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Scepticism over social land grants
Nearly a million hectares of land has been granted to ordinary Cambodian citizens through social land concessions (SLC) since May 2012, the government has claimed, though civil society groups have cast doubt on that high figure and questioned how many landless or evicted poor have ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/scepticism-over-social-land-grants
CPP says public forums on reform underway
Officials from the ruling CPP said Wednesday that a series of public forums announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier this year, which he said would help gather input for his promised plans to introduce widespread political reform, are now being held around the country. The ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-says-public-forums-on-reform-underway-54049/
Pursat land dispute leads to destruction
Villagers in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, locked in an ongoing land dispute with local tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Co Ltd, claimed yesterday that security forces and environmental officers opened fire and tried to burn down their houses and plantations on Tuesday after ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pursat-land-dispute-leads-destruction
Clean water access ‘improves’
Cambodia is making steady headway towards its goal of providing universal clean-water access. “The 2013 population census shows that the percentage of people who now have clean water sources has climbed to 49 per cent. We will be able to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goal ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/clean-water-access-%E2%80%98improves%E2%80%99
Grand Twins sets listing date
Taiwanese garment manufacturer Grand Twins International says it will officially list and start trading on the Cambodia Stock Exchange (CSX) on May 8 after spending several weeks whipping up interest from local investors, whose appetite remains on the low side so far. Stanley Shen, a spokesman ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/grand-twins-sets-listing-date
Avian flu worst at borders
Cambodia’s porous borders are creating one of several headaches for health officials working to minimise outbreaks of avian influenza, officials revealed yesterday at a symposium on emerging infectious diseases in Southeast Asia. The border provinces of Takeo and Kampong Cham have been witness to the highest ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/avian-flu-worst-borders
Governor ambushed over dispute
About 100 indigenous villagers from Ratanakkiri’s Veun Sai district took the opportunity at a public forum yesterday to demand a solution from the district governor, Chum Ngel, over a land dispute they are locked in with SK Plantation, after protesting several times without getting a ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/governor-ambushed-over-dispute
Government works on Australia refugee plea
Government officials have got to work parsing a controversial request that Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in the region with a spotty record handling refugees, take some of Australia’s asylum seekers. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop made the request to Prime Minister Hun Sen ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-works-on-australia-refugee-plea-54044/
Riot police ready for action, protests on standby
About 100 Daun Penh district riot police on Wednesday held exercises in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park in preparation for possible industrial action in a week that garment workers’ unions had called for a mass stay-at-home strike. Unions had downscaled plans of street protests to a mass ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/riot-police-ready-for-action-protests-on-standby-54051/
Government’s Trade Union Law may limit freedom of association
A draft trade union law that the government has pledged to introduce by the end of the year includes provisions that will allow for unions to be suspended if their activities are deemed illegal, the head of Cambodia’s largest employers association said Wednesday. Van Sou Ieng, ...
Hul Reaksmey and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/governments-trade-union-law-may-limit-freedom-of-association-54042/
Land activists ask to speed up land dispute solution
About 50 Borei Keila and Boeung Kok residents held a protest on Wednesday in front of Phnom Penh City Hall, asking it to speed up land solution. The protesters held banners showing picture of developer Shukaku Inc pumping sand to fill up the Boeung Kok, ...
The Cambodia Herald
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YWI1YzYxY2ZiNDA
Workers’ strike delayed, rescheduled for post-Khmer New Year
Labor unions and associations have suspended their strike plan scheduled for March 12 following the request by garment workers, according to a union leader. The suspension came after the meeting between the union leaders from a coalition of 18 labor unions and associations today. The unionists ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NmU5MTVjY2ExZTQ
Business employers say corruption greatest threat to economy
Corruption remains the most significant challenge facing Cambodia’s economy, according to a survey of more than 300 employers conducted last year by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the results of which were released Tuesday. Despite legislation meant to stamp out graft, corruption continues to be perceived ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/business-employers-say-corruption-greatest-threat-to-economy-53963/
Be glad you’re not paid in rice, Prime Minister tells teachers
Prime Minister Hun Sen advised the country’s newest crop of teachers not to feel down about their poor salaries, recalling that were they embarking on their careers in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime their pay would be a few bags of rice each ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/be-glad-youre-not-paid-in-rice-prime-minister-tells-teachers-53965/
Borei Keila suit filed
Seven people from the capital’s Borei Keila community allegedly injured by baton-wielding security forces last month, a pregnant woman among them, filed a lawsuit against Prampi Makara district authorities yesterday. The seven were among a group of dozens of families violently removed from a building on ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/borei-keila-suit-filed
Preah Vihear temple under repair
Work is finally under way to repair damage to Preah Vihear temple caused during clashes between Cambodia and Thailand more than two years ago, officials said yesterday. Long Kosal, deputy director of the National Authority of Preah Vihear, said a restoration project has been ongoing ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/preah-vihear-temple-under-repair
New look at Vichea murder
Phnom Penh Municipal Court has reopened an investigation into the high-profile slaying of union leader Chea Vichea in 2004, a court official said yesterday. Prosecutor Sok Roeun said the court’s head prosecutor began reinvestigating the case early last month in response to an order from the ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-look-vichea-murder
Laos promises transparency over Don Sahong dam
More than 100 representatives of Mekong River Commission (MRC) member countries, development partners, international NGOs, and Lao and foreign media yesterday visited the site of the planned Don Sahong hydropower project. The two-day site visit provided an opportunity for participants to learn from experts how fish ...
The Cambodia herald news Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YWU3ZjgwNzk1MWI
Family’s world shrinks daily
Dozens of trucks, bulldozers and excavators have pushed Var Sokhoeurn to the edge of his remaining land at the Lower Sesan II dam site in Stung Treng province’s Srepok district. When Post reporters visited Sokhoeurn’s family last month, much of his land, where he grew cassava and other ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/family%E2%80%99s-world-shrinks-daily
Vietnamese charged with illegal logging
The Mondolkiri Provincial Court on Tuesday charged 15 Vietnamese nationals with illegally crossing the border and logging protected forest, four days after the group was detained by members of the ethnic Bunong minority in a community forest 20 km from the border. Ya Narin, director of ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vietnamese-charged-with-illegal-logging-53975/
‘Only paying lip service’
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday accused the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party of hypocrisy, claiming that although the CNRP has pushed garment workers to strike for no less than a $160 minimum wage, party leaders pay their own bodyguards, drivers and cooks half that. Opposition leader ...
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98only-paying-lip-service%E2%80%99
DVD shops close before raid
A handful of stores in Phnom Penh’s City Mall closed up shop yesterday morning, draping large curtains over their storefronts rather than face an impending police raid on businesses allegedly selling pirated movies there, police and other vendors said. The aborted raid came less than two ...
Sen David and Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dvd-shops-close-raid
Cambodia garment sector has Asia's highest rate of unionization
Cambodia’s garment sector has the highest rate of unionization of any industry in Asia, Cambodia Federation of Employers and Business Associations Van Sou Leng said Tuesday. “Major efforts are needed to improve the quality of workplace relations,” Van said in a statement posted on the Camfeba ...
The Cambodia Herald
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NDA0NmM5MWU5YjN
Kuoy villagers block firms
Some 200 ethnic Kuoy minority villagers in Preah Vihear’s Chheb district blocked tractors belonging to a Chinese company from bulldozing their rice crops yesterday, the same day that district authorities received a letter from the Interior Ministry instructing them to broker an agreement between villagers ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kuoy-villagers-block-firms