Aid and development
Development policy and administration
Factories Asked to Voluntarily Assess Safety
The Garment Manufactures Association of Cambodia (GMAC) and International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia yesterday asked factory owners to voluntarily conduct structural audits on their buildings in light of building collapses at two garment factories that killed two people and injured 23. “In the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factories-asked-to-voluntarily-assess-safety-27319/
Cambodia: A rising star with a falling reputation?
Cambodia’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is wearing thin – and yet the country is a rising star when it comes to attracting foreign investment and increasing exports. There are many reasons to deter brands and retailers from sourcing clothing in Cambodia. The Kingdom ...
http://www.just-style.com/analysis/a-rising-star-with-a-falling-reputation_id117944.aspx
Family Accepts $9000 over Collapse Death
The family of a worker who was killed when a ceiling collapsed at Kompong Spue province footwear factory lasts week has accepted 9,000 in compensation, and in return has agreed not file a complaint against the company, the deceased’s wife said yesterday. Rim Sarouen, 22, ...
ILO to name unsafe Cambodia garment factories
The ILO is preparing to name Cambodian garment factories failing to comply with local safety requirements. The International Labour Organisation says Cambodian garment factories refusing to comply with safety requirements have one last chance before they are named and shamed. Jill Tucker, chief technical advisor for ...
Seven Feared Trapped in Gold Mine Collapse
A gold mine shaft has collapsed in Preah Vihear province, trapping at least seven miners, officials said Monday. The collapse took place in a shaft that is typically mined by up to 60 people at a time, he [Rovieng Police Chief Sin Thorn]. Sin Thorn said ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/seven-feared-trapped-in-gold-mine-collapse/1664837.html
Fear Remains as Factory Reopens
More than 20 people fainted yesterday at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province, where two workers were crushed to death in a ceiling collapse last Thursday. Workers and union officials said an electrical short-circuit scared workers returning for the first time since the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165744/National/fear-remains-as-factory-reopens.html
Factory Dining Hall Collapses in Phnom Penh; 23 injured
The dining hall of a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district that supplies clothes to U.S. brand Gap collapsed into a pond Monday, injuring more than 20 workers who were eating lunch, workers and officials said. The hall, which is part of Top World Garment ...
Accident rocks garment industry again
For the second time in five days, Cambodia’s garment industry has been rocked by another partial collapse of a structure at a factory. Garment workers are reporting that at least 10 people, including a pregnant woman, have been injured after a concrete platform collapsed into a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065721/National/accident-rocks-garment-industry-again.html
Factory Orders Staff Back to Work Amid Safety Concerns
Employees at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory in Kompong Speu province where two workers were killed when one of the building’s floors collapsed on Thursday have been ordered back to work today, despite ongoing concerns from labor activists about the building’s safety. While conceding that some parts ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-orders-staff-back-to-work-amid-safety-concerns-25192/
ASICS Wants Monitoring Of Cambodian Sub-Contractors After Accident
The Japanese athletics brand ASICS said Friday that it would push its four Cambodian sub-contractors to join a programme that monitors conditions in garment and shoe factories. “We will strongly request to our sub-contractors in Cambodia to sign up to this programme,” Katsumi Funakoshi, ASICS ...
After Factory Collapse, Questions Mount Over ILO Monitoring
Labor rights activists and a government official accused the International Labor Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia program of ineffectiveness in its monitoring of factory conditions following a deadly ceiling collapse on Thursday at a shoe factory in Kompong Speu province. Moeun Tola, labor program head of the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-factory-collapse-questions-mount-over-ilo-monitoring-24860/
Cambodian factory deaths shine spotlight on conditions
The deaths of at least two Cambodian workers and injuries sustained by 10 colleagues at a shoe factory southwest of Phnom Penh once more shine a light on conditions in the global garment manufacturing industry. Thursday’s accident at the Wing Star Shoe factory in the Cambodian ...
http://www.dw.de/cambodian-factory-deaths-shine-spotlight-on-conditions/a-16819017
Koh Kong Water Shortage Leaves Families Dry
Hundreds of families in Koh Kong province’s Khmara Phoumint City are suffering from a shortage of water, which is provided by a reservoir that dried up during the hot season, local officials said yesterday. Smach Meanchey and Dang Tong communes typically receive water from the Cham ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/koh-kong-water-shortage-leaves-families-dry-24517/
Cambodian parliament passes fire prevention law
Cambodia’s National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a draft law on fire prevention with jail term punishment for arsonists, neglected firefighters, and false information providers on fires. Ninety-four out of ninety-seven lawmakers, who were present at the session, passed the law, saying it would help maintain security, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/07/c_132365226.htm
Cambodia’s Excess Baggage
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t going expecting to look out the bus window and see all the blue bags along the roads and in the fields,” said 27-year-old Christopher Convery, who is currently backpacking for the first time in Cambodia. ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/selected-features/cambodias-excess-baggage-22003/
Officials talk disaster plan
The National Committee for Disaster Management is meeting with officials from throughout the country in Phnom Penh this week in the wake of a slew of destructive storms that have wreaked havoc in the first four months of 2013. Officials will gather for the second and ...
https://cambodia.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-admin/post-new.php?custom-write-panel-id=5
Hun Sen Demands Answers to Sihanoukville Water Shortage
Prime Minister Hun Sen chastised local authorities in Preah Sihanouk province on Friday for their inability to prevent a water shortage in early April that crippled businesses in the tourist hub of Sihanoukville and left locals without running water for almost a week. The incident ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-demands-answers-to-water-shortage-20480/
Water Supply Begins to Return to Sihanoukville
Anco Water Supply, a private company that is supplying Sihanoukville with access to fresh water has alleviated a water shortage that began when a state-owned reservoir dried up more than a week ago. Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Sbuon Sarath said that running water had been restored ...
1,000 days to go on Millennium Development Goals
April 5th marks the starting date for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and its partners in Cambodia in observing the milestone of 1,000 days to the end of 2015 which is the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “The MDGs ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=MzVkZTcwZWRkNjY
Price of Water Spikes as Sihanoukville Shortages Drag On
As Sihanoukville’s water shortage drags on, the price of water being delivered by private suppliers has skyrocketed with residents and business owners growing ever more desperate to get clean water into their homes, hotels and restaurants. Over the past week, since a reservoir supplying the city ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/price-of-water-spikes-as-sihanoukville-shortage-drags-on-17341/
Mondolkiri, Kompong Thom Face Climate Threat
Mondolkiri and Kompong Thom provinces could suffer some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin region, such as a high incidence of flash floods and droughts by 2050, according to a new study. Analyzing temperature and rainfall from 84 provinces ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mondolkiri-kompong-thom-face-climate-threat-17224/
Sihanoukville Runs Dry During Water Crisis
A water shortage in the tourist town of Sihanoukville has led authorities to advise scores of businesses to dig their own wells as only 50 percent of local demand is currently being met after high temperatures dried up the water supplier’s only reservoir. On March ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sihanoukville-runs-dry-during-water-crisis-16609/
Climate change to affect Mekong production
Climate change will have a significant effect on major industrial and food crops in the Lower Mekong basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, says a new study. The study, conducted by the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project for the U.S. Agency ...
Grasslands present dilemma
A week after British researchers released a study warning that the nation’s grasslands would soon be lost if drastic action was not taken to protect them, some agricultural experts have called for moderation, noting that the intensive rice cultivation blamed for the grasslands’ destruction is ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032664676/National/grasslands-present-dilemma.html