ILO Initiative Could Unravel Cambodia’s Garment Industry: Manufacturers
A move by the International Labour Organization to name and shame garment producers in Cambodia that flout workers’ rights and safety standards could damage the industry’s reputation and result in a drastic reduction in orders from buyers abroad, according to a senior manufacturing official. Last week, ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/initiative-10042013150820.html
USAID Review of Health NGO Finds Litany of Irregularities
A financial review by USAID, the U.S. government’s development arm, into local health NGO Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) has found financial mismanagement coupled with a lack of transparency and oversight within the organization that may point to evidence of fraudulent activity. Well-known for its ...
Simon Henderson and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/usaid-review-of-health-ngo-finds-litany-of-irregularities-49464/
Cambodian Unions Call for Doubling of Minimum Wage for Factory Workers
Four trade unions on Tuesday demanded that Cambodia’s garment and footwear manufacturers raise the minimum wage of their workers and provide them with additional benefits, threatening a nationwide strike and demonstrations if they do not comply. In a joint letter to the Van Sou Ieng, president ...
Radio free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-11262013151923.html
Labour negotiations begin at SL Garment factoy
A meeting between factory management and representatives of more than 5,000 striking workers at one of Asia’s largest garment-processing factories yielded no progress. Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, has called the strike illegal because workers failed to notify the company ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/labour-negotiations-begin-sl-garment-factoy
On 1st day, garment strike gains little traction
Two unions that called for a stay-at-home strike by garment factory employees Wednesday had little success in mobilizing workers after six other unions, under pressure from the government and factory owners, pulled out of the planned industrial action on Tuesday. Union leaders who pushed ahead with ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/on-1st-day-garment-strike-gains-little-traction-54038/
More unionists charged on eve of brand meeting
The Takeo Provincial Court charged eight union representatives with incitement Sunday for taking part in a garment factory strike, bringing to 17 the number of unionists charged this month alone. The latest in the spate of recent arrests came just ahead of today’s high-level meeting between ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-unionists-charged-on-eve-of-brand-meeting-59538/
Up to $85M earmarked to develop agro sectors
Representatives of Cambodia’s rice sector and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) met yesterday with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to discuss the implementation of a five-year program to promote the Kingdom’s agricultural products. ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/85m-earmarked-develop-agro-sectors
As Climate Changes, Farmers Need More Help
The government is not doing enough to help farmers weather the destructive effects of drought and flooding brought on by climate change, leaving NGOs to provide aid and emergency relief in cases of natural disaster, agriculture industry leaders said at a forum yesterday. ...
PTT to conduct feasibility study in Cambodia: report
PTT, Thailand’s largest oil and gas conglomerate said it plans to conduct a feasibility study on petrochemical and oil refinery projects in three ASEAN countries – Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Pailin Chuchottaworn, PTT chief executive said, however, that Indonesia and Myanmar ...
Timbergreen official questioned in Chut Wutty shooting
The “company” that military police have declined to identify but said sent staff to confront activist Chut Wutty shortly before he was shot last Thursday is Timbergreen, a firm the slain activist had attempted to expose for illegal logging. Documents obtained by the Post yesterday and sources have ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050355957/National-news/company-man-arrested.html
Myanmar Airways flights to Cambodia to take off again
Myanmar Airways International (MAI) will resume its regular flights between Yangon and Cambodia’s two main international airports in early December after they were suspended for about three months. MAI started a twice-weekly schedule to Siem Reap in late February, but suspended the route over the last ...
Companies Urged to Respect Labor Standards
Respecting labor standards in Cambodian factories will benefit the garment manufacturing industry in the long-run as more international brands will be tempted to source from the country, labor experts said yesterday at a round-table discussion in Phnom Penh. ...
World Bank Report Predicts 6.6 Percent Growth
Cambodia’s economy will grow by an average of 7 percent in each of the next five years, the World Bank said yesterday in a report on the country’s economic outlook. In its periodic update on economies in the region, the World Bank predicted gross domestic product ...
National Bank of Cambodia Reports Lending Surge in 2012
Lending by commercial banks in Cambodia grew by more than one-third last year, according to figures provided by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) yesterday. Banks lent out a total of $5.89 billion in 2012, compared with $4.39 billion in 2011, NBC figures show, meaning ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/national-bank-of-cambodia-reports-lending-surge-in-2012-11368/
U.S. imports large volume of organic rice
An unusual report shows that organic rice buyers in the U.S. are getting a large percentage of their rice from Cambodia. The Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) exported 114 tonnes of organic jasmine rice to the U.S. in the first quarter of ...
http://www.agprofessional.com/news/US-imports-large-volume-of-organic-rice-201976661.html
Gov’t suspends freedom of association for unions
Following a complaint from the Free Trade Union (FTU) over the Ministry of Labor’s refusal to register 10 local branches of its organization, a ministry official said Wednesday that the constitutional right to freedom of association has been suspended until a new trade union law ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-suspends-freedom-of-association-for-unions-53271/
Unions, opposition ‘hindering wage talks’
Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng and ministry spokesman Heng Sour yesterday accused unions and the opposition of derailing the government’s efforts at minimum wage reform by striking and stirring up violence for their own political gain. “The government has set up a committee to study the ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-opposition-%E2%80%98hindering-wage-talks%E2%80%99
Release quickly follows deal
A jubilant crowd of opposition supporters burst into cheers yesterday afternoon as seven Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers-elect and one party activist were released on bail just hours after an announced rapprochement between the CNRP and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. They walked free through exits ...
Joe Freeman
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/release-quickly-follows-deal
Better worker food needed: Survey
A new study has determined that cost and space are the biggest constraints to setting up canteens in Cambodia’s garment factories. The findings were presented on Monday night at a cocktail party attended by Cambodia’s former ambassador to the US, Roland Eng, the Swedish Ambassador Anne ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012060656611/Business/better-worker-food-needed.html
Banking sector grows
The global economic recovery this year continues to benefit Cambodian banks, although insiders said yesterday macro-economic press-ures were still weighing on the industry. Some of Cambodia’s biggest banks had enjoyed a strong 2011 thanks to a rebound in lending, deposits and profits, officials said. Economists, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011070550175/Business/banking-sector-grows.html