Xayaburi dam stirs debate on Mekong River Commission
When ministers from the four member countries of the Mekong River Commission and donors meet in Luang Prabang, Laos this week, the future role of the agency will be on the table. Questions about the effectiveness of the Mekong River Commission, set up in 1995 to ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/330603/xayaburi-dam-stirs-up-debate-on-mekong-river-commission
Judicial reform pledged by PM
The Cambodian government has privately pledged that it will pass the long-awaited “three fundamental laws” aimed at reforming the judiciary during the first session of parliament in early 2014, UN rights envoy Surya Subedi said. The laws – which focus on codifying the court’s jurisdiction, laying ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/judicial-reform-pledged-pm
Photo tourism turns profits
Nathan Horton’s business model is straightforward. A professional photographer, Horton helps amateur photographers take pictures abroad. Photo tourism is an increasingly lucrative trade in Cambodia. Horton, who runs half-day jaunts in Phnom Penh and longer journeys into the provinces, is one of the practitioners capitalising on ...
Laura Ma
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/photo-tourism-turns-profits
Former Manager Admits Stealing $2.3M From Canadia Bank
The former manager of Canadia Bank’s credit section has admitted to stealing $2.3 million from the bank’s accounts, the suspect’s lawyer said Tuesday, in what is one of the largest embezzlement schemes ever undertaken in Cambodia’s nascent banking industry. The testimony from Yeth Sopheaktra, 30, to ...
Eang Mengleng and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/former-manager-admits-stealing-2-3m-from-canadia-bank-44689/
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
Electric car is still on the charger
What happened to Cambodia’s electric car? The short answer is, the wait continues. More than seven months after its owners unveiled the new and improved Angkor EV 2013 to great fanfare, they are chronically short of funding and assembly is taking place in piecemeal fashion. Seang Chan ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/electric-car-still-charger
US Taxman Provides Investigation Training
The U.S. tax collection agency is this week training Cambodian bank staff as well as anti-corruption officials, police, judges and prosecutors in how to investigate financial activity to detect wrongdoing, officials said Monday. U.S. Embassy spokesman Sean McIntosh said the program, called Intermediate Financial Investigations Training, ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/us-taxman-provides-investigation-training-40220/
A Year On, Cambodia’s Role as Asean Chairman a Bitter Memory
Resentment is still simmering toward Cambodia for its handling of the contentions South China Sea issue last year, which fractured the unity of Asean, analysts from around the region said Thursday. During the first day of a two-day regional conference in Phnom Penh organized by the ...
Hul Reaksmey and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/a-year-on-cambodias-role-as-asean-chairman-a-bitter-memory-42812/
Businessman’s Son Has Prison Sentence Cut
The Court of Appeal has reduced to six months the original three-and-a-half-year prison term handed to the son of a wealthy businessman for pistol-whipping a man and damaging restaurant property. Duong Udomchorvin, 24, was sentenced in May, along with his 17-year-old brother, Duong Kimlong, who was ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/businessmans-son-has-prison-sentence-cut-43055/
Committees to ‘Research’ Minimum Wages, ‘Study’ Killings
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday assigned former Finance Minister Keat Chhon as the head of a newly formed committee tasked with researching the government’s capacity to introduce wage increases for civil servants and factory workers. The statement said that Mr. Hun Sen also spoke ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/committees-to-research-minimum-wages-study-killings-50431/
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/
Nation’s youngest lack teachers
Fewer and fewer primary schoolteachers are willing to cope with poor pay and the worst student-to-teacher ratio outside of Africa, government data shows. Annual reports released by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport reveal that despite fervent recruitment efforts, every year since 2005 – when ...
Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/nation%E2%80%99s-youngest-lack-teachers
US Asks Parties to ‘Work Together’ for the People
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday called for the ruling CPP and opposition CNRP to “work together” and repeated its call for a transparent review of irregularities in July’s national election. “The United States urges leaders of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the CNRP ...
Phorn Bopha and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/us-asks-parties-to-work-together-for-the-people-43407/
EU Ambassador Meets Sok An, Says CNRP Should Take Seats
Popular online news website CEN (Cambodia Express News) reported Wednesday that European Union (E.U.) Ambassador Jean-Francois Cautain told CPP Deputy Prime Minister Sok An that the E.U. wished to see the opposition CNRP take their seats in the National Assembly. Mr. Cautain’s comments were made during ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/eu-ambassador-meets-sok-an-says-cnrp-should-take-seats-44310/
Bar Association Requests Set Price for Copies of Case Files
The Bar Association of Cambodia has written to Justice Minister Ang Vong Vattana requesting that an official price be set for photocopies of court case files, claiming that court clerks are taking advantage of the current system by charging lawyers extortionate amounts. The letter, dated October ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bar-association-requests-set-price-for-copies-of-case-files-46689/
Families file complaint over Pailin governor
The 19 families in Pailin province who were told by police and military police on Saturday to vacate their land filed a complaint with Adhoc on Monday, the provincial coordinator for the NGO said. Authorities told the families to move on Saturday from the 95-hectares they ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-file-complaint-over-pailin-governor-53443/
Cambodia to meet Malaysia over maids MoU
The Ministry of Labor said Wednesday that the government has agreed on a final draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia regarding sending Cambodian maids to work there, but that no timeframe for the signing of the agreement has been set. Following reports of ...
Denise Hruby and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-to-meet-malaysia-over-maids-mou-53635/
Cambodia’s Ruling, Opposition Parties at Odds Over Electoral Body Reform
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) on Monday rejected an opposition proposal to revamp the country’s electoral body as they met for a third round of talks aimed at breaking a seven-month political deadlock following disputed polls. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s Cambodia National ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/reform-03102014163840.html
Opposition councilors bemoan ministry directive
A number of provincial and district councilors aligned with the opposition have not been paid in the past two months following a Ministry of Interior directive in March calling for their salaries to be halted and positions revoked, according to the secretary-general of the Sam ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/opposition-councilors-bemoan-ministry-directive-58131/
Future unclear for dormant health center
Nearly three years after it was shut down for supposed renovations, Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon Referral Hospital is still not operational and former staff say they have been left out in the cold about what will happen to the site. Commune, district, municipal and national health ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/future-unclear-for-dormant-health-center-59231/