Infrastructure
Transport and shipping
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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
A ‘good neighbour’ policy
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr chose Cambodia as his first official overseas trip since his March 2 appointment to the top foreign policy job. The Australian Labor Party politician, former journalist and longtime premier of New South Wales sat down on Monday evening with the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032855289/National-news/a-good-neighbour-policy.html
NGOs Say Railway Compensation Report Devalues Homes
Housing rights groups yesterday criticized resettlement packages paid out by the government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to people displaced by the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railways, saying the packages do not account for growing inflation. A joint statement issued yesterday by Housing Rights Task Force, ...
Railway project suffers a blow
The contractor in charge of rebuilding Cambodia’s national railway has been cutting corners on the health and safety of its workers, according to a report published yesterday by the Asian Development Bank. TSO-AS & Nawarath, a French-Thai joint venture, was reportedly found to have grossly violated ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032355214/Business/railway-project-suffers-a-blow.html
ADB Won’t Pay to Finish Rail Project
Having already spent millions of dollars, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will not foot the additional $70 to $90 million in funds still needed to complete more than half of Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project, an official from the ADB said yesterday. Toll Royal Railways, a joint venture ...
Rail Project In Need of More Funds
The rehabilitation of Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network is nearly six months behind schedule, and with more than a year’s worth of work to do, the project is running out of money, a consultant for the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said yesterday. Paul Power, a ...
Gov’t Reveals Chinese, Korean Railway Plans
The Chinese and South Korean governments have been granted permission to build 565 km of new railroad in Cambodia and have already conducted feasibility studies, according to a government report released yesterday. In its annual report, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said that plans ...
Siem Reap proposed airport said to be on track
A senior government official has said construction on the US$1 billion airport project in Siem Reap was still on track despite the recent arrest of a key person in charge of the project. Plans and designs for the New Siem Reap International Airport had been submitted ...
Toll trains said to stop March 31
Toll Group has informed the Cambodian government that it will suspend all railway operations and lay off half of its Cambodian staff at the end of the month, according to a source familiar with the situation. The Australian logistics firm, which in partnership with Royal Group ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032055123/Business/toll-trains-said-to-stop-march-31.html
Toll Yet to Issue Statement On Railway Project Status
Several days after a report that Australian transportation company Toll Holdings would abandon its stake in a joint venture to operate Cambodia’s railway system, the company remained silent Friday on its future plans here. “Let’s wait for the truth rather than make assumptions,” he added. ...
Toll Group Mum on Possible Rail Project Exit
Australian transportation solutions provider Toll Holdings remained silent yesterday on whether it would be pulling out of its 30-year contract to operate Cambodia’s railway system. In a report published on Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald cited “reliable sources in Cambodia” as saying that the company would ...
Royal Group Denies Toll’s Exit From Local Railway Project
Royal Group chairman Kith Meng yesterday denied reports that Australian company Toll Holdings would be pulling out of a $140 million joint venture project to rehabilitate Cambodia’s railway system. Toll Holdings, in a joint venture with Royal Group, signed a 30-year contract with the government in ...
Toll Group alleged to be leaving rail project
Australian logistics company Toll Group is allegedly pulling out of its 30-year concession to operate the Kingdom’s national railway, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Citing “reliable sources”, an SMH report said Toll would leave its US$145 million Toll Royal Railway joint venture with Cambodia’s Royal ...
China to continue helping Cambodia with infrastructure
China will continue to help Cambodia with its infrastructure and raise living standard of its people, said Pan Guangxue, Chinese ambassador to Cambodia here Monday. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Cambodia’s 57 national road Battambang-Pailing section in Battambang, Pan said “The completion of the road ...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2012-03/13/content_14820472.htm
Cambodia Potential
The potential for investment in Cambodia certainly appears to be there, as the country’s location in Indochina affords much opportunity for cross-border trade with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, says Mark Mobius. Mr Mobius, who oversees more than US $40 billion worth of investments as executive chairman ...
Gov't Opens Rivers to Sand Dredging
Nine companies have put in bids for the rights to dredge the lengths of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and sell the sand for export, Water Resources Ministry officials said yesterday, noting that the dredging would be beneficial in terms of deepening the waterways. ...