Infrastructure
Electricity infrastructure
Cambodia mulls over atomic energy power
Cambodia is mulling over a nuclear power option to feed its anemic energy sector, although private sector pundits called the rough plan a dream – a dangerous one at that. The government plans to use atomic energy in the future as oil, coal and biomass power ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057525/Business/cambodia-mulls-atomic-power.html
World Bank raps dam study firm
The World Bank has blacklisted an arm of the company that carried out a much-criticised study into the Xayaburi hydro dam project, it has confirmed. According to the bank’s website, Pöyry Management Consulting Oy Finland has been banned from conducting business with the bank for three ...
SMEs seek own SEZ
The Federation of Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia (FASMEC) is now pushing for the establishment of a special economic zone (SEZ) for small and medium sized enterprises and is currently discussing such a move with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071857474/Business/smes-seek-own-sez.html
GE Engines to power Cambodian rice husk power project
GE Energy has signed a contract with Cambodian industrial conglomerate Soma Group to supply two of its engines to power a biomass gasification facility. Soma Group’s Hak Se mill biomass gasification project is located in Cambodia’s rural rice milling region Kamphong Cham, and reinforces a 2011 ...
http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/7870/ge-engines-to-power-cambodian-rice-husk-power-project
Laos Postpones controversial development project of Xayaburi dam: Lao Foreign Minister said
Lao Foreign Minister Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith said on Friday that Laos has postponed the controversial development project of Xayaburi Dam Cambodia and Vietnam expressed their shared concerns about the construction project of the dam, which could damage and affect the environment, natural resources, and living condition of the people at the lower countries. ...
Yingluck vows to halt Xayaburi
The Thai company set to build Laos’s Xayaburi hydropower dam will not begin construction until a study determines the dam’s environmental effects on the Mekong River, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Friday. Yingluck reaffirmed her commitment to the study, which Mekong River Commission countries ...
Prices and Monetary Developments
Price levels picked up during the first half of 2012 but will likely cool down in the second half of the year due to changes in energy prices and major food related items. Therefore, the inflation rate has been upwardly adjusted by 30 basis points to 4.8 percent ...
45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting kicks off
The 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) kicked off in Phnom Penh on Monday, focusing on politics, security, food and energy security, economics and culture in order to further advance the bloc’s cooperation toward a community by 2015. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen said thatafter 45 years, ...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-07/09/content_15561089.htm
Laos only ‘surveying’ Xayaburi
Laos has denied it is pushing forward with the controversial Xayaburi hydropower dam in violation of international legal obligations, the country’s state media reported on Friday. Under a 1995 agreement with Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, Laos was obligated to not begin construction without a prior ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070957302/National-news/laos-only-surveying-xayaburi.html
Electric bill hike gets thumbs down
More than 200 villagers in Preah Vihear town thumb-printed a joint complaint to rights group Adhoc over the weekend asking them to appeal to provincial authorities to intervene after their private electricity company raised its prices by more than 1,000 riel per kilowatt hour, NGO ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070957295/National-news/electric-bill-hike.html
Officials Differ on Equipment Confiscation
Forestry Administration officials in Banteay Meanchey province have confiscated and continue to hold equipment valued at $1.5 million from a troubled biofuel plantation without any legal backing, an official in the provincial governor’s office said. Bulldozers, steamrollers and dump trucks were confiscated last month from a ...
Electricity Prices to Rise For Thousands of Homes
The state-owned energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) will increase the price of electricity in September for tens of thousands of homes in Phnom Penh and three other provinces due to a hike in the cost of energy being supplied by Vietnam, officials said yesterday. Ty ...
Cambodian goods to be certified
The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) will begin promoting the Institute of Standards of Cambodia (ISC) certifications by the end of 2012 in an effort to educate people about certified goods, according to ministry officials. The program is in order to boost consumer confidence ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070657245/Business/cambodian-goods-to-be-certified.html
Rice husk power plant deal signed
Cambodia’s Soma Group yesterday signed a US$3-million deal with Indian company Ankur Scientific, the largest biomass-to-energy company in India, to construct a 1.5-megawatt rice husk power plant in Kampong Cham province. ...
Government to cut power subsidies
The government will drop subsidies for high electricity use, after the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC) reported losses of US$3 million between January and May this year. Households consuming more than 200 KW/h per month will no longer receive a 100 to 200 riel per KW/h ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070657247/Business/govt-to-cut-power-subsidies.html
Cambodia, Vietnam united on Xayaburi
Cambodia and Vietnam will write a joint letter to the Lao and Thai governments urging that construction of the Xayaburi dam, in northern Laos, be halted, a spokesman for the government’s Mekong committee said yesterday. Minister of Water Resources Lim Kean Hor met with Vietnam’s Minister ...
Official Says Electricity Prices Set to Increases
State power company Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) plans to increase the price of electricity to make up for a drop in revenue this year, according to a Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy official. “This year, oil prices went up, which meant the EDC did not ...
Hero of clean water Ek Sokchan Retired
Mr. Ek Sokchan, head of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority on June 30 retired from his position and he has been appointed as the secretary of state for Ministry for Industry, Mine and Energy. ...
Coal justified: ministry
The general director of the Energy Department at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has defended Cambodia’s energy needs and its use of coal power as the country attempts to use modern technology to reduce pollution ahead of the ASEAN Senior Energy Officials’ 30th ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070357154/Business/coal-justified-ministry.html
PPWSA shuffle no surprise
Officials and securities firms yesterday showed little distress at the imminent retirement of Ek Sonn Chan, the man credited with straightening out and preparing the capital’s public water utility for its initial public offering in April. A letter from the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy ...
http://Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shuffle no surprise
Cambodian villagers protest controversial Laos dam
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 ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/29/us-cambodia-laos-idUSBRE85S0FX20120629
Equipment Seized From Plantation at Center of UK Fraud Probe
Forestry Administration officials have seized equipment valued at $1.5 million from a Banteay Meanchey province biofuel plantation, which is being investigated for fraud in the UK, company and forestry officials said yesterday. Sustainable Agro Energy’s assets were frozen in February and investigators at the U.K.’s ...
Demonstrators Take On Local Power Suppliers
Hundreds of Kompong Cham villagers protested yesterday and Sunday against high electricity prices in another example of energy-price demonstrations that are becoming increasingly frequent across the country. In Kompong Cham province’s Batheay district, more than 500 villagers yesterday continued a protest over electricity prices that began ...
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