Borei Keila residents ‘occupy’ unfinished apartment block
Residents embroiled in a long-running land dispute in the Borei Keila area of Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district on Wednesday tore down three metal fences and occupied an unfinished apartment block at the site. The fences were felled with axes by irate residents, who took the ...
Khuon Narim and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-residents-occupy-unfinished-apartment-block-52083/
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/
End right to unionize, businesses ask Hun Sen
Prime Minister Hun Sen told business leaders and government officials Tuesday that he will not tolerate “illegal” labor strikes that harm investment, but avoided judgment on a request to withdraw ratification of a U.N. convention protecting workers’ rights to unionize. Speaking at the 17th Government-Private Sector ...
Hul Reaksmey and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/end-right-to-unionize-businesses-ask-hun-sen-53516/
Garment protest trial defendants deny charges
Defendants in a mass trial of 25 men and teenagers accused of joining a string of violent garment worker protests continued to profess their innocence during the second day of hearings at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Twenty-three of the men were arrested in ...
Khy Sovuthy and Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-protest-trial-defendants-deny-charges-58166/
China fuels Cambodia’s airline growth
The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation says Cambodia’s aviation market grew briskly for the second consecutive year as national and foreign airlines added routes to China amid a surge in Chinese nationals visiting the country. The centre reported Cambodia has emerged as one of the fastest ...
Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2014/02/china-fuels-cambodias-airline-growth/
Growing Unease Over Direction of the Country, Survey Finds
There was a shift of almost seismic proportions between January and November 2013 as the number of people who believe the country is being steered in the right direction fell sharply, while the number of discontented citizens rose, according to a new report. Launching its annual ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/growing-unease-over-direction-of-the-country-survey-finds-51034/
Challenging business for startups
The World Bank recently ranked Cambodia 184th out of 189 countries for ease of starting a business, but you wouldn’t have known it at Phnom Penh’s recent Startup Weekend. Pitches for Cambodia’s first commercial organic chicken farm and for an app to connect tuk-tuk drivers to ...
Justine Drennan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/challenging-business-startups
New Project Aims to Help Small Businesses in Cambodia
A new project by the government and Japan’s aid agency seeks to assist small companies in Cambodia that are in need of specialist advice in order to develop and keep up with competitors in neighboring Asean countries. The aim of the two-year program, called “Strategic Strengthening ...
Simon Henderson and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/new-project-aims-to-help-small-businesses-in-cambodia-41534/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-project-aims-to-help-small-businesses-in-cambodia
Rainsy Amasses Support Ahead of Monday’s Rally
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Friday visited vendors in Phnom Penh’s Olympic and Russian markets and appealed to voters disgruntled by preliminary election results awarding a victory to the CPP to join a planned opposition rally at Freedom Park on Monday. As he toured both markets, ...
Khy Sovuthy and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/rainsy-amasses-support-ahead-of-mondays-rally-40743/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rainsy-amasses-support-ahead-of-mondays-rally
Floods a Yearly Trial for Those Living Along Mekong
TBONG KHUM DISTRICT, Kompong Cham province – From November to May, the Mekong River is quiet. So is life for the hundreds of thousands of people who live along its banks, which in Cambodia forms a 155,000 square km basin covering six provinces and Phnom ...
Aun Pheap and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/floods-a-yearly-trial-for-those-living-along-mekong-44143/
SUVs Block Pagoda to Keep Out Monks on Peace March
Harassment of monks and their supporters, who are marching to Phnom Penh to participate in International Human Rights Day rallies in the capital, continued Friday when three suburban utility vehicles were used to block the entrance to a pagoda in Kompong Speu province where marchers ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/suvs-block-pagoda-to-keep-out-monks-on-peace-march-48816/
Home for the holidays
Still agitated 20 minutes after the rally in front of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd had dispersed yesterday, Choem Som Im held up seven fingers as she jerked her arms forward and spoke in an equally sharp tone. The dilemma, faced by many garment workers, ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/home-holidays
11 Activists Arrested for Views That ‘Impact Public Order’
Eleven political activists were pulled off the street by helmeted security guards Tuesday morning during a peaceful march to foreign embassies to deliver petitions calling for an end to government violence and the release of 23 imprisoned activists and strikers. The 11 protesters—10 land rights activists ...
Phorn Bopha and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eleven-activists-arrested-for-views-that-impact-public-order-50934/
Low salaries stifle education reform efforts
Sao Sothy’s home is small and the furniture is sparse. There are no tables or chairs. In one room, there is a small bed, but her family of four sleeps on mats in the living room. Hanging on the otherwise bare walls is Ms. Sothy’s ...
Emily Wilkins and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/low-salaries-stifle-education-reform-efforts-56752/
Laos aims to build Mekong dam this year, testing neighbours
Laos wants to start construction this year on the $3.8 billion (Bt115 billion) Thai-financed Xayaburi hydropower plant on the Mekong River after changing the design of the dam to placate neighbouring countries opposed to the project. Laos completed a review of the dam recently to ease ...
Mekong Dams Threaten Extinction of Giant Catfish
The elusive Mekong giant catfish, which the U.S.-based World Wildlife Fund (WWF) called “one of the world’s largest and rarest freshwater fish,” can reach up to three meters (10 feet) and weigh up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds). The Xayaburi dam would prove an “impassable barrier” ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/dams-06192013184629.html
Trading Floor Silent Two Years After CSX Launch
It is almost two years to the day since Cambodia’s stock market launched in Phnom Penh in front of proud government officials, senior financiers and eager investors from across the region. Initial expectations were that a total of three state-owned firms would be listed within six ...
Hul Reaksmey and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/trading-floor-silent-two-years-after-csx-launch-35211/
Logging mogul blasted
Logging tycoon Try Pheap has come under fire from two separate reports alleging that he is using his vast network of concessions and licences to decimate protected forests across Cambodia. One of the reports, an exhaustive four-month investigation by a local NGO, also looked at the ...
Phak Seangly and May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-mogul-blasted
A Hard Road To Phnom Penh For Marching Monks
Monks and their supporters marching to Phnom Penh on a 10-day “Peace Walk,” as part of International Human Rights Day, said Wednesday that pagodas along the way have repeatedly tried to shut them out, and they have scuffled with police on at least one occasion. About ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/a-hard-road-to-phnom-penh-for-marching-monks-48600/
Year's crime ranged from brutal to bizarre
Law and order in Cambodia this year has been a strange mix of the brutal and the bizarre. From horrific murders to the police’s decision to deliver crystal meth to phony hostage-takers during a bank heist, crime has continually made headlines in a year when the ...
Shane Worrell and Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/years-crime-ranged-brutal-bizarre