Environment and natural resources
Water resources
Clinton Says Asean Is Key to US Foreign Policy
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday raised the issue of territorial disputes in the South China Sea with Prime Minister Hun Sen and outlined the strong focus the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is currently placing on the Asean region, officials said. Arriving in ...
China to join ASEAN sea talks
China may not be in ASEAN, but it’s looking more and more like an honorary member – at least where the South China Sea is concerned. ASEAN foreign ministers yesterday took a significant step towards involving the burgeoning superpower in South China Sea discussions, adopting key ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071057326/National-news/china-joins-sea-talks.html
PM insists worries about dam overblown
In February, Son Chhay wrote to the premier urging him to investigate illegal logging outside the legal clearing area slated for the Stung Tatai dam reservoir in Koh Kong province and the environmental destruction that would be wrought by the Stung Cheay Areng dam. In a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071057322/National-news/worries-about-dam-overblown.html
Laos only ‘surveying’ Xayaburi
Laos has denied it is pushing forward with the controversial Xayaburi hydropower dam in violation of international legal obligations, the country’s state media reported on Friday. Under a 1995 agreement with Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, Laos was obligated to not begin construction without a prior ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070957302/National-news/laos-only-surveying-xayaburi.html
Cambodia Reaching New Heights
As much of the world struggles with post growth, Cambodia’s tourism and hospitality sector continued to expand and diversify, attracting more intraregional activity and especially from major emerging markets in Asia, MICE segments, as well as traditional leisure clientele. Like neighboring countries Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos, Cambodia has quickly emerged into a well sought-after tourist ...
Police Seize Excavators Used to Dig Reservoirs
A further nine excavators used in the creation of illegal reservoirs have been seized by military police in Kompong Thom province’s Stong district, bringing the total number of machines confiscated this week to 38, police said Thursday. Twenty-nine excavators were seized during raids around the Tonle ...
Cambodia, Vietnam Seek Stop to Xayabari Dam Construction
Cambodia and Vietnam will send a letter signed by the prime ministers of both countries to demand that Laos and Thailand halt the construction of a dam on the mainstream Mekong River in Laos, an official from the Cambodian National Mekong Committee said yesterday. The decision ...
Cambodia, Vietnam united on Xayaburi
Cambodia and Vietnam will write a joint letter to the Lao and Thai governments urging that construction of the Xayaburi dam, in northern Laos, be halted, a spokesman for the government’s Mekong committee said yesterday. Minister of Water Resources Lim Kean Hor met with Vietnam’s Minister ...
Over 300 Cambodian protesters demand Laos to halt construction of Xayaburi dam
Over 300 Buddhist monks and Cambodian residents who live along Mekong River in Kampong Cham province, about 120km from Phnom Penh, gathered in the provincial town to demand for Laos to halt the construction of Xayaburi dam. “We want the Lao government to stop the construction of Xayaburi dam because it will affect the ...
Cambodia to create its first Marine Protected Area
Cambodia will begin the creation of its first Marine Protected Area (MPA) this year, covering some 300 square kilometres of coral-rich seas around islands of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem in the Gulf of Thailand. This follows a successful two-year scientific survey of the area ...
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/?lid=30370§ion=35&topic=23
Wenzhou business grows in Phnom Penh
The number of incoming business people from Wenzhou, a Chinese coastal city of three million known for manufacturing, has grown markedly in recent years. So much, in fact, that Wezhou opened an official chamber of commerce in Phnom Penh last week. Labour and land costs on China’s ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070457175/Business/wenzhou-business-grows.html
Raids Netted Excavators Owned by CPP Official
Twelve of the 29 excavators seized by military police in Kompong Thom province during Monday’s military police raids on illegal Tonle Sap reservoirs were confiscated from a farming collective run by a newly elected CPP commune chief. Peanh Poul, director of the Dry Rice Season Community, ...
Authorities Seize Excavators Constructing Illegal Reservoirs
Kompong Thom provincial military police confiscated 29 excavators and arrested four drivers in a four-day operation ending yesterday aimed at stopping the illegal construction of reservoirs around the Tonle Sap lake, officials said. The reservoirs, which are used to retain water for use in dry-season farming, ...
Hun Sen Calls on Public to Help Protect Tonle Sap Fisheries
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday marked National Fish Day by urging the public to report anyone fishing inside the Tonle Sap conservation area he established earlier this year to help protect and revive the lake’s vital fish stocks. “People have to dare to stand up and ...
Cambodia releases 600,000 fry, shrimps to observe 10th National Fish Day
At least 500,000 baby fish and 100,000 young shrimps had been released into a reservoir in the Eastern part of Cambodia on Sunday to mark the 10th National Fish Day. Annual event is aimed at encouraging people to actively join forces to preserve fish species ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-07/01/c_131687674.htm
Hundreds Protest Lao Dam Project
The Venerable Sann Leang, executive director of NGO Environmental More than 500 villagers held a march in eastern Cambodia Friday to protest a controversial dam project on the Mekong River in Laos they say is undergoing construction despite a pledge to halt progress while officials ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-06292012165509.html
Cambodian villagers protest controversial Laos dam
Cambodian villagers demonstrated on Friday against a controversial Lao hydropower dam that activists say is being built in defiance of an agreement to assess its potentially damaging impact on millions of people first. About 200 villagers whose livelihoods depend on the Mekong River urged a halt ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/29/us-cambodia-laos-idUSBRE85S0FX20120629
Inspiring tech entrepreneurship
The arrival of Startup Weekend in Cambodia marked a new beginning for high-tech entrepreneurship as more than 80 people worked on all kinds of new business ideas all weekend at Yellow Tower across the Tonle Sap from The Riverside. Chief Marketing Officer Joey Pomerenke of Startup ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062556987/Business/tech-entrepreneurship.html
B Kak 15 Petition Sent to Japanese Embassy
Boeng Kak protesters continued their fight for the release of 14 women and one man imprisoned since May 24, delivering a petition to the Senate and the Japanese Embassy on Friday that they hope will spur new intervention in the long-running land dispute. More than 100 ...
Sand Settles on Boeng Kak Project as Site’s Future Uncertain
In Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district there is a 133-hectare mound of sand that was once a lake. It took nearly four years to fill Boeng Kak with that sand. On the southern perimeter of the massive sand pit sit two large billboards. On those billboards there ...
Stevia Nutra Corporation Set to Launch Stevia Propagation Centre in Cambodia
Stevia Nutra Corporation — (The Company), an Agro-Management company focused on stevia agronomics is pleased to announce that it has successfully acquired 50 acres of prime agricultural land in Cambodia for its new innovative Stevia Propagation Centre (SPC). The property is located just outside the town ...
Cambodia wants Kuwait tourists
Tourism officials in the Kingdom have suggested that the Kuwaiti ambassador should push for direct flights between Cambodia and Kuwait, and invited Kuwaitis to invest in Cambodia’s soaring tourism sector. “We need more and more investment in the tourism sector,” said tourism minister Thong Khon. He ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052956447/Business/cambodia-wants-kuwait-tourists.html
Cambodia Home to Frenchman in Bo Xilai Drama
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Throughout the drama this spring revolving around the dismissal of the ambitious Chinese official Bo Xilai and the investigation of his wife as a murder suspect, the most mysterious figure has been a French architect named Patrick Henri Devillers. When Mr. Bo ...
Farmers Blame Gold Mines for Cattle Deaths
Villagers in Battambang province’s Phnom Proek district have called on the government to shut down several unlicensed gold mines being blamed for the deaths of cattle that drank from a pond contaminated by chemical runoff. “Three of the village’s cows died and two became sick after ...