Infrastructure
Electricity infrastructure
China quick to act on trade promise
An across-the-board trade and investment deal signed with China’s Yunnan province on Friday was a jump-start to Chinese President Hu Jintao’s pledge a week earlier to double bilateral trade with the Kingdom to US$5 billion by 2017. The package signing, which brought a delegation of 45 ...
Forum Calls on Governments to Halt Laos, Stung Treng Dams
Participants at the Asean Peoples’ Forum have called on regional leaders to halt plans to construct two controversial hydropower dams in Laos and Cambodia because of the large number of people who will be affected and the lack of public consultation. The forum in Phnom Penh, ...
NGOs Send Letters to Prime Ministers to Halt Dam Project
Two environmental organizations sent letters to Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Friday appealing for them to halt the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Stung Treng province. The Sesan 2, a Vietnamese-funded hydropower project, will cause ...
Asean NGO Coalition Claims Members’ Rights Violated
Members of the Asean People’s Forum, a coalition of NGOs that convened in Phnom Penh last week, declared yesterday that their rights had been violated after four workshops on sensitive issues were canceled by the venue where they met. In a statement representing more than 1,200 ...
Prey Veng Villagers Protest Mounting Electricity Costs
More than 200 families in Prey Veng province protested outside the Pea Reang district police office on Wednesday against electricity providers Elisa Hour and Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), which have both refused to lower electricity rates, despite having made a promise to do so three ...
Phnom Penh Residents Asked To Reduce Electricity Usage
State-run Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), the main provider of electricity in the country, has appealed to residents of Phnom Penh to reduce electricity use due to a power shortage, an EdC official said yesterday. The company is only able to produce 70 percent of the city’s ...
China’s Hu Visits Cambodia as Asean Leaders Eye Sea Disputes
President Hu Jintao today becomes the first Chinese head of state to visit Cambodia in 12 years, in a trip days before Southeast Asian leaders gather for talks that may touch on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Hu’s visit, which lasts until April 2, ...
Koh Kong power to go to Thais
Cambodian tycoon Ly Yong Phat has signed a US$3 billion joint-venture agreement with Thai energy firm Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Plc on what would be the Kingdom’s largest power station. Just under 90 per cent of the power, however, would be sold to Thailand. The 1,800 megawatt ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032955308/Business/koh-kong-power-to-go-to-thais.html
Sea Clashes Loom Over Southeast Asia Summit
Tiny Cambodia is emerging as a key pawn in the diplomatic struggle over one of the world’s busiest stretches of water: the potentially energy-rich South China Sea. The country of 15 million people is this year hosting a series of regional summits in which China’s claims ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304177104577308972320988892.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Pursat City Residents Threaten To Protest Electricity Prices
More than 500 residents of Pursat City have signed a letter addressed to Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem threatening to take to the streets in protest if the town’s privately owned electricity distributor does not reduce prices. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian ...
Mining revenues questioned
The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy earned US$1.52 million in non-tax revenues in 2011, a figure that an opposition lawmaker said was far lower than the actual revenues brought in on mining licences. The intake was more than 15 per cent higher than in 2010, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032255187/Business/mining-revenues-questioned.html
First Trial Involving Minister’s Wife Commences
The first trial in a long-running land dispute with the wife of Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem will start today at the Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court, a human rights worker and court officer said yesterday. Court prosecutor Penh Vibol confirmed that the court would ...
As Plans for Dam Gain Traction, Villagers Balk
For hundreds of years, the ancestors of Vam Sovann have lived in Koh Kong province’s remote Araeng valley. Some 70 km from the nearest national road, Mr. Sovann’s village has no electricity or phone coverage, no paved roads or running water; instead, it has access ...
More Than 250 Firms Hold Mining Licenses
Almost 200 mining companies currently hold government licenses to mine construction materials such as granite, or to extract minerals, while another 53 firms are licensed to explore for mineral wealth, according to a Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy report released Friday. Among these firms, 47 ...
Cambodia grants mine exploratory licenses to 24 firms in 2011: gov't report
Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy had issued mineral resource exploratory licenses to 24 local and foreign companies in the past year. According to the annual report of the ministry’s mineral resources department released on Friday, the firms are mostly Cambodian-owned ones and those from ...
Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90777/7753471.html
Protesters successful; water prices decrease
Authorities in Prey Veng province yesterday agreed to cut the price of water from 1,800 riel to 1,200 riel a cubic metre after more than 1,000 people blocked National Road 11 for the fourth consecutive day. Acting provincial police chief Dim Yarum said yesterday an ...
Six Months on, No Response to Experts’ Sesan Dam Letter
More than two dozen fisheries experts from across the world have sent a letter of concern to the prime minister and Council of Ministers warning that if construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam goes ahead as planned, it would negatively impact hundreds of thousands ...
Appeal Court Upholds Guilty Verdict in Land Dispute
The Appeal Court on Tuesday upheld its own previous guilty verdict against a farmer from Kompong Chhnang province for defaming KDC, the agri-business firm owned by Chea Kheng, the wife of Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem. Pheng Rom is a member of one ...
Lower Sesan 2 Dam Would be 'Catastrophic'
Hydropower dams planned for the tributaries of the Mekong River, particularly the Lower Sesan 2, will have a “catastrophic” impact on fish stocks throughout the country, according to new research that calls for several planned dams to be reconsidered. Authored by an international group of ...
Net widens on fishing trap ban
Less than a week after banning commercial fishing in Tonle Sap Lake, Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a sub-decree on Monday extending the ban to four provinces along the Mekong River. According to the sub-decree, signed March 5 and released publicly yesterday, commercial fishing will be ...
High Prices of Privatized Water in Prey Veng Lead to Protests
More than 1,000 villagers in Prey Veng city took to the streets in protest yesterday morning after a company that recently took control of the state-run water supply raised prices by 50 percent, from 1,200 riel, or $0.30, to $1,800 riel, according to residents and ...
Villagers Appeal to Halt Stung Treng Dam
Eleven village representatives from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces traveled to Phnom Penh yesterday to meet with National Assembly lawmakers and appeal for an end to the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam. The hydropower project, funded by Vietnam Electricity, will flood tens ...
Alarm over proposed dam
The Sam Rainsy Party has asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to verify the details of a proposed dam that could inundate about 10,000 hectares of protected forest, citing concerns that it would lead to rampant illegal logging and devastate a traditional habitat of Siamese crocodiles. ...
David Boyle with additional reporting by Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Cassandra Yeap, P. 5
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022954773/National-news/alarm-over-proposed-dam.html
Prayer Ceremony Held In Attempt to Stop Dam Construction
About 400 indigenous Lao villagers prayed and sacrificed chickens to a powerful local spirit yesterday in Stung Treng province, seeking supernatural help in halting the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam, villagers and commune officials said yesterday. The hydropower projects, funded by Vietnam ...