Agriculture and fishing
PetChem sees healthy growth in 2013, eyes Myanmar, Cambodia
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 18) : Petronas Chemical Group Bhd (PetChem) said that its top and bottom line growth was going to be in “healthy mode” next year, with prices of its chemical products seen to be firming up. Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, its ...
Kreung Minority File Complaint Over Land Clearing
Ethnic minority Kreung villagers filed a complaint against commune level authorities on Saturday for allegedly accepting money from a businessman to clear their ancestral land for a new rubber plantation in Ratanakkiri province, local NGOs and villagers said. ...
Agricultural options eyed in Cambodia
Representatives from over 100 Cambodian and Vietnamese companies gathered in Phnom Penh to seek agricultural investment opportunities between the two countries. Participants listened to reports on trade and co-operation opportunities in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and seafood, delivered by representatives from both governments. They discussed Viet Nam’s ...
http://vietnamnews.vn/Agriculture/234150/agricultural-options-eyed-in-cambodia.html
Rice federation started
A NEW [sic] organisation for rice exporters was launched in Cambodia this weekend in an effort to transform the industry as it seeks to meet ambitious export targets. The Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters (FCRE) was inaugurated on Saturday, and says it will gain full authorization ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012121760310/Business/rice-federation-started.html
Lawmakers Reject Petition
Lawmakers from Cambodia’s ruling party on Monday refused to accept a petition from hundreds of people who held a rally calling for the government’s help in resolving land disputes, drawing criticism from activists who questioned the effectiveness of the country’s parliament. The appeal, which contained more ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/petition-12172012164439.html
Villagers denied land titles after demarcation
Sixty families in Kompong Cham province’s Krathor district are planning to file a complaint with provincial authorities after local land management officials decided to take away their registration documents for land titles under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s recently launched titling program. Pon Pumm, 44 a farmer, ...
Official says resettlement sites are good for development
Widely different interpretations of the government’s land policy were voiced at a conference on Land Security and Housing Rights on Thursday in Phnom Penh, with civil servants defending mass relocations, while rural evictees spoke of being forced into poverty due to loss of their land. ...
Cambodia organizes large-scale trade fair to boost import-export activities
The 7th Cambodia Import-Export Promotion Exhibition kicked off here on Saturday, aiming at promoting local trade and trade between the country and its foreign trading partners. The four-day event, held at the capital’s Diamond Island Exhibition Center, brought together products from 21 countries around the world, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-12/15/c_132042699.htm
Beehive Radio owner loses appeal
The Phnom Penh Court of Appeal ruled Friday that Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando should continue serving his 20-year sentence for sedition. On October 1, the radio station owner was sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined 10 million riel in relation to a ...
Government Bank Gives Loan for Rice Milling
The government-backed Rural Development Bank has handed a $4.5 million loan to a company planning to invest in Cambodia’s efforts to export more milled rice. Rural Development Bank chairman Son Kuon Thor said yesterday that the bank was giving the loan to a new company ...
Jarai Accuse Officials of Pressure Over Private Land Titles
More than 250 ethnic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday, after local officials demanded that the villagers apply for private land titles to protect their property from two Vietnamese rubber companies currently clearing their land, ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/jarai-accuse-officials-of-pressure-over-private-land-titles-6676/
Cambodia Boosting Efforts To Attract US Investors
Cambodia is ramping up efforts to attract US investment, especially because it benefits from trade preferences due to its status as a least-developed country, Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh says. Cambodian products can be imported duty free to a number of markets, including Europe and ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodia-boosting-efforts-to-attract-us-investors/1563626.html
Illegal-logging claims rejected
Provincial forestry administration officials in Ratanakkiri have dismissed allegations of illegal logging by community residents and chalked the deforestation up to legitimate clearing. A cursory examination of the land in question yesterday seemed to back the company’s claims, Ly Sophan, a team worker at the provincial ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/illegal-logging-claims-rejected.html
Kampong Cham residents say casinos pollute fishing grounds
Residents of Tropang Thlong village in Ponhea Krek district say casinos near the border with Vietnam are polluting fishing grounds. ...
Kep first province to wrap land-titling scheme
Seven months after Prime Minister Hun Sen unveiled an ambitious plan to demarcate 1.8 million hectares of state land and formally acknowledge those who live on it, the completion of the first – albeit the smallest – of eight affected provinces has wrapped up. Marking the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/kep-first-province-to-wrap-land-titling-scheme.html
Rice Harvest to Yield Growth, Official Says
As Cambodia’s rice harvest gets into full swing, the government said yesterday that it expects this year’s crop to exceed last year’s, despite fears that drought would limit the yield. Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun said that farmers had already harvested more than 3 million tons ...
UN Envoy Calls for Judicial Reform, Lauds Other Progress
The court system is still “chronically underfunded” and laws on its management are almost 20 years overdue, the U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi said yesterday. One year ago, during his sixth mission to Cambodia, Mr. Subedi described reform in the courts as moving at a ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-calls-for-judicial-reform-lauds-other-progress-6630/
Alliance to disburse $2 million to buy paddy rice, help exports
The Alliance of Rice Producers Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC) will release US$2 million after December 15th to its members in nine provinces so they can buy paddy rice before the harvest season ends and stocks been depleted. He said the pay out is being drawn from ...
Thai Rights Commission to Publish Report on Sugar Plantations
A final report from Thailand’s human rights commission on the alleged rights violations of a Thai company involved in two Cambodian sugar plantations is expected by late January, a member of the commission said. In July, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand said its investigation ...
Idemitsu, Cambodia sign biofuel production deal
Idemitsu Kosan Co. said Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cambodian government to promote biofuel production in the Southeast Asian country. The move is part of plans by the Japanese energy firm to produce bioethanol out of cassava, a type of potato, ...
EU Ambassador Says Listen to Envoy's Advice
The European Union’s ambassador to Cambodia yesterday urged the government to heed the advice of the U.N.’s visiting human rights envoy, who has come under increasing rebuke from officials for his unflattering reports. Addressing a crowd of about 3,000, mostly garment factory workers, at Phnom Penh’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-ambassador-says-listen-to-envoys-advice-6582/
Ethnic group press for communal title
Economic land concessions granted to a pair of Vietnamese companies in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district were endangering the traditional lifestyles of as many as 200 ethnic-minority families, villagerstold the Post yesterday. As the companies actively cleared forest to make room for the eventual rubber plantations, the government ...
UN Envoy Meets Land Dispute Villagers on First Day Mission
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi, who arrived in Cambodia Sunday on a five-day mission, spent yesterday, International Human Rights Day, in Kompong Chhnang province with about 300 villagers from a community embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the wife of a government minister. James ...
Community forest woes
In the latest chapter of what is proving to be an arduous struggle to protect a government demarcated Community Forest in Battambang province, 36 hectares of the land have reportedly been given over to outsiders including a military official. ...
David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012121060181/National-news/community-forest-woes.html