Aid and development

Multinational consulting and engineering firm Pöyry has signed a contract with the Lao government to supervise construction of the divisive Xayaburi hydropower dam in the country’s north, it announced Friday. This work, carried out by its Energy Business Group, will include reviewing the design and ...

A Chinese hydropower company, identified as Consultant CECCI, along with Royal Group and Vietnamese power giant Electricity Vietnam International (EVNI), will be in charge of the Lower Sesan 2 dam construction project in Stung Treng province, as well as the relocation of the 5,000 affected ...

Lao officials and executives of a Thai construction company conducted a groundbreaking ceremony yesterday in Xayaburi to inaugurate the first dam to be built on the lower mainstream Mekong, putting to one side concerns that the dam could devastate fisheries in Cambodia and Vietnam. Prior to ...

Construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Stung Treng province will begin in 2014 and the government will spend next year relocating some 5,000 people from villages that are located in the dam’s future reservoir area. Located near the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok ...

The government is not doing enough to help farmers weather the destructive effects of drought and flooding brought on by climate change, leaving NGOs to provide aid and emergency relief in cases of natural disaster, agriculture industry leaders said at a forum yesterday. ...

The US yesterday criticised Laos for announcing it will begin building the 1,285-megawatt Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River today without studying its potential effects on Cambodia and Vietnam. A spokesperson from the US State Department in Washington said the government was concerned construction of the ...

Sketchy details that fail to specify when construction of the Lower Sesan 2 hydro dam will begin, or name the Chinese company involved, have villagers fearing for their future, representatives and environmental groups say. Since the Council of Ministers announced on Friday it had signed off ...

Delegates from eight French-owned companies in the water management sector will meet with government officials and officials from the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority today to explore business opportunities in Cambodia, according to a French Embassy statement yesterday. As a part of a two-day visit, ...

Flooding  this year cost the government significantly less than expected due to better preparation and lower water levels than in previous years, first vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management Nhim Vanda announced yesterday. The NCDM could not yet report the precise amount spent on flood ...

The Australian Senate yesterday urged the Cambodian government to run free and fair national elections next year without the “harassment or intimidation” of opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who remains in self-imposed exile avoiding an 11-year jail sentence. The appeal comes only days after the European Parliament ...

Even as its controversial Xayaburi Dam project is still drawing protest from Mekong river downstream countries such as Cambodia, Laos has inked a deal with South Korean firms to build and operate another large hydropower plant on the Mekong River network. According to the Phnom Penh ...

The collective power of agricultural co-operatives could bring huge benefits to poor, small-scale farmers, a Phnom Penh conference for international World Food Day heard on Friday. The sentiments were shared by the director of Cambodia’s General Directorate of Agriculture, So Khan Rithy Kun, who said farming ...

Cambodia’s small economy leaves it especially vulnerable to devastation in the face of large-scale natural disasters, United Nations agencies and Cambodian officials warned last week. “The relative size of an economy adds to the vulnerability as seen particularly in the case of the Lao Peoples’ Democratic ...

Drawing from a long list of human rights abuses, the European Parliament has urged the Cambodian government to stop forced evictions, called on the European Commission (E.C.) to investigate the country’s controversial land concessions policy, and raised the prospect of sanctions. In a resolution passed Friday ...

The European Parliament, representing one of the country’s largest donors, on Friday called for a moratorium on forced evictions, an overhaul of elections and even went so far as to suggest to the European Union that it suspend tariff-free imports of agricultural goods linked to ...

Better communication from authorities in Cambodia and Vietnam might have prevented the deaths of villagers and the destruction of homes in Ratanakkiri at times when water has been released from Vietnam’s Yali Falls dam, researchers said yesterday. Speaking at a national workshop about the Yali Falls ...

The Asian Development Bank is considering providing funds to a controversial 400 megawatt dam project in Laos that could have adverse impacts on the Mekong River in downstream Cambodia. Conservation group International Rivers wants the Lao government to pull the plug on the $1 billion Xe ...

Cambodia rose five places to rank 133rd out of 185 countries in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business report released yesterday, with the bank attributing the rise for the most part to the successful launch of the country’s credit bureau. Compared to other countries in the ...

THE PHILIPPINES is one of the leading countries in microfinance policy and regulation in Asia but it still lags in terms of scale and reach to the poor, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said. “Of the 21 countries with ADB support during 2000-2010, ADB’s efforts were ...

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said yesterday that climate change will be a concern in some Asian countries, including Cambodia. He encouraged the countries to find ways to manage any affects on their economies. Economists recognize it will lower growth in some main sectors of the economy – ...

A project to rebuild Cambodia’s decrepit rail-system appears on track for completion, despite delays and difficulties relocating residents The ABC has been told of the $26 million originally allocated through AusAID, just over $14 million remains, and will go towards finishing tracks and building a bridge ...

Preparations are in place to evacuate some 13,000 people if flooding worsens in Purst province after the Pursat River burst its banks on Monday nights leading to the evacuation of 27 families in Kandieng district. Pursat provincial governor Khoy Sokha said that floodwater, which ...

The import flow of bicycles (excluding e-bikes) into the European Union is changing rapidly between countries What is in particular striking is the massive upswing in imports from Cambodia. In 2011 the European Union imported 366,000 bikes from Cambodia which took the country to the 9th ...

Thirty families uprooted by Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project have filed a complaint with Australia’s highest human rights body, alleging rights abuses as a result of the partially AusAid-funded rail project. The complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission was made on behalf of the families by NGOs Equitable Cambodia and Inclusive ...