Infrastructure
Electricity infrastructure
Business hub set to tackle key challenges before listing
The Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone has 77 tenants from nine countries and 80 per cent occupancy, but high electricity costs and corruption remain a drag on profits. The main issue is electricity costs, says PPSEZ chief executive Hiroshi Umaetsu. “If [electricity] goes from 19 ...
Charles Rollet
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business-hub-set-tackle-key-challenges-listing
Electricity price to be down from here on: Hun Sen confirms
During a meeting with Lord James Sasson, Executive Director of Jardine Matheson Holdings, at Phnom Penh’s Peace Palace, on Thursday, Prime Minister Hun Sen confirmed that the electricity price in Cambodia will be down from now on. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/electricity-price-to-be-down-from-here-on:-hun-sen-confirms-8184
EdC to light up casino town
Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) has announced an $84.5 million project that will see the Vietnamese border town of Bavet connected to the Kingdom’s power grid. EdC representatives told media on January 15 that the Chinese government will in part fund the power grid expansion from Kandal ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/edc-light-casino-town
Gov’t meets with landlords to discuss new electricity scheme
Less than a week after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced plans to reduce the price that migrant workers in Phnom Penh pay for electricity, the municipality hosted 12 public forums Monday to discuss a new payment scheme to be overseen by state operator Electricite du ...
Fear motivating relocation
Deep in the forest, about an hour from Stung Treng’s provincial capital through a rough and difficult road, just over half of the houses in an ethnic minority village have been tagged with bright orange spray paint saying, “LSS2”. According to a 2010 environmental impact ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fear-motivating-relocation
Power-grid study to tackle supply problems
U.S. conglomerate General Electric (GE) on Thursday inked a $1 million deal with Cambodia’s state-owned Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) to conduct a six-month study to identify weaknesses in Cambodia’s electrical grid with the aim of enhancing the reliability of the power supply. According to the EdC, ...
George Styllis and Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/power-grid-study-to-tackle-supply-problems-74517/
GE signs deal with Cambodia to improve power grid
The U.S.-based conglomerate General Electric (GE) signed an agreement with Cambodia’s state- owned Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) on Thursday to help improve the country’s power grid. The contract was inked by GE energy consulting managing director Ravi Segal and EdC director-general Keo Rattanak. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2014-12/18/c_133863795.htm
Xayaburi dam nearly half done
Construction of the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in Laos is almost half finished, the developer behind it has said. ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/xayaburi-dam-nearly-half-done
Villagers in the dark over dam relocation
Communities living close to the Lower Sesan II dam site in Stung Treng province have called on the government to publicly disclose what compensation they will receive. Logging continues as the area is cleared ahead of construction, but those who will be forced to leave their ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/villagers-dark-over-dam-relocation
Dam promises are ‘a facade’
With regional consultations on Laos’s Don Sahong dam expected to commence soon, the developers are violating pledges to postpone construction, which is being undertaken by a Chinese company associated with several controversial hydropower projects, the Post has learned ...
Daniel Pye and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-promises-are-%E2%80%98-facade%E2%80%99
Malaysia's Wah Seong in 10-year power deal with Cambodia
Wah Seong Corporation Bhd’s subsidiary will be selling 48,000 MW of power per annum over 10 years to Cambodia’s power company. Wah Seong said on Friday its subsidiary PMTI Energy (Cambodia) Co Ltd had signed a power purchase deal with the Electricité Du Cambodge to sell ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZTNmM2VkMTNmMDI
Dam ‘redesign’ a mystery
Amid a lawsuit and a chorus of dissent, developers of the first lower Mekong mainstream hydropower project, the massive Xayaburi dam, have quietly submitted a long-anticipated, multimillion-dollar redesign plan, the Post has learned. What exactly has been changed about the 1,260-megawatt dam, which environmentalists contend will ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-%E2%80%98redesign%E2%80%99-mystery
Metfone eyes sites in Areng
In what could be the latest sign that authorities are pushing ahead with the Areng Valley hydropower dam, Vietnam Military Telecommunications Group has sent engineers into the valley in Koh Kong province to scout for locations where its local subsidiary, Metfone, could build mobile phone ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/metfone-eyes-sites-areng
No protest permission needed: CCHR
A prominent rights group on Monday wrote to Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, calling on him to remind ministries and local authorities that demonstrators do not require their permission to hold public gatherings. ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/no-protest-permission-needed-cchr
Laos halts construction project of controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam: envoy
Laos has suspended the construction project of controversial 260-megawatt Don Sahong hydropower dam on the lower Mekong River following requests from other countries, newly-designated Laos ambassador to Cambodia Prasith Sayasith said Tuesday. ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140819/laos-halts-construction-project-controversial-don-sahong-hyd
6th Chinese-built hydropower dam in Cambodia starts operation
The sixth Chinese-built hydropower plant, located in the Koh Kong province of southwestern Cambodia, has begun producing electricity after more than four years of construction, the China National Heavy Machinery Corporation (CHMC) said in a statement on Thursday. CHMC started to develop the 246-megawatt Tatay River Hydropower Plant in 2010. The dam comprises three generators, each capable of producing 82 megawatts, the statement said. ...
People's Daily Online News Staff
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/n/2014/0814/c90777-8769756.html
Mekong hydropower could conflict with other benefits: Kerry
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that hydropower development along the Mekong River could conflict with other benefits. “You have this tension between the purposes, unless they’re approached thoughtfully and correctly,” he told foreign ministers from the Lower Mekong Initiative gathered in Nay Pyi ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=ZDBkZDVhOTQxOTA
Croc release at dam site planned
A conservation group may release 20 baby Siamese crocodiles into the Areng Valley amid an ongoing stand-off between villagers and a Chinese firm over the construction of a controversial hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. Tuy Serey Vathana, country directory at Fauna and Flora International, said ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/croc-release-dam-site-planned
Cambodia’s hydroelectric question: China power and the environment
Discussion about hydroelectric power plants in Cambodia tends to focus on two aspects, both negative. One is an overdependence on Chinese investment, and the other is a relatively disproportionate focus on the environmental impacts of hydroelectric power. Chinese Influence Most hydroelectric power plants in Cambodia are associated ...
Sim Vireak
http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/cambodias-hydroelectric-question-china-power-and-the-environment/
‘A threat to Cambodia’s sacred forests’
In southwest Cambodia, at the foot of the Cardamom Mountains, is a single dirt road that meanders through the heart of the pristine Areng valley. Ten miles down this road, villagers have set up an encampment to stop a hydroelectric dam project that they fear ...
New York Times News Staff
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/opinion/a-threat-to-cambodias-sacred-forests.html
Cambodia is perfectly positioned to become a solar powerhouse
Phnom Penh’s first solar-powered building looks for all the world like a cube of colored Lego blocks dropped in a factory lot on the city’s industrial outskirts. Covered in some 1,350 solar panels — including large panes of multi-colored solar glass — the three-story building ...
Sarah Goodyear
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/water-war-weapon-syria-cities
Officials ‘take cut’ of dam compensation
Officials involved in negotiating compensation offers between the developers of the Lower Sesan II dam and affected villagers have kept a portion of the money paid out to 12 families for themselves, according to an official. Duong Pov, Stung Treng provincial administration director, claimed that a ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-%E2%80%98take-cut%E2%80%99-dam-compensation
Delay Sesan dam: villagers
Villagers who will be displaced if the controversial Lower Sesan II dam is built called on the developers yesterday to postpone construction for five years, allowing time for a comprehensive resettlement scheme to be devised. But a government official dismissed their request as “beyond the pale”, ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/delay-sesan-dam-villagers
Thai court agrees to hear lawsuit over controversial Xayaburi dam in Laos
A top court in Thailand agreed on Tuesday to hear a lawsuit brought by villagers against the country’s decision to purchase power from the planned Xayaburi mega dam in neighboring Laos, which green groups say could threaten the region’s environment and food security. Overruling a lower ...
Parameswaran Ponnudurai
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/lawsuit-06242014170128.html