Energy
Electricity production
Mega First boosts spending on Lao dam, Cambodian rubber project
Malaysia’s Mega First Corp Bhd says it increased spending on a controversial dam project in Laos and a new rubber project in Cambodia by 45 percent to MYR 50.4 million ($15.7 million) in 2013. Project development expenditure on the Don Sahong dam on the Cambodian border ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MmI4Yzk4ZDQ4MjA
NGO says work on Don Sahong dam under way
A conservation group has said its recent trip to Laos revealed that construction on a controversial hydropower dam decried by neighbouring Mekong countries is already under way. International Rivers representatives visiting the proposed site of the 260-megawatt Don Sahong Hydropower Project earlier this month say they ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngo-says-work-don-sahong-dam-under-way
Cambodia’s parliament OKs dam compensation plan
Cambodia’s energy minister allayed concerns in parliament over inadequate compensation offered to villagers who face relocation for a proposed China-backed dam on a Mekong River tributary, saying the government has allocated to villagers more than four times the area taken over for the project. Minister of ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-06192014195419.html
Energy Minister to be questioned in parliament over Se San 2 dam construction
Energy Minister Suy Sem will answer in the National Assembly (NA) on Thursday this week over the construction plan of Se San 2 dam in Stung Treng province, according to a press statement by the General Secretariat of the National Assembly. ...
The Cambodia Herald New Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=ZDNlZWE0MjhjNjQ
Living on a dwindling trade
In Samrong Leu village, a picturesque community nestled deep in the verdant fields of Kors Kralor district, the acrid smell of smoke fills the air. Outside almost every house in this community, billows of smoke continuously emerge from the domes of homemade mud kilns, drifting around ...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/living-dwindling-trade
China provides 300 biodigesters to Cambodian households
The Chinese government signed to provide 300 biodigesters to Cambodian households on Monday, officials said. Sar Chetra, deputy secretary general of the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, signed to receive the donation from Song Xiaoguo, economic councilor at the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-06/16/c_133411168.htm
Government pushes ahead with study of Koh Kong dam
The minister of mines and energy on Monday said a new private-public working group will study the impacts of a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong opposed by hundreds of resident ethnic minority families and find them an adequate resettlement site. A Cambodian consultancy, SBK Research ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-pushes-ahead-with-study-of-koh-kong-dam-61047/
Phnom Penh City Hall hoping to turn garbage into electricity
The Phnom Penh Municipal Government on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Inter Far East Engineering Public Company Limited of Thailand to study the feasibility of turning the city’s waste into energy, according to a notice posted on the municipality’s website. ...
Ben Sokhean and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-city-hall-hoping-to-turn-garbage-into-electricity-60724/
Sesan II reservoir a laundry for illegal timber
Filthy trucks loaded with luxury timber rule the red-earth roads in this heavily deforested district. Each day, dozens of 10-wheelers bounce along the pot-holed roads, carting logs of the much-sought Thnong timber. And while some of the cargo is legal, much of it is not. ...
Matt Blomberg and Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sesan-ii-reservoir-a-laundry-for-illegal-timber-60575/
Laos draws ire of neighbors with Mekong River dam plans
Laos will push ahead with its ambition to become the “battery of Southeast Asia,” planning a Mekong River dam that has drawn opposition from neighbors and threatens to involve China and the U.S. Four Mekong River nations are scheduled to meet June 26-27 in Thailand to ...
Bloomberg News Staff
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-03/laos-draws-ire-of-neighbors-with-mekong-river-dam-plans
Japan firm buys share of new power plant
In what looks to be a concerted push into the Southeast Asian energy sector, Japanese import and export conglomerate Marubeni Corporation has acquired a large stake of Cambodia’s power generation infrastructure. In a Tokyo Stock Exchange filing dated June 2, Marubeni announced it had purchased a ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/japan-firm-buys-share-new-power-plant
NGOs lobby China, companies over Sesan dam
A group of 15 local and international rights groups Tuesday sent a slew of letters to the Chinese government and companies involved in the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province seeking a halt to dam construction due to serious environmental and social ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngos-lobby-china-companies-over-sesan-dam-59807/
Lawmaker blasts illegal logging in Stung Treng
Two draft laws on judicial reform were easily passed by the single-party National Assembly on Friday but the session was overshadowed by a rookie lawmaker’s attack on lax enforcement of forestry laws in Stung Treng province. On the fourth day of the third plenary session of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmaker-blasts-illegal-logging-in-s-treng-59494/
Hun Sen attends dinner, presentation in China
Accompanied by his wife, Bun Rany, Prime Minister Hun Sen continued his trip to China on Tuesday evening by attending a dinner reception hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to state news agency Agence Kampuchea Press. Mr. Hun Sen and his delegation of high-level officials ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-attends-dinner-presentation-in-china-59355/
Cambodia's oil imports up 10 pct in Q1
Cambodia imported 453,000 tons of petroleum in the first three months of 2014, up 10 percent from 412,190 tons over the same period last year, the data of the Ministry of Commerce showed Tuesday. During the January-March period this year, the country spent 442 million U.S. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MjhiNWFmMjgwODB
Chong villagers block Chinese engineers from reaching dam
A group of 20 ethnic minority Chong villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley blocked the road Friday to prevent a group of Chinese engineers from reaching the site of a controversial proposed dam. A number of Chong villagers have been intermittently camping near the road ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chong-villagers-block-chinese-engineers-from-reaching-dam-58944/
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
Lao Dam troubles Mekong waters
Being landlocked and poor has always placed Laos at a disadvantage to its more powerful neighbors. The only body of water that offers Vientiane an international reach is the Mekong River, which flows through the heartland of Southeast Asia. Now, that river, which laps the western ...
Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/magazine-regional/lao-dam-troubles-mekong-waters.html
Ministry fails to settle fears over Koh Kong dam
A meeting at the Ministry of Mines and Energy on Friday about plans for a controversial hydropower dam in Koh Kong province failed to assuage fears among those trying to stop the project that construction had already been approved. During Friday’s meeting, officials from the ministry ...
Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-fails-to-settle-fears-over-koh-kong-dam-58021/
Areng Valley group, villagers to visit Mines Ministry
The Ministry of Mines and Energy invited the head of an NGO battling to stop construction of a highly criticized dam in a remote area of Koh Kong province to meet with ministry officials Friday. Signed by Mines Minister Suy Sem and dated April 25, the ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/areng-valley-group-villagers-to-visit-mines-ministry-57870/
Planning delays oil refinery’s progress
Construction on Cambodia’s $2.3 billion oil refinery has been set back again, this time due to planning delays, the project’s local partner, Cambodia Petrochemical Company (CPC), confirmed yesterday. The landmark oil refinery was slated to begin construction in December 2013 following a $1.67 billion loan from ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/planning-delays-oil-refinery%E2%80%99s-progress
Despite dolphin-saving plan, dam threat remains
A little more than two years after signing off on a scheme aimed at improving protection of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin, experts said last week they were concerned that Mekong dams would see wholesale destruction of the population. During a two-day workshop that closed on ...
The Cambodia Daily
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-dolphin-saving-plan-dam-threat-remains-57509/
Cambodia asks for help in oil and gas industry
Cambodia has invited resource-rich Azerbaijan to help develop Cambodia’s prospective oil and gas industry, Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol announced during a high-level visit to the Caucasian country on Tuesday, according to Azerbaijani media reports. Mr. Chanthol laid out a goal to achieve an overall trade ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/cambodia-asks-for-help-in-oil-and-gas-industry-57237/