Economy and commerce
Investment
Rainsy attack ‘shocks’ tycoon
Prominent businessman and Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat yesterday questioned what he had done to warrant a verbal attack from opposition party leader Sam Rainsy, who said on Wednesday that the tycoon had grabbed land from people in Koh Kong province and should ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rainsy-attack-%E2%80%98shocks%E2%80%99-tycoon
Rubber prices tumble as industry panics
Cambodia’s steadily declining rubber prices have hit critically low levels that are destined to only get worse as Thailand prepares to offload huge rubber stocks, the secretary-general of the Association for Rubber Development of Cambodia said Thursday. As the price of natural rubber has paralleled a ...
Kang Sothear and George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/rubber-prices-tumble-as-industry-panics-58889/
Aus called out on railway
Rights groups are calling out the Australian government for being “curiously absent” from discussions about further compensation for thousands of families affected by a railway rehabilitation project that it co-funded with the Asian Development Bank. The bank has borne the brunt of criticism over botched resettlement ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/aus-called-out-railway
Longans longing for storage
The amount of land used to grow longans has doubled in the past two years, but a lack of supply-chain infrastructure is hampering farmers’ ability to get top dollar for their product, the fruit’s body says. Sreng Sreang, deputy director of the Pailin Longan Farmers’ Community ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/longans-longing-storage
Striking Caltex Workers Call on US for Support
A small group representing striking Caltex gas station workers delivered a petition to the US Embassy on Thursday, asking for help as they seek an increase in monthly wages. Hundreds of Caltex workers have been on strike since Monday, joining garment factory workers in calls for ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/striking-caltex-workers-call-on-us-for-support/1915202.html
17 families reject payout from minister’s wife
A special committee set up in March to settle a long-running land dispute between 52 families in Kompong Chhnang province and the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem has finished its work, leaving 17 families without a deal. Deputy provincial governor Dork Sothea, who ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/17-families-reject-payout-from-ministers-wife-58741/
As free man, Polonsky plans tourism mecca
Sergei Polonsky, a Russian fugitive and former billionaire real estate magnate who was recently released from prison in Cambodia, has grand plans for a string of islands off the coast of Sihanoukville. Less than a month after the Supreme Court refused to extradite him to Russia ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-free-man-polonsky-plans-tourism-mecca-58726/
Caltex loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars, striking workers say
Chevron’s Caltex gas stations are potentially losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per day in Cambodia, striking employees say. Workers say Caltex, a subsidiary of US-based multinational Chevron, sells between 5,000 to 10,000 liters per station per day, putting its losses between $350,000 to $700,000 ...
Khoun Theara,
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/caltex-loosing-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-striking-workers-say/1914429.html
Strike by Cambodian Caltex staff enters 3rd day after wage talks fail
Cambodian workers for the U.S.- owned Caltex petrol stations in Phnom Penh continued their strike for higher wages Wednesday after wage negotiations late Tuesday failed to reach any agreement. Strike leader Sar Mora, president of the Cambodian Food and Service Workers Federation, said some 300 Caltex ...
Xinhuanet News
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/14/c_133332966.htm
Sexual abuse among claims against HAGL
Sexual assault and the annihilation of sacred graveyards are among the many claims levelled at Vietnamese Rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) by villagers in Ratanakkiri province, a report by the World Bank’s investment arm reveals. In February, 17 indigenous communities that accused HAGL of ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sexual-abuse-among-claims-against-hagl
Standard forms aim for public bid transparency
The Ministry of Economy and Finance on Monday announced the release of standardised bidding forms for public contracts, a measure it said would increase transparency and accountability, though the opposition and Transparency International Cambodia offered more cautious assessments yesterday. According to a state media announcement, the ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/standard-forms-aim-public-bid-transparency
After strong start, city bus’ future unclear
After a monthlong test run saw 10 buses often filled with passengers, a Chinese-owned company promised in early March to inject millions into the project and add hundreds of new buses. But Global Trade Development left the project last month after the municipality refused to grant ...
Hul Reaksmey and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-strong-start-city-bus-future-unclear-58640/
CPP-friendly businessman launches newspaper
T Mohan, a Malaysian publisher and businessman arrested in the 1990s for attempting to extort a casino executive, is back in Cambodia’s newspaper market. The Khmer Times, the latest English-language news offering from Mr. Mohan, hit newsstands earlier this month, with a government spokesman even resigning ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-friendly-businessman-launches-newspaper-58610/
Court temporarily halts lease transfer for victory beach
Russian businessmen Nikolai Doroshenko and Sergei Polonsky are locked in a legal dispute over Sihanoukville’s Victory Beach following Mr. Polonsky’s release from prison last month, according to copies of court documents obtained Monday. The Preah Sihanouk provincial court has temporarily prevented Mr. Doroshenko from transferring the ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-temporarily-halts-lease-transfer-for-victory-beach-58598/
Illegal wood exports to China tripled in 2013
Cambodia’s exports of protected rosewood and other high-value timber to China more than tripled last year, according to U.N. figures cited in a new report that blames lax law enforcement across the Mekong region and skyrocketing demand in China for pushing some species to the ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-wood-exports-to-china-tripled-in-2013-58593/
Cambodian rights worker faces death threats over land dispute
A worker with the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) has been intimidated and received death threats while trying to document the plight of three families involved in a bitter land dispute with a developer in the country’s capital, according to the center. The worker, Vann ...
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/threats-05122014162650.html
Government says 3.4 million land titles issued
The government has issued a total of 3.4 million land titles across the country, 500,000 of them since a renewed push personally orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to new figures released by the Land Management Ministry. In a notice posted to its website Friday, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-3-4-million-land-titles-issued-58477/
Angkor brewery agrees to strikers’ demands
More than 200 striking workers at Cambodia’s largest brewer, Cambrew Ltd., resumed work on Saturday after the company agreed to lift their monthly salary from $120 to $150 as they had been demanding. The workers at the company, which produces Angkor beer and Black Panther stout, ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angkor-brewery-agrees-to-strikers-demands-58466/
No clubs near schools, Council of Ministers says
The Council of Ministers on Friday passed a sub-decree on the management of adult entertainment clubs and a draft of a new national housing policy to promote home ownership, a cabinet official said. The new Sub-Decree on Management of Adult Entertainment Places, consisting of 25 articles, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-clubs-near-schools-council-of-ministers-says-58464/
Villagers in Svay Rieng angry over planned canal
More than 200 villagers from three communes in Svay Rieng province on Saturday protested against a proposal to build a huge irrigation canal through their land, a local official said Sunday. The planned canal would stretch across Kraol Kor, Svay Yea and Chhoeuteal communes in Svay ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-in-svay-rieng-angry-over-planned-canal-58480/
Another three textile union reps arrested
Police arrested another three union representatives on Friday for allegedly inciting garment workers to strike and protest in front of their factory over the past few weeks, this time in Kandal province. It follows the arrest last week of six representatives of another union ahead of ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-three-textile-union-reps-arrested-58456/
For Union Leader on Run, Militant Attitude Prevails
Tax revenue increased 9.5 percent to $353.46 million in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period last year, according to a statement released Friday by the Ministry of Finance’s general department of taxation. Kong Vibol, general director of the taxation department, said ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/tax-revenue-up-9-5-percent-in-first-quarter-58489/
Kia enters market with high hopes
Kia Motors opened its first showroom in Cambodia on Friday and the local authorised dealer, A&A Auto Group, says the time is right for the Korean carmaker to join the ranks of those looking to tap the country’s growing middle class. Sin Soveoung, sales manager for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/kia-enters-market-high-hopes
Kratie families march in Phnom Penh to protest evictions
Nearly 200 villagers from Kratie province gathered in Phnom Penh Monday, hoping to deliver a petition to the Cambodian Senate and other government agencies in protest of a rubber company’s development there. The villagers, from Snoul district, say a Vietnamese rubber company began developing in ...
Suy Heimkhemra,
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/kratie-families-march-in-phnom-penh-to-protest-evictions/1912760.html