Energy
More Than 250 Firms Hold Mining Licenses
Almost 200 mining companies currently hold government licenses to mine construction materials such as granite, or to extract minerals, while another 53 firms are licensed to explore for mineral wealth, according to a Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy report released Friday. Among these firms, 47 ...
Cambodia grants mine exploratory licenses to 24 firms in 2011: gov't report
Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy had issued mineral resource exploratory licenses to 24 local and foreign companies in the past year. According to the annual report of the ministry’s mineral resources department released on Friday, the firms are mostly Cambodian-owned ones and those from ...
Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90777/7753471.html
Protesters successful; water prices decrease
Authorities in Prey Veng province yesterday agreed to cut the price of water from 1,800 riel to 1,200 riel a cubic metre after more than 1,000 people blocked National Road 11 for the fourth consecutive day. Acting provincial police chief Dim Yarum said yesterday an ...
Six Months on, No Response to Experts’ Sesan Dam Letter
More than two dozen fisheries experts from across the world have sent a letter of concern to the prime minister and Council of Ministers warning that if construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam goes ahead as planned, it would negatively impact hundreds of thousands ...
Appeal Court Upholds Guilty Verdict in Land Dispute
The Appeal Court on Tuesday upheld its own previous guilty verdict against a farmer from Kompong Chhnang province for defaming KDC, the agri-business firm owned by Chea Kheng, the wife of Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem. Pheng Rom is a member of one ...
Lower Sesan 2 Dam Would be 'Catastrophic'
Hydropower dams planned for the tributaries of the Mekong River, particularly the Lower Sesan 2, will have a “catastrophic” impact on fish stocks throughout the country, according to new research that calls for several planned dams to be reconsidered. Authored by an international group of ...
Net widens on fishing trap ban
Less than a week after banning commercial fishing in Tonle Sap Lake, Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a sub-decree on Monday extending the ban to four provinces along the Mekong River. According to the sub-decree, signed March 5 and released publicly yesterday, commercial fishing will be ...
High Prices of Privatized Water in Prey Veng Lead to Protests
More than 1,000 villagers in Prey Veng city took to the streets in protest yesterday morning after a company that recently took control of the state-run water supply raised prices by 50 percent, from 1,200 riel, or $0.30, to $1,800 riel, according to residents and ...
Police Confiscate Trucks Smuggling Thai Gasoline
Police in Siem Reap province said yesterday that they confiscated two trucks in Varin district Friday morning carrying 24,228 liters of gasoline believed to have been smuggled from Thailand. Soeun Sem, chief of the Siem Reap economic police, said that officers apprehended the two ...
Villagers Appeal to Halt Stung Treng Dam
Eleven village representatives from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces traveled to Phnom Penh yesterday to meet with National Assembly lawmakers and appeal for an end to the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam. The hydropower project, funded by Vietnam Electricity, will flood tens ...
Alarm over proposed dam
The Sam Rainsy Party has asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to verify the details of a proposed dam that could inundate about 10,000 hectares of protected forest, citing concerns that it would lead to rampant illegal logging and devastate a traditional habitat of Siamese crocodiles. ...
David Boyle with additional reporting by Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Cassandra Yeap, P. 5
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022954773/National-news/alarm-over-proposed-dam.html
Prayer Ceremony Held In Attempt to Stop Dam Construction
About 400 indigenous Lao villagers prayed and sacrificed chickens to a powerful local spirit yesterday in Stung Treng province, seeking supernatural help in halting the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam, villagers and commune officials said yesterday. The hydropower projects, funded by Vietnam ...
Hundreds Protest Dam Plans
More than 500 ethnic minority residents of riparian communities in northeastern Cambodia held a peaceful protest Tuesday against the construction of a Vietnamese-led hydroelectric dam that will relocate them from their ancestral land. The villagers, who live along the Se San River in Stung Treng and ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-02282012135535.html
Opposition Party Highlights Illegal Logging Near Dam Site
The Opposition SRP has asked the government to halt plans to proceed with the next hydropower dam slated for Koh Kong, saying that experiences with dams currently in construction in the province suggest the government has been unable to control the attendant illegal logging. In ...
Villagers in capital to protest development
Representatives from five communes in Koh Kong province are scheduled to hold a press conference in the capital today, appealing for government intervention in a land dispute with a Chinese development company that has spanned nearly four years. Lov Hov, a representative from Thmar Sar commune, ...
EdC Power Rationing to Continue Until Rainy Season
A senior official at the state-owned Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) said yesterday that blackouts in Phnom Penh could persist until the onset of the rainy season in June. EdC last week began rationing power citywide, as Phnom Penh is currently short about 100 megawatts of ...
No Investigation of OZ Minerals Deal, Police Say
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have decided not to investigate the Australian mining company OZ Minerals, saying information that the firm paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to family members of officials in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (Mime) when buying out its ...
In Need of Power, Phnom Penh Blacks Out
Rolling blackouts that plagued Phnom Penh this week were the result of the city’s power supply being unable to meet demand as the country moves into the hot season, officials at state-owned Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) said on Friday. Power Outages rolled over the city this ...
Thai Firm Moves in to Build Koh Kong Power Plant
A Thai Company is conducting a feasibility study to build a coal-fired power plant in Koh Kong province and has already invested in a local firm with permission to develop the plant, according to officials and the company. In an announcement to the Thai Stock ...
Businesses Feel Strain of High Gas Prices
The price of gasoline rose to a 5800 riel ($1.44) per liter Monday, a 14 percent rise since the beginning of the year. Economists and businesses yesterday said the high prices are having a negative impact on the economy, as everything from transportation companies to ...
Airline ups stake in fuel fight
The dispute that grounded a Tonlesap Airlines plane on Tuesday and stranded more than 200 passengers in Siem Reap and Taipei, Taiwain, continued yesterday, as plane owner Far Eastern Transport upped the sum it claimed Tonlesap owed for fuel. Far Eastern grounded a plane it had ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022354679/Business/airline-ups-stake-in-fuel-fight.html
Hard investment: Chinese firm eyes Kingdom investment
A Chinese company is aiming to invest in cement production in Cambodia, according to officials at the Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy (MIME). The China Triumph International Engineering Company (CTIEC) would become one of Cambodia’s biggest cement producers and would invest in the Kingdom, said ...
Backing sought for coal-fired power plant
A Thai energy firm has completed a study for a 1,800-megawatt coal power plant in Koh Kong province, and had asked for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s support in furthering the project, government officials confirmed yesterday. The plant would be the largest power generator in the energy-starved ...
Chinese company invests Media system in Cambodia
Chinese businessman Cha intor and president of coal mining group from China decided to invest the opening of Khmer economic magazine in Phnom Penh to boost the close ties for China and Cambodia and also it will enhance traditional media in the country. The announcement ...