Aid and development
Bilateral development assistance
Rail Operator Restarts Train Services to Kampot
Toll Royal Railways (TRR), the current operator of Cambodia’s dilapidated rail network, restarted freight services to Kampot province yesterday, four months after it suspended its work. TRR’s resumption comes on the heals of a rival proposal to manage the train network by a consortium that includes one ...
Bank Would Back Firm to Take Over Rail Project
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has so far contributed $84 million toward the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, said yesterday it would support a deal to drop the current railway operator if it means the new concessionaire would foot the $60 to $100 million needed ...
Firm says gold deposit discovered in Mondolkiri
Renaissance Minerals announced Friday it has discovered a high-grade gold deposit in an area in Mondolkiri province that lies within the Australian firm’s Cambodian Gold Project. The new find is located about 500 meters to the northeast of the company’s Okvau exploration zone. The announcement comes ...
Exports to China Fell 10% in First Six Months
Revenues generated from Cambodian exports to China fell by 10 percent in the first half of the year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce last week. About $60 million worth of goods were exported from Cambodia to China between January and June, the ...
S. Korea, Cambodia Agree On Sharing Military Supplies
South Korea and Cambodia have agreed to share military supplies in peacekeeping and rescue operations as part of efforts to expand military ties between the two sides, the defense ministry here said Tuesday. Lee Seon-chul, the head of the South Korean defense ministry’s logistics managment bureau, ...
Cambodia plans to ask finance from China to build 300 to 500 km rural roads annually
Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen said this week that he will talk with Chinese leaders especially his Chinese counterpart PM Wen Jiaboa about finance to build 300-500 km rural roads in the country in contribution of helping poverty reduction and living conditions of the local ...
Loans from China Still Welcome, Hun Sen Says
The Chinese government is considering loaning an unspecified amount of money to cover the cost of constructing 20 new national roads, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. Speaking at the inauguration of 128-km stretch of National Road 62 linking Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces, also primarily funded by ...
China firm proposes $6.5bn deal
Chinese firms have huge ambitions for Cambodia, with a second firm this week proposing three projects worth an estimated US$6.5 billion to the National Assembly yesterday, but no deadlines were set for the implementation of the projects, according to officials. Pan Xiaoping, chairman of Ruijin Investment Holding Ltd, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012080957898/Business/china-firm-proposes-65bn-deal.html
Cambodia Inaugurates China-funded Road in N Provinces
Cambodia on Wednesday inaugurated a 128-kilometer China-funded national road No. 62 in an effort to boost social and economic development in northern provinces. The road, from Kampong Thom province’s Kampong Svay district to the provincial town of Preah Vihear province, cost about 52 million U.S. dollars ...
China giant looks to Kingdom
Shandong Shantui, a Chinese firm and one of the largest manufacturers of heavy construction machinery and largest producer of bulldozers has expressed an interest in investing in Cambodia’s agricultural sectors. General Manager Cheng Zhaohong met with Cambodia’s National Assembly President Heng Samrin yesterday morning to present the company’s ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012080757846/Business/china-giant-looks-to-cambodia.html
Philippines and Cambodia in South China Sea row
The Philippines has summoned Cambodia’s ambassador over comments linked to Manila’s territorial row with Beijing. Hos Sereythonh was asked to explain remarks accusing the Philippines and Vietnam of playing “dirty politics” over the issue of Asean and the South China Sea. [H]e did not turn up on ...
ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Focuses On Mutual Benefits
The ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) 10 + 1 Session with 10 ASEAN’s Dialogue Partners, namely, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America were held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 11 July 2012. They focused on cooperation ...
Eviction pain lingers in Phnom Penh
Three years after authorities demolished the last houses in Phnom Penh’s Group 78 community, evictees relocated to the outskirts of the capital are still struggling, the Housing Rights Task Force said yesterday. More than 200 members of the Group 78 community gathered close to the site ...
Devillers Departs on Late Night Flight to China
Detained French architect Patrick Henri Devillers boarded a flight to China late last night after being held in custody in Cambodia for more than a month for his links to the biggest political scandal to hit China in decades, a government spokesman said. At Phnom Penh ...
China provides largest loan to Cambodia
China is the largest provider of financial assistance to Cambodia for agriculture and irrigation development in the last three years, Cambodia’s Minister of Finance Keat Chhon said on Tuesday. Since 2010 to date, he said, Cambodia has received a total loan of $561 million and a ...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-07/17/content_15591814.htm
Did Clinton Draw Parallel With China in Discussing US Aid?
Outlining America’s position on territorial disputes between Asean members and China over the South China Sea, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday also expressed views on a matter a little closer to home: the benefits Cambodia gains from U.S. development assistance. Speaking to reporters ...
Toll Royal to Restart Rail Services Next Month
Less than four months after suspending work on Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, Toll Royal Railways (TRR), the network’s operator, has informed the government that it will recommence transporting construction materials needed to build the southern line on Aug. 1, company officials said yesterday. The decision to ...
China to join ASEAN sea talks
China may not be in ASEAN, but it’s looking more and more like an honorary member – at least where the South China Sea is concerned. ASEAN foreign ministers yesterday took a significant step towards involving the burgeoning superpower in South China Sea discussions, adopting key ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071057326/National-news/china-joins-sea-talks.html
As European leaders try to save the euro, uncertainty about fallout in Cambodia if they don't succeed
It’s after midnight in Sihanoukville and British teenagers are clogging the walkways, pushing past one another to drain free shots at the bars. In Kep, elderly French tourists sun themselves at the upscale Sailing Club while Spaniards and Germans eye the offerings at Phnom Penh’s Central Market. In spite of the growing fears ...
Tales of ‘blood-stained’ sugar
The European Union should immediately remove trade preferences it gives to Cambodian sugar companies accused of human-rights violations including land grabs, representatives of the affected communities told a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. Community representatives from Koh Kong, Kampong Speu and Oddar Meanchey provinces said ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070457189/National-news/tales-of-blood-stained-sugar.html
European Union Grants $54 Million to Cambodia
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 ...
Relocation Woes Persist: Australia
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062156934/National-news/relocation-woes-australia.html
Railway Evictees Tussle With High Debt Levels
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 ...
China to back Kampot power plant
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061956867/Business/china-to-back-kampot-plant.html