Government
CNRP looks for quieter plan of action as labor strike looms
When a group of six unions organized nationwide strikes in December demanding a $160 minimum wage, the opposition CNRP aggressively took up the cause. Opposition leaders rallied support outside factory gates around the country and tens of thousands of garment workers flooded into Phnom Penh’s Freedom ...
Colin Meyn and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-looks-for-quieter-plan-of-action-as-labor-strike-looms-53527/
End right to unionize, businesses ask Hun Sen
Prime Minister Hun Sen told business leaders and government officials Tuesday that he will not tolerate “illegal” labor strikes that harm investment, but avoided judgment on a request to withdraw ratification of a U.N. convention protecting workers’ rights to unionize. Speaking at the 17th Government-Private Sector ...
Hul Reaksmey and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/end-right-to-unionize-businesses-ask-hun-sen-53516/
Cambodia election ranked 5th most flawed in survey
A new report by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Sydney has ranked Cambodia’s 2013 national election as the fifth most “flawed or failed” out of the 73 national ballots held around the world between July 2012 and December 2013. Based on surveys completed ...
Alex Willemyns and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-election-ranked-5th-most-flawed-in-survey-53518/
‘Like animals in a cage’
A day after union leader Vorn Pov was violently arrested during garment strikes in early January, he was driven to an unknown location and told by armed officers to get out of the vehicle. The union leader said his group of co-accused share a cell ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98-animals-cage%E2%80%99
PM slams CNRP ‘incitement’
Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that the government would not allow the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party to use garment workers as “political hostages” in a strongly worded rebuke of what he painted as a conspiratorial relationship between the CNRP and a number of ...
Vong Sokheng and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-slams-cnrp-%E2%80%98incitement%E2%80%99
Cambodia needs to build human capital for ASEAN Community 2015: PM
Cambodia needs to build qualified and competent human capital to prepare for competition when the ASEAN Economic Community becomes a reality at the end of 2015, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday. “The Cambodian government will focus its attention on strengthening education quality and technical vocational ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-03/04/c_133160359.htm
Japan’s small, medium companies see business opportunity in Cambodia
Many small and medium companies of Japan are showing their interest in doing business in Cambodia, according to an assistant of Prime Minister Hun Sen. 99 percent of Japanese small and medium companies are interested in investing in Asia, especially in Cambodia, which is located ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZmRkYzBiYWVjZWR
Development pushes poor from land as Cambodia dams its rivers
“From my view, I don’t want to have it, but it is development, we can’t stop them,” says Srekor’s village chief, Leang Saroeurn. Cambodia’s impressive yearly GDP growth rates of 7 percent for the last decade have come, in part, through a ravenous consumption of the countries ...
Daniel Quinlan
http://asiancorrespondent.com/120212/development-drives-displacement-as-cambodia-dams-its-rivers/
Two officials arrested on corruption charges
Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) arrested two border officials from on corruption charges. A source said that Sok Hak and Em Sophat were arrested last week after they asked a Hochi Minh-Phnom Penh buses to pay USD 250. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YTQ1ZjRlODdmMjE
28 complaints filed against protest union leaders
28 complaints have been filed against labor union leaders who led and allegedly incited protests from December last year to January 5, 2014, said factory representative on Tuesday. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=Zjg3MTNmZTVjZWE
Cambodia draft laws to ensure independence of the Court
Prime Minister Hun Sen said today that three draft laws will be adopted in the first semester of 2014 to ensure independence of the judiciary in Cambodia. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=Y2UyZTZkYTYxNmJ
Cambodia's banks see robust growth in recent years: PM
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the country’s banking sector has enjoyed strong growth in recent years and urged the banks to increase their lending to agriculture. According to the report of the National Bank of Cambodia, lending at the kingdom’s 34 commercial banks ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=204458
Political Negotiations Open With Agreement on Election Finance
Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties on Monday agreed to create a law governing the regulation of financing for political parties, as they opened negotiations to end the longstanding political deadlock and in hopes of reforming the election process. A joint statement by the ruling Cambodian People’s ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/political-negotiations-open-with-agreemetn-on-election-finance/1863236.html
Cambodia holds gov't-private sector dialogue after 2-year hiatus
The Government-Private Sector Forum was held here on Tuesday after it has had a hiatus for two consecutive years because of Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2012 and general election in 2013. The Tuesday’s dialogue was presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen with the participation of ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=204497
Cambodian PM says no more tolerance for illegal protests
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen reiterated Tuesday that the government would no longer tolerate illegal strikes or demonstrations led by the opposition and its aligned trade unions. Speaking during the 17th Government-Private Sector Forum, the premier said the opposition party and its trade unions have used ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-03/04/c_133159505.htm
City working to keep experimental bus route running
An experiment in public busing sponsored by the Japanese government ends tomorrow, but Phnom Penh officials say they want the service to continue. The service will be handed over to the city and a Chinese company, so that 10 bus lines will keep running, but officials ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/city-working-to-keep-experimental-bus-route-running/1863224.html
Voter list overhaul eyed
More than five months after the Cambodian People’s Party and the Cambodia National Rescue Party first announced a joint commitment to electoral reform following a September 16 meeting, specific measures have finally been agreed upon. The first official meeting yesterday of a bipartisan committee tasked with ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/voter-list-overhaul-eyed
Group of B Kak villagers get long-awaited land titles
Years of fighting for their land came to an end for 17 families at Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak community yesterday when City Hall delivered them long-awaited land titles. The handover was part of a vow to resolve the capital’s main land disputes made by Phnom Penh ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/group-b-kak-villagers-get-long-awaited-land-titles
Daun Penh guards seize protest drum, scuffle with activists
Two political activists were injured by district security guards outside the Daun Penh district office Monday morning after a protest to free 21 protesters beaten and imprisoned during a strike in January turned into an effort to reclaim a confiscated protest drum. The protesters, dressed in ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/daun-penh-guards
Spirited protest at Riverside
Land activists said it was a spiritual ceremony; authorities described it as the latest attention-grabbing from “professional protesters”. Whatever the case, once the familiar scuffling between menacing security guards and civilians had passed yesterday, a demonstration calling for the release of 21 workers and activists arrested ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/spirited-protest-riverside
Slow start for joint electoral reform commission
The ruling CPP agreed in principle to two of seven proposals put forth by the opposition CNRP on Monday during the first meeting of a joint electoral reform commission. Emerging from a four-and-a-half hour meeting at the Senate, leaders of the CPP and CNRP working groups ...
Mech Dara and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/slow-start-for-joint-electoral-reform-commission-53427/
Areng project changes hands again
Sinohydro Corporation has taken over the concession to build the Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province and is preparing for the early stages of construction, according to a company representative and government officials. Ith Prang, secretary of state at the Ministry of Mines and ...
Chhay Channyda and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/areng-project-changes-hands-again
City Hall breaks ground on new 11-story $3.5 million office
The Phnom Penh Municipality has broken ground on a new 11-story $3.5 million building that is intended to house the city’s public services, the municipal spokesman said Monday. Long Dimanche said construction on the building, which is being erected on a 1,000 square meter plot of ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-breaks-ground-on-new-11-story-3-5-million-office-53439/
PM decries copyright theft
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called on government bodies, local authorities, international organisations and the private sector to dial back Cambodia’s widespread theft of copyrighted works, like film and music, and encouraged the creation of more original, home-grown cultural works. Copying other countries’ cultural output – ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-decries-copyright-theft