Aid and development

Cambodian villagers demonstrated on Friday against a controversial Lao hydropower dam that activists say is being built in defiance of an agreement to assess its potentially damaging impact on millions of people first. About 200 villagers whose livelihoods depend on the Mekong River urged a halt ...

The European Union yesterday pledged to support Cambodia with three grants totaling $54 million, including one payment to help bolster the country’s ability to organize its public finances, officials announced at a press conference in Phnom Penh. “The E.U. will continue to support Cambodia with ...

The Australian Embassy conceded that problems have plagued the relocation process of about 160 families moved to Trapeang Anhchanh on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last September. The families were moved for a railway rehabilitation project partially funded by the Australian government’s AusAID. “We agree on the ...

Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen on June 14 ordered line ministries to distribute land to landless and real poor people to contribute to strengthening social equity system in the kingdom. “Landless and real poor people will get a plot of land with land titles according to the obvious situation,” Premier said in the launching ceremony ...

Adding to a growing body of research into the flaws of Cambodia’s $142 million railway rehabilitation project, a report published yesterday said soaring debt levels are crippling families forcibly relocated by the project. In the report by land rights organization Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), researchers tracked ...

An unnamed Chinese investor will put nearly US$400 million into a 300-megawatt coal-powered plant in Kampot province, officials said yesterday. The plant, slated for a November groundbreaking, will provide power for the Kampot Special Economic Zone, the nearby Prey Nob oil refinery in Preah Sihanouk province ...

Australia’s Fairfax media has obtained a leaked official report into a troubled and controversial Cambodian rail project being funded by AusAID and the Asian Development Bank. The report outlines poor construction, botched surveys leading to the evictions of families ...

The government has made “remarkable development progress” in successfully guiding the country through the global financial crash of 2008, ensuring economic stability and enabling the government to meet the Cambodian Millennium Development Goal on poverty reduction, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. Speaking at the launch ...

The international side of the Khmer Rouge tribunal has had its financial woes briefly allayed by a $3.97 million pledge from Sweden to fund operations for the next two years. ...

Addressing the killing of 14-year-old Heng Chantha for the first time since she was shot dead last month by government security forces, Prime Minister Hun Sen offered his condolences before declaring that the killing of the teenager was not as serious as the U.S. bombing ...

Cambodia was in discussions with the Chinese government on funding for a 250-kilometre stretch of rail line between Phnom Penh and Vietnam, in what Cambodian officials yesterday called a move away from a “complicated” Asian Development Bank loan. Va Sim Sorya, director general at the Ministry ...

He Guoqiang, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, yesterday announced a donation of about $110,000 worth of office equipment to the CPP, National Assembly Cabinet Chief Koam Kosal said. The donation was made during the official visit to Cambodia of a ...

China treasured its traditional friendship with Cambodia, and would take strategic approaches to step up the bilateral cooperation to a new height, visiting senior leader of the Communist Party of China He Guoqiang said here on Tuesday. In his meeting with Heng Samrin, He spoke ...

A Health Ministry official said yesterday the government was still hoping to recoup the last $20 million of a Global Fund grant for fighting malaria that the international charity has held back because of Cambodia’s poor use of fund dollars. Last week, a spokesman for the ...

Boeng Kak protesters continued their fight for the release of 14 women and one man imprisoned since May 24, delivering a petition to the Senate and the Japanese Embassy on Friday that they hope will spur new intervention in the long-running land dispute. More than 100 ...

The Republic of Korea donated more than 200 military trucks to the Cambodian government last month, a port official said yesterday. Sam Heng, administrative chief of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said the 241 trucks were strictly for transportation. “The trucks arrived before the elections. They’re military cargo ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday urged tour bus operators to respect the traffic law following a recent spate of bus crashes that have killed Cambodians as well as foreign tourists. “Please, respect the land traffic law,” Mr. Hun Sen said during a speech at the inauguration ...

Heavy rainfall in April and May has cut salt production by a third in Kep and Kampot provinces even though farmers extended the harvest season there by a month, farmers said yesterday. Last year, farmers were able to produce about 90,000 tons of salt on 4,500 ...

Phnom Penh City Hall has installed five new surveillance cameras at major intersections around the city in order to help traffic police monitor increasingly congested roads, police and an official at an Internet service provider (ISP) said this week. Paul Blanche-Horgan, CEO of ISP Ezecom—the firm which set up the ...

Local rice miller Mega Green said it planned to export about 240 tons of milled rice to the Chinese market by the end of June – a second round of test exports to Cambodia’s northern neighbour. Renne Outh, owner of Mega Green Imex Cambodia, told the ...

The planned theme of yesterday’s ASEAN defence ministers roundtable was military cooperation between countries, particularly in times of natural disaster, but it was a theme invariably pushed to the background by other regional developments. Among them was what appeared to be a cooling-off period in the ...

Cambodian government officials and private sector leaders have met with Chinese officials to negotiate a US$200 million loan for the development of Cambodia’s rice sector, an official said on Tuesday. The new loan would focus on the development of the agricultural sector, primarily the construction ...

As the region’s top brass gathered in Phnom Penh for the Sixth Asean Defense Ministers Meeting, it was Beijing that once again stole the show with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie signing off on nearly $19 million in military aid to Cambodia. In the country on ...

In response to a spate of deadly bus crashes in the country, the government has ordered all bus companies to provide authorities with detailed histories of all their drivers, an official at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said yesterday. Peou Maly, deputy director-general at the ministry’s transportation department, ...