Garment factory worker strikes increased threefold in 2012
Strikes staged by garment and footwear factory workers more than tripled in 2012 compared to 2011, with more than 100,000 workers participating in at least one strike, an official of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said yesterday. “Historically, prior to any elections, we will see a ...
Joint visa with Laos not expected before 2015
A Lao government delegation visiting the Kingdom’s capital last week anticipates that a joint visa scheme that would allow entry to both countries on a single visa will take at least two to three years to implement. Manoxay Vilayhane, second secretary at the Lao embassy in ...
Land complaint filed
Four Preah Vihear villagers filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday, requesting help in gaining permission to farm 93 hectares of land the Provincial Forestry Administration barred them from last year. The four complainants represent 65 families who have farmed the area in Kolen district ...
Strikers descend on ministry
Shouting their demands and trying to force their way through the gate, thousands of striking garment workers rallied in front of the Ministry of Social Affairs to no avail yesterday. The strikes came the morning after management posted a notice saying some 6,000 striking workers ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strikers-descend-ministry
Illegal logging ‘rampant’ in sanctuary
Provincial military police confiscated three tractors transporting three metres of luxury wood and two circular saws travelling out of Kampong Speu’s protected Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday. Chea Hean, director of Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organisation (NRWPO), arrived to investigate illegal logging in the sanctuary ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/illegal-logging-%E2%80%98rampant%E2%80%99-sanctuary
Cambodia denies PDRC protest link
Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh has categorically denied a report that Cambodian troops have been sent into Thailand to stir trouble in areas where the People’s Democratic Reform Committee is staging anti-government protests. Defence spokesman Col Paphathip Sawangsaeng said Gen Tea Banh made the denial to ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/394440/cambodia-denies-its-troops-stirred-trouble-at-pdrc-protests
Illegal wood exports to China tripled in 2013
Cambodia’s exports of protected rosewood and other high-value timber to China more than tripled last year, according to U.N. figures cited in a new report that blames lax law enforcement across the Mekong region and skyrocketing demand in China for pushing some species to the ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-wood-exports-to-china-tripled-in-2013-58593/
Cambodians oppose building of Don Sahong Dam in Laos
Cambodians staged a protest Thursday to share the concerns of more than a quarter of a million people who are calling on Laos to suspend construction of the Don Sahong hydropower project on the Mekong River. At the protest Chhith Sam Ath, country director of the ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/140911/cambodians-oppose-building-don-sahong-dam-laos
No breakthrough in new talks for Cambodian minimum wage increase
Cambodian authorities have held two rounds of talks with garment factory owners and unions under a new mechanism to help break a deadlock over increasing the workers’ monthly minimum wage but to no avail. But Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said that he expected the Garment ...
Roseanne Gerin
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/working-group-10162014181856.html
Japanese capital flooding in to Cambodia
Total Japanese investment in Cambodia under the Kingdom’s qualified investment project (QIP) scheme surged tenfold during the first half of the year, driven by Japan’s improved economy and a hefty capital injection by one of its biggest retail giants. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/japanese-capital-flooding-cambodia
MoU to strengthen co-operation between Cambodia and India
The Federation of Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia (FASMEC) is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) today to strengthen the co-operation on human resource training and quality control, an insider said. The Sokha, deputy director ...
ITC defends its use of funds, claiming silk weavers profiting
The International Trade Centre (ITC) yesterday rejected criticisms over the misuse of expenses and funds for a sector-wide Cambodian silk project, saying its approach was appropriate and well managed. Mao Thora, secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, publicly criticised the ITC during a seminar ...
Five Arrested for Stealing Clothing in Cargo Container Heist
Five people were arrested early Sunday morning for allegedly stealing more than 8,000 articles of clothing from shipping container on its way to Phnom Penh for export to the U.S., police said. The five suspects are accused of removing the garments from the cargo container as ...
Government Proposes 100% Hike in Minimum Wage by 2018
The government proposed doubling the minimum wage for garment workers—from $80 to $160—within five years during a meeting with labor unions and garment manufacturers on Monday at the Ministry of Labor. “We have a plan to raise the minimum wage up to $160 for garment workers, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-proposes-100-hike-in-minimum-wage-by-2018-49396/
Cambodian Garment Factories Come Under Scrutiny
A monitoring group backed by the United Nations said it would begin to publicize garment factories’ compliance with worker rights and safety standards in Cambodia, a controversial program that its organizers say will be the world’s most extensive initiative to improve working conditions at plants. The ...
Kate O'keeffe
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303818704579089810120675896.html
Putting parking reform in gear
With civil society, the opposition and even the ruling party talking more and more about the subject of electoral and judicial reforms in the wake of July’s contested national elections, some groups yesterday gathered to call for reforms in a more modest sector – parking ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/putting-parking-reform-gear
Brokers nabbed at airport
Four brokers accused of duping 19 victims out of thousands of dollars for non-existent jobs in South Korea were arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport on Saturday. Keo Thea, chief of Phnom Penh’s anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection department, said Por Sen Chey district police arrested ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012080657832/National-news/brokers-nabbed-at-airport.html
Land-titling process ‘urgent’, Oxfam says
Accelerating the mapping and titling of rural farmland should be an “urgent” priority of the government and civil society, particularly when it comes to protecting indigenous peoples’ and women’s rights, Oxfam representatives said yesterday. The remarks followed the release of an EU-funded survey of rural communities’ ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-titling-process-%E2%80%98urgent%E2%80%99-oxfam-says
Cambodia, N Korea Look to Forge Trade Ties
North Korea and Cambodia have attempting to increase trade between the two nations with Cambodia exporting rice and North Korea exporting knowledge. North Korea is set to share its knowledge of small scale hydropower and mining expertise in exchange for rice, beans and corn imports. ...
Fixed-Duration Contracts Threaten Garment Industry
Cambodia’s garment sector is in danger of losing its reputation for adherence to international labor standards because of the widespread use of “abusive temporary labor contracts,” according to a report released by Yale Law School on Wednesday. “Cambodian garment manufacturers have adopted the practice of ...