Infrastructure
City’s Transportation Workers Protest High Gasoline Prices
About 100 tuk-tuk drivers, motorcycle taxi drivers, vendors and other informal transportation workers protested against the high price of gasoline yesterday at the National Assembly, claiming the high petrol prices are cutting into their small profits. Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy ...
Evictees’ plea: New petition chugging along to ADB
Families evicted from their homes by the rehabilitation of Phnom Penh’s stretch of the national railway said they had filed their second petition in two weeks to the Asia Development Bank yesterday, seeking help to improve living conditions at their resettlement site. ...
Donors Face Mounting Pressure Over Rail Project
A group of NGOs on Friday called on Australia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to suspend work and funding for a government-led project to rehabilitate the country’s railway system should authorities in Poipet City follow through on an eviction notice delivered to 22 families ...
China quick to act on trade promise
An across-the-board trade and investment deal signed with China’s Yunnan province on Friday was a jump-start to Chinese President Hu Jintao’s pledge a week earlier to double bilateral trade with the Kingdom to US$5 billion by 2017. The package signing, which brought a delegation of 45 ...
Storm levels Kampong Thom homes
Nine villagers were injured and about 270 homes damaged when a storm ravaged Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district on Friday, police said yesterday. Sandan district governor Sim Vanna told the Post that gale-force winds and heavy rain had swept across the region, leaving a trail of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012040955509/National-news/storm-levels-k-thom-homes.html
Violence Breaks Out at Railway Relocation Site
Three villagers who were evicted last year to make way for the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railway—part of a $142 million project paid for by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAid—were hospitalized early Friday morning after they were attacked with rocks and sticks at a ...
Sihanoukville port revenues up 22% on economic growth
Revenues earned by the Sihanouk Autonomous Port for the first quarter of this year jumped 22 per cent year-on-year to US$8.3 million, according to figures released yesterday by SAP. Exports of the Kingdom’s rice, garments and timber, coupled with imports of textiles, electronics and construction materials, ...
Eviction Notices Arrive Too Late, Villagers Say
Poipet City authorities have issued eviction notices to those living alongside a section of railway that is earmarked for renovation, telling the families to move within 10 days or risk loss of property. The villagers said yesterday they received the eviction announcement only one day before ...
Forum Calls on Governments to Halt Laos, Stung Treng Dams
Participants at the Asean Peoples’ Forum have called on regional leaders to halt plans to construct two controversial hydropower dams in Laos and Cambodia because of the large number of people who will be affected and the lack of public consultation. The forum in Phnom Penh, ...
NGOs Send Letters to Prime Ministers to Halt Dam Project
Two environmental organizations sent letters to Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Friday appealing for them to halt the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Stung Treng province. The Sesan 2, a Vietnamese-funded hydropower project, will cause ...
Families Evicted by Railway Project File Complaint With Bank
More than 150 residents evicted from Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district to make way for a railway rehabilitation project filed a complaint yesterday with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) office in Phnom Penh, one of two principal financiers for the project, saying their relocation site ...
Replacement for Toll’s Kerr has arrived in Phnom Penh
Toll Royal Railways chief executive David Kerr is on track to leave Cambodia by the end of the month, according to his expected replacement. Bobby Luow, a 40-year veteran of the rail industry, mainly in South Africa, told the Post he had been brought in to ...
Railway evictees seek ADB aid
Families forced to move by the rehabilitation of the Phnom Penh stretch of the national railway petitioned the Asian Development Bank yesterday for help with their livelihoods. About 50 people gathered outside the ADB’s office to submit a petition representing more than 160 families relocated to ...
Asean NGO Coalition Claims Members’ Rights Violated
Members of the Asean People’s Forum, a coalition of NGOs that convened in Phnom Penh last week, declared yesterday that their rights had been violated after four workshops on sensitive issues were canceled by the venue where they met. In a statement representing more than 1,200 ...
Trucks Banned on Phnom Penh Streets for Duration of Summit
Phnom Penh City Hall has banned all trucks transporting goods and gasoline from traveling on the city’s roads in daytime hours to ease traffic during the Asean Summit, according to a notice placed on the municipality’s website Saturday. The Ministry of Education has also told 12 ...
Templeton Cautions Investors Riding Myanmar, Cambodia Growth
Investors should be cautious when pursuing the opportunities for growth present in Myanmar and Cambodia, Southeast Asia’s frontier markets, Templeton Asset Management Ltd. said. In Cambodia, state-owned Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority will have its initial public offering this month, making it the first to ...
Prey Veng Villagers Protest Mounting Electricity Costs
More than 200 families in Prey Veng province protested outside the Pea Reang district police office on Wednesday against electricity providers Elisa Hour and Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), which have both refused to lower electricity rates, despite having made a promise to do so three ...
Phnom Penh Residents Asked To Reduce Electricity Usage
State-run Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), the main provider of electricity in the country, has appealed to residents of Phnom Penh to reduce electricity use due to a power shortage, an EdC official said yesterday. The company is only able to produce 70 percent of the city’s ...
China’s Hu Visits Cambodia as Asean Leaders Eye Sea Disputes
President Hu Jintao today becomes the first Chinese head of state to visit Cambodia in 12 years, in a trip days before Southeast Asian leaders gather for talks that may touch on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Hu’s visit, which lasts until April 2, ...
Koh Kong power to go to Thais
Cambodian tycoon Ly Yong Phat has signed a US$3 billion joint-venture agreement with Thai energy firm Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Plc on what would be the Kingdom’s largest power station. Just under 90 per cent of the power, however, would be sold to Thailand. The 1,800 megawatt ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032955308/Business/koh-kong-power-to-go-to-thais.html
Bank Backs Displaced Families’ Compensation
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), one of the two major financiers of the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railways, yesterday rejected criticism that they were providing insufficient resettlement packages to residents displaced by the project. On Friday, the ADB released a cost study that showed that the compensation ...
Sea Clashes Loom Over Southeast Asia Summit
Tiny Cambodia is emerging as a key pawn in the diplomatic struggle over one of the world’s busiest stretches of water: the potentially energy-rich South China Sea. The country of 15 million people is this year hosting a series of regional summits in which China’s claims ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304177104577308972320988892.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
China influence over Cambodia to be tested at SE Asia summit
China’s presence in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh is obvious. The city skyline is dotted by Chinese-funded projects. But the full extent of Beijing’s influence here will be tested when President Hu Jintao visits this week ahead of a regional summit. The timing of Hu’s visit ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/asean-china-idUSL2E8ER98X20120329?irpc=93
Pursat City Residents Threaten To Protest Electricity Prices
More than 500 residents of Pursat City have signed a letter addressed to Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem threatening to take to the streets in protest if the town’s privately owned electricity distributor does not reduce prices. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian ...