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 ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/refined-approach
Property rights threatened, NGOs claim
A draft agricultural land law threatens to eliminate property rights and effectively remove all limitations on the size of economic land concessions, a coalition of civil society groups said in a statement released.The draft of The Law on the Management and Use of Agricultural Land, ...
David Boyle and May Titthara, P. 1
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072457586/National-news/property-rights-threatened-ngos-claim.html
NBC calls on MFIs to spread risk
The National Bank of Cambodia was pushing microfinance institutions to look to domestic banks for funding in an industry heavily reliant on foreign loans, experts said yesterday. Although the NBC is seeking to foster healthier relationships between MFIs and the Kingdom’s commercial banks, a dearth of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011090951563/Business/nbc-asks-mfis-to-diversify.html
Prey Long march ends, villagers still resolute
After walking and camping in the jungle for more than a week, Tha Sros and hundreds of other villagers finally reached the winding red dirt road that lead to the rubber plantation of Vietnamese-owned CRCK company, which has cleared a vast 6,000-hectare swathe out of ...
Cambodia-Asia Economic Forum kicks off
PHNOM PENH: The 8th Asia Economic Forum kicked off here on Saturday, focusing on reviewing the ASEAN achievements in the past 45 years and looking at opportunities and challenges toward the realization of an ASEAN community by 2015. The 2-day forum has been attending by some ...
Cambodia's International Reserves Increase to Nearly $3 Billion
According to the statement from the national bank of Cambodia (NBC), the country’s international reserves increased by 2.912 million US dollars so far this year with guaranteeing to import for four months. “For the management of the international reserves, we have implemented the policy with ...
Cambodia's debt to China grows to $4 billion, official says
Cambodian debt to China now stands at $4 billion, 35 percent of last year’s gross domestic product and more than half of the country’s total outstanding debt to foreign donors, according to a senior government official. The amount of money Cambodia owes China has been growing ...
Cambodia Faces Tests With 2012 Asean Chairmanship
For the second time in the history of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cambodia has taken over the chairmanship of the 10-nation bloc. The country first chaired Asean in 2002–03, when it had been a member for only three years. Yet the world and the ...
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/cambodia-faces-tests-with-2012-asean-chairmanship/499533
Cambodians form backbone of securities market
Local stock-exchange staff will be trained by foreign experts Overseas experts will play an important role in the start-up of the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), says Larry Ng of Cana Securities. “Foreign investors will lead the CSX and securities market at the beginning because they have the ...
ADB Won’t Pay to Finish Rail Project
Having already spent millions of dollars, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will not foot the additional $70 to $90 million in funds still needed to complete more than half of Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project, an official from the ADB said yesterday. Toll Royal Railways, a joint venture ...
Hyatt Overtakes Siem Reap’s Hotel de la Paix
Hyatt Hotels Co will open its first hotel in Cambodia next year by rebranding the well-known five-star boutique resort Hotel de la Paix, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, KS Hotels and Resorts, a Thai-based firm, will retain full ...
Provocative Posters Spark Renewed Protests
More than 2,000 garment factory workers protested Saturday and plan to strike today in support of union organizers who face prosecution in court for alleged “incitement” over demonstrations at the plant, a union representative said yesterday. The workers at Ocean Garment factory began demonstrating on Aug. ...
Rights activists concerned about status of human rights under AEC
Despite so much excitement in the run-up to the inception of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, experts and activists on human rights and democracy are ambivalent about what AEC’s repercussions will be on human rights and democracy. They have expressed concerns about AEC’s negative ...
Canadia, Gov't Look to Soothe Tax Process
With the deadline to pay annual property taxes rapidly approaching, hundreds of Phnom Penh homeowners queued this week at Canadia Bank’s headquarters on Monivong Boulevard to pay their tax bills in relative comfort, and avoid long visits to district and municipal taxation offices. Canadia Bank signed ...
Anniversary Marked With Fiery Demonstration
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood burned straw effigies symbolizing corrupt government officials yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the demolition of eight homes at the contested site. Roughly 100 protesters gathered at the site of the demolitions and set fire to eight scarecrow-like effigies- one ...
Koomkin bank takes Camko City to court
The foreign commercial arbitration case between South Korean Kookmin Bank and World City Asset Management and World City, two real-estate development firms, has been received by the Cambodian Court of Appeals. World City Asset Management received a loan from Kookmin bank in Korea in 2007 to ...
Land abuses 'threaten stability'
Cambodia’s economic land concession (ELC) policies are hindering development far more than helping it and beginning to erode the country’s hard-won stability, Cambodia’s special rapporteur warned yesterday. “As I have noted in relation to other sectors in Cambodia, the existence of the legal framework on paper ...
Oxfam urges freeze of land investments
Global development group Oxfam on Wednesday called on the World Bank to suspend financing for large-scale land acquisitions to ensure that its practices do not encourage foreign land grabs in developing countries. Oxfam urged Jim Yong Kim, the lender’s new president, to announce a six-month moratorium ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/04/worldbank-oxfam-land-idUSL1E8L2LKF20121004
Rights Activist Denies Phnom Penh Move Is Due to Charges
A Ratanakkiri-based human rights worker charged by the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court with inciting ethnic minority villagers to protest during a 2009 land dispute with a private agro-industry company has been transferred to work in Phnom Penh. Pen Bonnar, Ratanakkiri provincial coordinator for Adhoc , said yesterday ...
Obama steers US towards focus on Asia
On his first foreign trip since Tuesday’s election, US President Barack Obama is planning a historic visit to encourage reforms in Myanmar – seen as a key success during his first term – and he’ll also go to Thailand and Cambodia. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ...