Agro-industrial production

With the long-ruling CPP sworn in to govern for another five years despite the opposition CNRP abstaining from sitting in the National Assembly due to election irregularities, a new report argues that imminent threats to Cam­bodia’s future development can only be overcome with significant government ...

Following a high-level meeting yesterday, Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Sam Rainsy said that his party would seek to restart negotiations with the ruling party and possibly join the government. The move marks an apparent about-turn from a party press conference held on Wednesday when Rainsy ...

The government’s latest five-year strategy calls for a complete halt to economic land concessions (ELCs) and an inquiry into those still in the pipeline. But the plan has drawn scepticism from conservationists and rights groups, who pointed out that loopholes have been liberally applied after the ...

The former director of a Vietnamese-owned rubber firm was sentenced in absentia to two and a half years in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday, and ordered to pay $800,000 in compensation for defrauding his former employer, a court official said yesterday. “The ...

KAMPONG SPEU PROVINCE— Three years ago, Pao had a farm and a charcoal stove near a stream in a community called Omlaing in western Cambodia. The farm gave her rice, charcoal sales gave her extra income and the nearby forest provided edible and medicinal plants. Pao ...

In a first step toward clearing villagers from land intended for a planned Koh Kong provincial hydroelectric dam, a Chinese development firm has blocked a road leading to plots where villagers have continued to harvest rice. Officials from Tianjin Union Development Group, which was awarded a ...

The Pursat Provincial Court has issued a summons to a soldier based on the Thai border for allegedly clearing protected land in Veal Veng district, a move the man believes was orchestrated by a company owned by tycoon Try Pheap, which is embroiled in an ...

For the second time in as many weeks, an NGO has accused tycoon Try Pheap of facilitating illegal logging in a protected forest during the election campaign and post-election period, and with the protection of authorities. In a report set to be released today by the ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday questioned two businessmen over allegations of fraud and using forged public documents, including claims they faked a signature from Prime Minister Hun Sen in a mining transaction, court and police officials said. Deputy prosecutor Var Sakada said Cambodian Al ...

Sri Lankan agricultural group Lankem Ceylon PLC says it plans to plant 20,000 hectares of rubber in Cambodia as part of a diversification strategy. Lankem chairman A Rajaratnam disclosed the strategy in the company’s annual report for the year to March, 2012, released by the company ...

Cambodia is falling short of the full liberal democracy enshrined in its Constitution, the government is becoming increasingly intolerant to constructive criticism and judicial, parliamentary and electoral reforms have been slow to take effect, according to U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi’s latest report on ...

Following an investigation of alleged illegal logging by Vietnamese Company 72 in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district forests yesterday morning, provincial Forestry Administration officials claimed nothing seemed awry. Four villagers patrolling the forest at the border of Vietnam reported they had seen six Vietnamese loggers with two tractors, ...

Their work is far from over, but Jarai minority villagers in Ratanakkiri province took another important step forward yesterday in their quest for communal land titles. More than 200 residents of O’Yadav district’s Pate commune signed declarations outlining the ways in which they make use of ...

More than 100 families living in Koh Kong’s Kiri Sakor and Botum Sakor districts are on the clock, with an official government decree demanding they vacate their land in less than two months or face the bulldozers of the Chinese firm slated to build a ...

Villagers in Preah Vihear’s Kulen district are seeking the assistance of rights group Adhoc, claiming a Malaysian rubber company has stopped them from receiving land titles. Sok Yam, 48, one of the four representatives of the Sro Yong commune residents, said members of 72 families thumbprinted ...

An international group that promotes the ethical sourcing of sugar for the food and energy industries has suspended the membership of U.K. sugar giant Tate & Lyle for failing to answer complaints that it was buying from Cambodian plantations accused of stealing land from local ...

The Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA) is opening two plantations in Cambodia, its director-general Datuk Wan Mohamad Zuki Mohamad said Wednesday. He said discussions had been held with the companies that would be tasked with managing the plantations last week. “We are now awaiting approval ...

A lawsuit filed by families in Koh Kong province accusing U.K. sugar giant Tate & Lyle of wrongfully profiting off land stolen from them is heading to trial after efforts to mediate a settlement fell through earlier this month, according to those involved. Law firm Jones ...

Construction of a special economic zone (SEZ) near the Vietnamese border in Ratanakkiri province’s eastern O’Yad­aw district is on track, but who exactly will avail of the facility and its services remains a mystery—even for senior provincial officials. The latest announced venture of agro-industry land concession ...

Romam Gvin could be described as a counterintuitive voter. Intuition might lead you to believe that Mr. Gvin blames the government for the loss of his land to the Vietnamese rubber company that now owns everything for as far as the eye can see here in ...

Two days before a land activist’s scheduled sentencing, about 400 people affected by land grabs demonstrated at Pursat Provincial Court in support of the man who frequently protests against the Pheap Imex Company. About 12,000 families are now involved in land disputes around a Pheap ...

A controversial land titling program set up by Prime Minister Hun Sen has been suspended ahead of the July 28 elections, but critics say the program should not be restarted. The titling program itself began in December 2012 and is expected to end after elections scheduled ...

Less than two months after staffers at a Vietnamese rubber concessionaire were charged over setting homes aflame during a land dispute, the company has been accused of burning and bulldozing more than 900 cashew nut trees and eight hectares of plantation land in O’Chum district, ...

Representatives of a Vietnamese rubber firm that has been accused of contributing to the illegal deforestation of vast tracts of land in northeast Cambodia joined local CPP-aligned government officials in Ratanakkiri province on Friday to hand out rice, salt and sugar to more than 400 ...