ADB Institute: too much focus on 2015
Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asia Development Bank Institute, believes too great a focus is being placed on the realization of the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community at the cost of considering middle- and longer-term issues in the ASEAN region. “Economic community-building is not going to be completed in ...
Virtual Sam Rainsy Slapped With Actual Fine
The Provincial Election Committee (PEC) on Monday fined opposition leader Sam Rainsy $2,500 for verbally attacking Prime Minister Hun Sen from afar during a video-link speech beamed to supporters in Phnom Penh, officials said yesterday. Mr. Rainsy, who currently lives in self-imposed exile in Paris, was ...
Confined To A Thai Fishing Boat, For Three Years
Cambodian Vannak Prum’s destiny changed in a dirt-road town called Malai. It’s a Cambodian outpost on the border with Thailand that is known for its involvement in the trafficking of human beings. Prum arrived in Malai seven years ago searching for work. His wife was pregnant, ...
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/155045295/confined-to-a-thai-fishing-boat-for-three-years
Local Police Try to Shut Down Land Meeting
Local police in Ratanakkiri province’s Veun Sai district yesterday tried to shut down a community meeting in which villagers were being educated about land rights, because it was being held without permission, rights workers said. According to Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, two ...
Micro-lender Plans to Become Commercial Bank
Amret, one of the largest micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in the country, has announced that it is making plans to raise the capital required to become a full commercial bank by 2015, an official at the institution said yesterday. Chea Phalarin, CEO of Amret, said the decision to expand ...
Cambodia plans to ask finance from China to build 300 to 500 km rural roads annually
Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen said this week that he will talk with Chinese leaders especially his Chinese counterpart PM Wen Jiaboa about finance to build 300-500 km rural roads in the country in contribution of helping poverty reduction and living conditions of the local ...
Ethnic Bunong Groups Granted New Land Titles
The government has completed the communal land-titling process for three ethnic Bunong communities in Mondolkiri province living on 1,000 hectares of land in Keo Seima district, villagers and a rights group said yesterday. The three new titles-which will bring to six the total number of communal titles granted ...
China's ICBC offers RMB transfers
A new banking settlements system called CHANCES, dealing exclusively in the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), aims to make trade between China and the ASEAN countries easier and less expensive. Owned and operated by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the CHANCES system stands for ...
Hun Sen vows to intervene as dollar plunges to 3,888 riel
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that the government would intervene to stem the riel’s sharp rise against the US dollar in recent days. “The Cambodian riel has been rising for several days,” he told a land-distribution ceremony in Oral district in Kampong Speu province, ...
Logging Reporter Arrested
Cambodian authorities arrest a journalist who exposed the illegal smuggling of timber. Taing Try, a reporter affiliated with the Khmer Democratic Journalists’ Association, was taken into custody on Friday, police in Kratie’s Snoul district told RFA on Sunday. But Ing Savoeun, a representative from the ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/reporter-12102012174729.html
Timbergreen principal denies illegal logging
The majority shareholder of Timbergreen, a firm that has been the centre of illegal logging allegations, has denied the company is in any way involved in the illicit trade of timber. The company has gained significant attention since prominent environmental activist Chut Wutty, who had made ...
Cambodia's consumer prices decline
Consumer prices decreased month-on-month in May for the first time since statistics were available, Cambodia’s National Institute of Statistics (NIS) data showed. The 1.1 per cent drop, driven largely by lower food and gasoline prices, would be a relief to businesses and shoppers after a period ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062556991/Business/consumer-prices-decline.html
Villagers Restart Prey Long Forest Patrol for Illicit Activity
About 100 villagers in Kompong Thom province set out yesterday on a three-day patrol of Prey Long forest in search of illegal logging, their second since the April 26 shooting death of conservationist Chut Wutty. who was the organizer of the first patrols. Soem Sean, a ...
Piaggio's Vespa Scoots Back Into Phnom Penh
Vespa, the iconic Italian scooter, is now officially available for purchase in Cambodia-again. Italy-based automobile company Piaggio, in cooperation with the local Narita Group, opened the doors yesterday to the country’s first licensed Vespa dealership. The new Vespas range in price from $2,950 for the ...
Four People Injured After Two Buses Collide
Three Vietnamese nationals and one Cambodian were hospitalized Saturday after two commercial buses driving between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City collided in Svay Rieng province, police said yesterday. Ouch Sarun, provincial traffic police chief, said that the two buses [belonging to Van Rec. Co. Ltd., and ...
FedEx opens new air freight hub
FedEx has officially opened its new South Pacific Regional Hub in Singapore, the largest consolidated facility in the Asia-Pacific region. The $97 million hub is the first and only express transportation facility in Singapore. The 282,700-square-foot integrated facility houses air, ground and clearance operations under one roof ...
http://www.supplychainreview.com.au/news/articleid/81499.aspx
Cambodia's Trade Deficit Grows to Almost $2 Billion
Cambodia’s trade deficit reached $1.99 billion through the first nine months of the year, an increase of 33 percent compared to the same period in 2011, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on Saturday. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that the total value ...
Dolphins drive tourism
Kratie, a province in northeast Cambodia has seen an improvement in tourist arrivals and length of stay since the Mekong Discovery Trail project was established in 2007. The Mekong Discovery Trail is a co-operative effort with the Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism and has the support of ...
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2012/10/dolphins-drive-tourism/
Cambodian documentary makes Sundance Film Festival
Until the arrival of large-scale development around her home in the northeastern province of Ratanakkiri, Sav Samourn, a member of the ethnic Jarai minority, was frightened of wild animals and ghosts. But as trees disappeared and industrial machinery razed the forestland, the old fears fell away. ...
Trade with Vietnam grows
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and neighbouring Vietnam increased by more than 10 per cent last year on the previous year, according to data from the Vietnam Trade Office in Cambodia. The data showed that total trade volume was $3.3 billion between January and the end of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761641/Business/trade-with-vietnam-grows.html