A refined approach?
Hundreds of trucks hauling sugarcane queue up along the dusty roads that cut a path through a plantation in Kampong Speu province. Their destination: Cambodia’s most advanced sugar refinery. Its owners say the landmark project, run by the Phnom Penh Sugar Company and its president, ruling lass='cambodia-color'>...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/refined-approach
ADB Admits Fault in Rail Project, Pledges Compensation
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has for the first time admitted to major flaws in its efforts to protect the roughly 4,000 families losing land to a $143 million project it is funding to rehabilitate Cambodia’s dilapidated railway system. On Friday, the ADB said it would lass='cambodia-color'>...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-admits-fault-in-rail-project-pledges-compensation-51210/
Government urges land concession firms to respect law
Environment Minister Say Sam Al met with private firms with land concessions last week to gauge their compliance with government rules and regulations, and adherence to their own contracts. Amid mounting local and international pressure, Prime Minister Hun Sen in mid-2012 ordered a freeze on lass='cambodia-color'>...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-urges-land-concession-firms-to-respect-law-57474/
Villagers in Svay Rieng angry over planned canal
More than 200 villagers from three communes in Svay Rieng province on Saturday protested against a proposal to build a huge irrigation canal through their land, a local official said Sunday. The planned canal would stretch across Kraol Kor, Svay Yea and Chhoeuteal communes in Svay lass='cambodia-color'>...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-in-svay-rieng-angry-over-planned-canal-58480/
Oz an example for mining reform
Inspired by Australian mining regulations, the Cambodian government is considering a raft of changes to the mineral resources mining law, including a rethink of the sector’s comparatively high tax rate. Citing discussions held with Western Australia state mining industry representatives last week, Meng Saktheara, secretary of lass='cambodia-color'>...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/oz-example-mining-reform
Corporate: China powers its way through Cambodia
In the hilly wilderness across southwestern Cambodia, the foundations of the country’s strengthening bonds with China are taking root. It is there that large dams supported by Chinese money are being built to literally bring the impoverished Southeast Asian nation out of darkness. The largest of lass='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.hydroworld.com/news/2013/02/18/corporate-china-powers-its-way-through-cambodia.html
World Bank’s Boeng Kak Failure Cited in UN Report
The U.N.’s expert on housing rights has cited the World Bank’s failure to help thousands of families evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood as a prime example of why the bank needs to make human rights a focus of its land sector programs worldwide. At lass='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-banks-boeng-kak-failure-cited-in-un-report-14120/
Dam firm violated law
The parent company behind a firm constructing the Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng has repeatedLy vioLated Chinese Law by buiLding &Ldquo;massive” power projects without prior approvaL, China’s nationaL auditor has found. State-owned China Huaneng Group, of which Lower Sesan 2 partner HydroLancang InternationaL Energy Lass='cambodia-coLor'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060566083/National/dam-firm-violated-law.html
Investment and Trade Fair Opens In Koh Kong
The first three-day Koh Kong Investment and Trade Fair 2013 kicked off on Saturday, promoting trade and investment in the southern provinces of Cambodia with neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. “The [fair] is aimed at promoting trade and development in Koh Kong province and other border lass='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051365565/Business/investment-and-trade-fair-opens-in-koh-kong.html
Govt and UN to save coasts
The Fisheries Administration and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Friday officially launched a program to protect Cambodia’s coastline from over-fishing, erosion and other damage to coastal environments and livelihoods. Since the beginning of the year, the program has been training local officials lass='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062466440/National/govt-and-un-to-save-coasts.html
Tax revenues rise, but aren’t reflective of overall GDP growth
While the country’s tax revenue grew about 20 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2012, experts say the amount still isn’t high enough to accurately reflect the country’s GDP growth. Stephen Higgins, former CEO of ANZ lass='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tax-revenues-rise-aren%E2%80%99t-reflective-overall-gdp-growth
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 lass='cambodia-color'>...
Justine Drennan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/challenging-business-startups
Railway leaves area in limbo
In 2009, a railway project official arrived at 45-year-old Ry Preng’s home in Por Sen Chey district and spray-painted “1.042” in red on the side of his house. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but was told that at some point he would need to lass='cambodia-color'>...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/railway-leaves-area-limbo
Dredging ends, effects linger
Ruling party Senator ly Yong Phat has kept a promise to stop his company’s dredging operations on Koh Kong province’s Tatai river, relieved business owners and residents living along the waterway said yesterday. But provincial officials confirmed that as the senator’s dredging boats moved on to lass='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011102052249/National-news/dredging-ends-effects-linger.html
Boeng Kak Families Protest for More Land Titles
About 100 residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak area protested in front of City Hall yesterday to demand that 58 more families be given titles to homes from which they are being evicted. In August, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered that a 12.44-hectare section of the lass='cambodia-color'>...
Villagers Told Eviction Is for Obama's Safety
More than 180 families living adjacent to the Phnom Penh International Airport were told yesterday that they must vacate their homes to make was for a security road to ensure the safety of U.S. President Barack Obama, who is expected to visit in November. Var Sarang, deputy lass='cambodia-color'>...
Rat meat on the menu at the Vietnamese border
Eating rat is a common phenomenon over the border in Vietnam, but increasing numbers of Cambodians in nearby villages are adopting rodent cuisine with relish. As many as three tonnes of rats are caught every day in Cambodia and exported to Vietnam to feed a lass='cambodia-color'>...
Pol Pot-Era Airbase Earmarked as Future Tourist Gateway
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that in order to manage future tourist numbers, the government will construct a new international airport on the site of the Kampong Chhnang airbase, which was built by slave labor during the Khmer Rouge regime. Mr. Hun Sen said that lass='cambodia-color'>...
Volunteers Move In to Measure Kratie Site
Two months after government security forces evicted hundreds of families from Kratie’s Broma village at gunpoint, residents who were permitted to remain there took their first steps toward legal land tenure. Scores of volunteers last week began to collect data of families in Chhlong and Snuol lass='cambodia-color'>...
Families Claim Officials Extort Fees at Checkpoints
More than 30 families living in Pursat province’s Dangkeab village have filed complaints with their village chief against environmental officials, whom they claim extorted money from them to pass illegal checkpoints as they transported firewood from a nearby forest to the village, authorities said yesterday. “Since lass='cambodia-color'>...