and blue aluminium roofs. But one factory in the lot, MAG (Cambodia), is different. In a country ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/made-here-owned-there
Minor fraud prompts hard prison sentence
A former civil servant was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison by Kampong Cham Provincial Court for stealing the pensions of 10 retired teachers – a total of $500 – in March 2012. Mang Yusreng, former chief of the Social Affairs Office in Srei ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minor-fraud-prompts-hard-prison-sentence
Brands ‘violating contract rights’
Exclusive use of short-term contracts continues to impede progress in Cambodia’s garment sector, with major brands still sourcing from factories violating the statutory two-year limit on temporary employment, labour rights groups have warned. According to a report released last week by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brands-%E2%80%98violating-contract-rights%E2%80%99
Garment workers end strikes in Cambodia's Bavet City
Nearly all workers in two special economic zones in Svay Rieng province ended their strikes and returned to work on Monday after failing to demand a US$50 bonus from employers, Xinhua news agency reports. Kat Lot, vice president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, ...
Bernama News Staff
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1035772
ID card grace period nearing end
The Ministry of Interior yesterday reminded Cambodians of their obligation to obtain new or replacement national ID cards, a common piece of documentation required for people over 15 years of age and the validity of which had previously been extended to accommodate last year’s national ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/id-card-grace-period-nearing-end
Rights group says US military support breaches Congress bill
U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday released a report claiming that Washington’s ongoing support for Cambodian security forces is inconsistent with U.S. Congress directives regarding aid to Cambodia. HRW charges that last month’s 10-day Angkor Sentinel military exercise, undertaken by members of the ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-group-says-us-military-support-breaches-congress-bill-59227/