Agriculture
Agricultural production
Cambodian, Vietnamese militaries ink deals for quarry, rubber development projects
Cambodian and Vietnamese Defense Ministries on Friday signed two documents relevant to a joint venture for establishing a quarry and a rubber plantation project in Cambodia. According to a document briefed to reporters at the signing ceremony, the two deals included a quarry site establishment in ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-11/30/c_132011035.htm
Cambodian documentary makes Sundance Film Festival
Until the arrival of large-scale development around her home in the northeastern province of Ratanakkiri, Sav Samourn, a member of the ethnic Jarai minority, was frightened of wild animals and ghosts. But as trees disappeared and industrial machinery razed the forestland, the old fears fell away. ...
Cambodia, Among Others, Feeding China's Demand for Timber
The growing market for timber in China is leading to widespread logging around the world, including in Cambodia, according to a report released yesterday. The report from London-based NGO the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) – entitled Appetite for Destruction: China’s trade in illegal timber – outlines ...
Villagers in Kampong Chhnang win land back
Prime Minister Hun Sen has reclassified 4,158 hectares of a massive land concession owned by the wife of Senator Lao Meng Khin from his own party for displaced families in Kampong Chhnang province. A jubilant representative of the 4,506 families who have long battled against ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012113060025/National-news/villagers-win-back-land.html
Minorities Choosing Private Over Communal
Though they held out hope for years that they would get communal land titles, hundreds of ethnic minority families in Mondolkiri and Ratanakkiri provinces have now opted to accept individual private land titles under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new titling scheme. While individual titles offer immediate ...
Latex exports rise, revenues fall
Cambodia’s total rubber latex exports rose by 12 per cent in the first nine months of this year, according to new figures. However, revenues from the exports saw a dramatic 27 per cent decrease due to a fall in rubber prices in the international market, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012112959998/Business/latex-exports-rise-revenues-fall.html
Land disputes to dominate next year's election
Land disputes are expected to be a hot issue in next year’s election, overshadowing perennial issues such as illegal immigration, destruction of forests, corruption, and unemployment. Prime Minister Hun Sen himself has acknowledged that the government’s failure to resolve the issue will mean handing ammunition to ...
Rights Groups Say Work to Go On Despite Hun Sen's Remarks
Rights groups said they will continue to advocate in land grabbing and eviction cases, and villagers involved in such disputes said they will continue to turn to NGOs for help despite a warning by Prime Minister Hun Sen for civil society to stay clear of ...
Jarai ethnic minority claim forest razed
The custodians of a community forest in Ratanakkiri have accused a company of illegally bulldozing their protected jungle. Sen Youn, a representative of the Jarai ethnic minority in O’Yadav district’s Lumchor commune, said yesterday an investigation with rights groups had uncovered that the Chea Chanrith Development ...
We Will Not Be Moved
They’re known as the BK13 and they’re not prepared to let greedy developers take the very, very little they have. They’re 13 women – mothers, grandmothers – who live around what used to be Boeung Kak Lake – not far from the centre of Cambodia’s ...
Cambodia inaugurates China-funded road in eastern part
Cambodia on Thursday inaugurated a 133-km China-funded national road No. 8 in Prey Veng province, hoping that the road will contribute to promoting social and economic development in the country’s eastern part. The road, which connects from Prek Tamak Mekong River Bridge to Vietnam border, cost ...
Riot Police Stop March on Last Day of Summits
A group of roughly 100 anti-eviction protestors were blocked by riot police yesterday from marching to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Peace Palace to appeal to U.S. President Barack Obama for help in reforming Cambodia’s land rights policy. The protest, which took place at the Boeng Kak ...
Land dispute back in court
Seven representatives of 415 families entangled in an unresolved land dispute with a deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces have received a second summons to appear in Battambang Provincial Court to clarify accusations that they had vandalized the commander’s property, “They not only ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012112059821/National-news/land-dispute-back-in-court.html
Rice plant helps grow Sino-Cambodian ties
The rice-processing industry is bringing South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Cambodia even closer, as it becomes a new growth point for bilateral cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation aiming to increase its rice exports. A rice milling plant in Kampong Chhnang Province of central ...
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-11/19/content_15939799.htm
Healthy growth for Cambodia’s economy
A NEW report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says GDP growth in Cambodia over the next five years is likely to hit 6.9 per cent, the highest of any ASEAN country apart from Laos. However, the report warns that Cambodia needs to ...
Goods smuggled en masse from Cambodia to HCMC
Various smuggled goods, mainly cigarettes, brandy and sugar, are being brought from Cambodia to Vietnam’s Long An and Tay Ninh Provinces before being transported to HCMC for sale, a Tuoi Tre investigation has found. On November 9, Tuoi Tre reporters pretending to be traders went to ...
CIMB Bank Opens 4 new Branches in Cambodia
In an effort to reach a crowing number of customers in the agricultural sector Malaysia based CIMB bank Plc on Friday opened 4 new branches in Phnom Penh, Battambang and Kompong Cham cities. CIMB wants to provide loans to customers in the rice, ...
Grassroots Forum Issues Demands Ahead of Asean
The Asean Grassroots People’s Assembly (AGPA) agreed yesterday on a list of demands it intends to present to the Cambodian and regional governments. A crowd of more than 2,000 people-including garment factory workers, victims of evictions, and sex workers, as well as undercover police-gathered at Phnom ...
Officials worry over tiny rise in rice exports
Cambodian milled rice exports grew by only 0.52 per cent in the first 10 months of the year, compared to the same period last year, according to new figures from the government. Officials have expressed concern over Cambodia’s ability to reach its export target of ...
32 Land Concessions Approved Since Moratorium
Despite a moratorium on the granting of new economic land concessions (ELCs), the government has approved at least 32 ELCs since Prime Minister Hun Sen announced their suspension in May. According to sub-decrees dated from May onward and provided by local human rights group Adhoc, Mr. ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/32-land-concessions-approved-since-moratorium-5725/
Senator's 2nd Sugar Refinery to Start Up Monday
Two years after breaking ground, a sugar refinery situated on a pair of controversial plantation belonging to CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat and his wife will have its first test run on Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. He said the refinery would be ...
Merit in rice trade plan
The cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal allowing the Commerce Ministry to form a rice trade partnership with Asean’s four other rice-producing countries, namely Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, to stabilise rice prices in the global market and to promote food security in the region. The ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/321297/rice-trade-area-plan-has-merit
Radio Free Asia reporter to face judge
A Radio Free Asia (RFA) reporter in Ratanakkiri province will be questioned at the provincial court today in relation to claims that he incited villagers to commit crimes against a rubber company that they have been locked in a land dispute with since 2004. Lim Chanlyda, ...
Cambodian Economy Hurt by Land Evictions
Kratie province – Cambodia’s transformation from war-torn basket-case to one of Asia’s most promising emerging economies is being overshadowed by a backwards lurch in human rights and land policies that critics say are entrenching poverty. Next week’s visit by Barack Obama, the fist by a U.S. ...