Economy and commerce
Investment
Cambodia sees big jump in construction investment in first quarter
Cambodia’s construction sector received a total investment of 851 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of 2014, up 311 percent compared with 207 million U.S. dollars over the same period last year, the official figures showed Thursday. During the January-March period this year, the ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=219820
Hun Sen attends dinner, presentation in China
Accompanied by his wife, Bun Rany, Prime Minister Hun Sen continued his trip to China on Tuesday evening by attending a dinner reception hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to state news agency Agence Kampuchea Press. Mr. Hun Sen and his delegation of high-level officials ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-attends-dinner-presentation-in-china-59355/
Ratanakkiri homes razed as authorities move in
More than 400 people clashed with police and military police in Ratanakkiri province on Wednesday as authorities attempted to bulldoze their houses to make way for a rubber company plantation, villagers said. Authorities managed to bulldoze the houses of about 200 families, who they said had ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-homes-razed-as-authorities-move-in-59341/
Five months on, witnesses recall Muon Sokmean’s beating
Muon Sokmean, a 29-year-old garment worker, scrambled off Veng Sreng Street on January 3 with military police in violent pursuit, brandishing their batons. What had been a militant protest for a $160 minimum wage in the garment sector—with many protesters lobbing rocks and crude Molotov cocktails ...
Mech Dara and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/five-months-on-witnesses-recall-muon-sokmeans-beating-59115/
Chong villagers block Chinese engineers from reaching dam
A group of 20 ethnic minority Chong villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley blocked the road Friday to prevent a group of Chinese engineers from reaching the site of a controversial proposed dam. A number of Chong villagers have been intermittently camping near the road ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chong-villagers-block-chinese-engineers-from-reaching-dam-58944/
Rising union leader behind Caltex station closures
In his fight for workers’ rights, Sar Mora has learned to be stubborn. The union leader behind the closure of Caltex gas stations across Phnom Penh, Mr. Mora’s members remained on strike Sunday despite an apparent agreement on Friday for workers to return to their stations. “We ...
Alex Consiglio and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rising-union-leader-behind-caltex-station-closures-58995/
Oz an example for mining reform
Inspired by Australian mining regulations, the Cambodian government is considering a raft of changes to the mineral resources mining law, including a rethink of the sector’s comparatively high tax rate. Citing discussions held with Western Australia state mining industry representatives last week, Meng Saktheara, secretary of ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/oz-example-mining-reform
Rainsy attack ‘shocks’ tycoon
Prominent businessman and Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat yesterday questioned what he had done to warrant a verbal attack from opposition party leader Sam Rainsy, who said on Wednesday that the tycoon had grabbed land from people in Koh Kong province and should ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rainsy-attack-%E2%80%98shocks%E2%80%99-tycoon
Rubber prices tumble as industry panics
Cambodia’s steadily declining rubber prices have hit critically low levels that are destined to only get worse as Thailand prepares to offload huge rubber stocks, the secretary-general of the Association for Rubber Development of Cambodia said Thursday. As the price of natural rubber has paralleled a ...
Kang Sothear and George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/rubber-prices-tumble-as-industry-panics-58889/
Aus called out on railway
Rights groups are calling out the Australian government for being “curiously absent” from discussions about further compensation for thousands of families affected by a railway rehabilitation project that it co-funded with the Asian Development Bank. The bank has borne the brunt of criticism over botched resettlement ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/aus-called-out-railway
Longans longing for storage
The amount of land used to grow longans has doubled in the past two years, but a lack of supply-chain infrastructure is hampering farmers’ ability to get top dollar for their product, the fruit’s body says. Sreng Sreang, deputy director of the Pailin Longan Farmers’ Community ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/longans-longing-storage
Striking Caltex Workers Call on US for Support
A small group representing striking Caltex gas station workers delivered a petition to the US Embassy on Thursday, asking for help as they seek an increase in monthly wages. Hundreds of Caltex workers have been on strike since Monday, joining garment factory workers in calls for ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/striking-caltex-workers-call-on-us-for-support/1915202.html
17 families reject payout from minister’s wife
A special committee set up in March to settle a long-running land dispute between 52 families in Kompong Chhnang province and the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem has finished its work, leaving 17 families without a deal. Deputy provincial governor Dork Sothea, who ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/17-families-reject-payout-from-ministers-wife-58741/
As free man, Polonsky plans tourism mecca
Sergei Polonsky, a Russian fugitive and former billionaire real estate magnate who was recently released from prison in Cambodia, has grand plans for a string of islands off the coast of Sihanoukville. Less than a month after the Supreme Court refused to extradite him to Russia ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-free-man-polonsky-plans-tourism-mecca-58726/
Caltex loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars, striking workers say
Chevron’s Caltex gas stations are potentially losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per day in Cambodia, striking employees say. Workers say Caltex, a subsidiary of US-based multinational Chevron, sells between 5,000 to 10,000 liters per station per day, putting its losses between $350,000 to $700,000 ...
Khoun Theara,
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/caltex-loosing-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-striking-workers-say/1914429.html
Strike by Cambodian Caltex staff enters 3rd day after wage talks fail
Cambodian workers for the U.S.- owned Caltex petrol stations in Phnom Penh continued their strike for higher wages Wednesday after wage negotiations late Tuesday failed to reach any agreement. Strike leader Sar Mora, president of the Cambodian Food and Service Workers Federation, said some 300 Caltex ...
Xinhuanet News
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/14/c_133332966.htm
Sexual abuse among claims against HAGL
Sexual assault and the annihilation of sacred graveyards are among the many claims levelled at Vietnamese Rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) by villagers in Ratanakkiri province, a report by the World Bank’s investment arm reveals. In February, 17 indigenous communities that accused HAGL of ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sexual-abuse-among-claims-against-hagl
Standard forms aim for public bid transparency
The Ministry of Economy and Finance on Monday announced the release of standardised bidding forms for public contracts, a measure it said would increase transparency and accountability, though the opposition and Transparency International Cambodia offered more cautious assessments yesterday. According to a state media announcement, the ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/standard-forms-aim-public-bid-transparency
After strong start, city bus’ future unclear
After a monthlong test run saw 10 buses often filled with passengers, a Chinese-owned company promised in early March to inject millions into the project and add hundreds of new buses. But Global Trade Development left the project last month after the municipality refused to grant ...
Hul Reaksmey and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-strong-start-city-bus-future-unclear-58640/
CPP-friendly businessman launches newspaper
T Mohan, a Malaysian publisher and businessman arrested in the 1990s for attempting to extort a casino executive, is back in Cambodia’s newspaper market. The Khmer Times, the latest English-language news offering from Mr. Mohan, hit newsstands earlier this month, with a government spokesman even resigning ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-friendly-businessman-launches-newspaper-58610/
Court temporarily halts lease transfer for victory beach
Russian businessmen Nikolai Doroshenko and Sergei Polonsky are locked in a legal dispute over Sihanoukville’s Victory Beach following Mr. Polonsky’s release from prison last month, according to copies of court documents obtained Monday. The Preah Sihanouk provincial court has temporarily prevented Mr. Doroshenko from transferring the ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-temporarily-halts-lease-transfer-for-victory-beach-58598/
Illegal wood exports to China tripled in 2013
Cambodia’s exports of protected rosewood and other high-value timber to China more than tripled last year, according to U.N. figures cited in a new report that blames lax law enforcement across the Mekong region and skyrocketing demand in China for pushing some species to the ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-wood-exports-to-china-tripled-in-2013-58593/
Cambodian rights worker faces death threats over land dispute
A worker with the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) has been intimidated and received death threats while trying to document the plight of three families involved in a bitter land dispute with a developer in the country’s capital, according to the center. The worker, Vann ...
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/threats-05122014162650.html
Government says 3.4 million land titles issued
The government has issued a total of 3.4 million land titles across the country, 500,000 of them since a renewed push personally orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to new figures released by the Land Management Ministry. In a notice posted to its website Friday, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-3-4-million-land-titles-issued-58477/