Despite deal, Mekong's future still a concern
The agreement by Mekong River Commission Countries to conduct more studies before they decide on Laos’ proposal for the first Lower Mekong dam received further support on Friday, with an influential US senator and an environmental group welcoming it as an important step in preventing ...
Sand Settles on Boeng Kak Project as Site’s Future Uncertain
In Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district there is a 133-hectare mound of sand that was once a lake. It took nearly four years to fill Boeng Kak with that sand. On the southern perimeter of the massive sand pit sit two large billboards. On those billboards there ...
Lies, threats at dam site
Stung Treng province Commune chief Seak Mekong changes into uniform in his family’s small wooden home in Sesan district’s Srekor I village before leading reporters to a speedboat on the Sesan River and motioning them to climb aboard. Mekong, a 42-year-old Sam Rainsy Party official, says ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040864946/National/lies-threats-at-dam-site.html
Rainsy Says Those Behind Boeng Kak Deserve Jail
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Monday vowed to return Phnom Penh’s beleaguered Boeng Kak neighborhood to its residents and to have those who filled the lake with sand thrown in jail, should the opposition CNRP ultimately prevail in contesting the unofficial results of last month’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/rainsy-says-those-behind-boeng-kak-deserve-jail-38399/
Government to Consider New Minimum Wage
The Ministry of Social Affairs on Friday established four sub-committees tasked with finding a new minimum wage for the country’s 300,000-plus garment factory workers, Minister Ith Sam Heng said on Friday. “The sub-committees have a limited time of five weeks for research before they have to ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-to-consider-new-minimum-wage-42317/
Increase in Customs Taxes Raises Retail Prices in Cambodia
Customs officers along Cambodia’s border have been instructed to increase their efforts to properly inspect and tax products coming into the country, which has increased the cost of imports and led to a rise in retail prices for a host of goods, government officials, businessmen ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/increase-in-customs-taxes-raises-retail-prices-in-cambodia-48461/
Cambodian dam feeding false hopes
RATANAKIRI PROVINCE, Cambodia – “I prefer the dam to the fish,” says middle-aged farmer Ton Noun, when asked his opinion on a proposed 400 megawatt dam on the Sesan river near his home in northeastern Cambodia. Then he chuckles and asks, “What fish?” That’s because ...
Michelle Tolson
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-02-181213.html
Picking up the pieces
The sight of traffic moving easily and people milling about along Veng Sreng Boulevard in the capital’s Meanchey district yesterday was a far cry from two days earlier, when the street was occupied by makeshift roadblocks, bonfires and military personnel carrying automatic rifles. While visible evidence ...
May Titthara, Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/picking-pieces
Opposition Voters in Preah Vihear Claim Threat of Eviction
Locals and rights groups on Wednesday said dozens of farmers in a village in Preah Vihear province have been singled out for eviction after supporting the opposition CNRP in last month’s vote, a claim their village chief denied. Residents of Choam Ksan district’s Kom Prak village ...
Another Haul of Illegal Logs Found on Vietnamese Firm’s Land
Forestry Administration officials on Friday confiscated 1,000 pieces of luxury wood on land belonging to a Vietnamese rubber company that has been repeatedly accused of illegal logging in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, local officials and human rights workers said Sunday. Romash Svat, a representative of some ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-haul-of-illegal-logs-found-on-vietnamese-firms-land-45514/
Apartment demand falters in Q3
The apartment rental market was flat in the third quarter after strong growth earlier in the year, with oversupply and political tensions among the causes blamed by realty experts. Chrek Soknim, deputy director of VTrust Property Co, Ltd, said that growth has stagnated after the January-March ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/apartment-demand-falters-q3
Banteay Meanchey Dam at Risk of Breaking, Inundating Villages
Hundreds of police and soldiers have been working around the clock since Wednesday to prevent a major dam built during the Khmer Rouge period in Banteay Meanchey province from breaking and flooding as many as eight surrounding villages, officials said Thursday. Heavy rains, compounded by floodwaters ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/banteay-meanchey-dam-at-risk-of-breaking-inundating-villages-44409/
Hun Sen’s Student Volunteers to Resume Land-Titling Program
The government is set to start re-deploying student volunteers to measure and demarcate plots of land across the country as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme, which was briefly suspended ahead of July’s national election. The program was announced by the prime minister in ...
Kuch Naren and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-student-volunteers-to-resume-land-titling-program-47528/
Feature: Slum dwellers in Cambodian capital want to benefit from development
Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital and largest city, has seen rapid development in the last decade — numerous high-rises, large shopping malls and business centres as well as public parks are beautifying this city — in the meantime, slum-dwellers are also on the rise. According to the ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-08/18/c_132641165.htm
Thousands Affected by Flooding, More Predicted in Coming Days
Thousands of families continue to be affected by relentless flooding caused by heavy rains and the opening of dams in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam, causing a surge in the Mekong River in Cambodia that has inundated communities along its banks. The floods have claimed at least ...
Ben Sokhean and Lindsey Peterson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thousands-affected-by-flooding-more-predicted-in-coming-days-43416/
Villagers Get Land Title After Torching Excavator
A land dispute between a development company and residents in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district boiled over late Friday night, with villagers setting fire to an excavator that they say company staff were using to raze a crematorium on the disputed plot of land. Villagers say ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-get-land-title-after-torching-excavator-47790/
Pro-Government Unions Call for Action Against Leaders of Strikes
Unions aligned with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government issued a statement Wednesday calling on it to “take action” against union leaders who they accuse of inciting workers to hold strikes and violent demonstrations. “We would like to request [CPP Labor Minister] Ith Sam Heng to take ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pro-government-unions-call-for-action-against-leaders-of-strikes-50970/
Labor Ministry, ILO set out plan for minimum wage reforms
Facing public pressure from major garment brands and labor unions, the Ministry of Labor and the International Labor Organization (ILO) will cooperate in the coming months to reform the current system of setting the minimum wage in the garment sector. The reform process will begin with ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-ministry-ilo-set-out-plan-for-minimum-wage-reforms-55869/
Government says 3.4 million land titles issued
The government has issued a total of 3.4 million land titles across the country, 500,000 of them since a renewed push personally orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to new figures released by the Land Management Ministry. In a notice posted to its website Friday, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-3-4-million-land-titles-issued-58477/
Villagers Sued for Property Damage by Company
Four villagers locked in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm in Banteay Meanchey province said Tuesday that they had been summonsed to the provincial court over a property damage lawsuit filed by the company. The suit was originally filed last year, but villagers said they ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-sued-for-property-damage-by-company-51458/