ODC English Site
Kampong Thom Governor Vows to Give Land to Evictees
The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month. Security forces evicted villagers from ...
Qatar’s maid claims amiss: gov’t
The Cambodian government has denied any agreement was signed to send women to Qatar to work as domestic workers, an official from the Labour Ministry said this week. The denial comes after a report late last month by Qatari newspaper Gulf Times – which said an ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050965504/National/qatar-s-maid-claims-amiss-gov-t.html
Workers Get Benefits, Not Jobs
India’s ambassador to Cambodia, Dinesh Patnaik, said yesterday that his government will pay outstanding benefits to about 30 restoration workers who lost their jobs at Siem Reap province’s Ta Prohm temple in February – but will not reinstate them. The entire restoration team – more than ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050965505/National/workers-get-benefits-not-jobs.html
Firm Given Rights to All ELC Timber in Ratanakkiri
The Ministry of Agriculture has signed a deal with Try Pheap Import Export to give the firm the right to purchase all timber felled in economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, according to a letter sent from the Agriculture Ministry to the Forestry Administration ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-given-rights-to-all-elc-timber-in-ratanakkiri-22788/
Committee Formed to Sell Off Mfone’s Assets
The administrator dealing with the debts of defunct mobile operator Mfone yesterday established a committee to sell off the company’s remaining assets. Since it filed for bankruptcy in January, more than 1,000 creditors, including former staff, have claimed Mfone owes them a combined $160 million. Mfone’s remaining ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/committee-formed-to-sell-off-mfones-assets-22715/
Father Suing Rubber Firm for Beating His Three Children
The father of three children attacked with wooden sticks and steel poles by employees of well-connected DM Group in Ratanakkiri province has filed a lawsuit against the firm, and is asking for tens of thousands of dollars in compensation. .. The provincial court has charged the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/father-suing-rubber-firm-for-beating-his-three-children-22805/
Court Upholds Verdict for Minister's Wife's Firm
The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld a verdict by Kompong Chhang Provincial Court over a land dispute in Konmpong Tralach district between a 70-year old woman and a company owned by the wife of the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy over a 3,000-square-meter parcel ...
Work Begins on Controversial Cambodian Dam
As work begins on Cambodia’s biggest dam, those advocating against its construction have warned that the region’s rush for hydropower will have a disastrous effect on millions of people who rely on the Mekong River to survive. Last month, workers began preparing an area in northeastern ...
http://www.voanews.com/content/work-begins-on-controversial-hydropower-dam/1656035.html
Union calls for stable rent for workers
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) urged all apartment landlords to not increase their rent because garment and footwear employees get only a basic salary of $80 per month. A statement issued Monday said the wage increase from $61 per month to $80 will be implemented ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NzI2NDk4N2M2YTA
S. Korea's Booyoung to build new town in Cambodia
Booyoung Co., a mid-sized South Korean conglomerate, said Tuesday that it broke ground for one of the largest housing projects in Cambodia, a project Cambodia hopes to spur foreign investments. Booyoung said it will build 40 apartments and seven residential and commercial complexes on 2.7 square ...
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2013/05/07/45/0501000000AEN20130507006500320F.HTML
Cambodian parliament passes fire prevention law
Cambodia’s National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a draft law on fire prevention with jail term punishment for arsonists, neglected firefighters, and false information providers on fires. Ninety-four out of ninety-seven lawmakers, who were present at the session, passed the law, saying it would help maintain security, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/07/c_132365226.htm
Old Soldiers Won't Fade Away
“I don’t know how to protect the territorial integrity [of the nearby Cambodian-Thai border] – even my three hectares of land I cannot protect,” said Bun Chanthorn, 54, one of hundreds of retired and active soldiers who since 2010 have been battling the local authorities ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050765451/National/old-soldiers-won-t-fade-away.html
Boy Beaten by Plantation Staff Sent to Vietnam for Treatment
A 14-year-old boy severely beaten by employees of a well-connected rubber plantation company in Ratanakkiri province on Saturday was sent to Vietnam for treatment for a life-threatening blood clot in his brain on Monday, according to his father, while a soldier detained in connection to ...
Flooded Forest Gets Protection
A Northeastern section of the Mekong River that is home to a number of endangered species has been designated a conservation site by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. A prakas issued by Minister Chan Sarun on April 23 officially declared a 56-kilometre section of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050765443/National/flooded-forest-gets-protection.html
Phnom Penh Governor Leaves Behind Mixed Legacy
During his speech last week at the swearing-in ceremony of Phnom Penh’s new governor, Pa Socheatvong, Interior Minister Sar Kheng noted that managing Cambodia’s capital is by no means an easy task. While critics of [former Phnom Penh governor] Mr. [Kep] Chuktema note his failure ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-governor-leaves-behind-mixed-legacy-22697/
Kids beaten over ELC
Five men working for Ratanakkiri rubber concessionaire DM Group, including a soldier, have been arrested for allegedly beating a villager and his children – one of whom, doctors say, may not survive – in a scuffle over their family’s land, the father said yesterday. Police confirmed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050665430/National/kids-beaten-over-elc.html
Police seize illegal rosewood; suspect escapes
Nearly a tonne of rosewood was uncovered in a raid yesterday in Kampong Speu in which the suspect successfully fled after injuring an officer, police officials said. “According to the quality assessment, I can say a rough value of that rosewood is $300,000,” he [Keo ...
Village patrols seize land-clearing tools
Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district escalated the defense of their protected land this weekend, confiscating the keys and batteries of bulldozers owned by the Vietnamese company they claim has been illegally clearing the area, community leaders said yesterday. The move comes after a number of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050665426/National/village-patrols-seize-land-clearing-tools.html
Sugar Firm Files Defense in Cambodian Lawsuit
British sugar firm Tate & Lyle has denied knowing of the alleged abuses at two Cambodian plantations accused of illegally driving hundreds of families off their farms and says that the families have no right to ask the company for compensation, according to the firm’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-sugar-firm-files-defense-in-cambodian-lawsuit-21913/
New Governor Promises to Solve Land Disputes
Phnom Penh’s new governor used his swearing in ceremony to Friday to boldly vow to solve some of the municipality’s longest-running and most high-emotive land disputes. Pa Socheatvong officially took over on Friday from outgoing governor Kep Chuktema, who served as the city’s chief for 10 ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-governor-promises-to-solve-land-disputes-21897/
Cambodia’s Excess Baggage
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wasn’t going expecting to look out the bus window and see all the blue bags along the roads and in the fields,” said 27-year-old Christopher Convery, who is currently backpacking for the first time in Cambodia. ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/selected-features/cambodias-excess-baggage-22003/
Agriculture Contributes To Helping Cambodia’s Economic Growth: PM Hun Sen
“The agriculture sector today is still playing significant role in promoting local production growth, job creation, and contributing to the poverty reduction of the people. At the same time, the agriculture sector will continue the basic role for economic growth and socio-economic development in Cambodia in ...
Engineers Hold Labor Day Protest Against Paying Income Tax
More than 50 engineers employed by Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd. to work on a new Neak Loueng Bridge in Kandal province protested on Wednesday over paying income tax of 10 percent and are threatening to go on strike again if their employer dose ...
RCAF Denies Clearing Carbon-Trade Forest
A Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RACF) official in Oddar Meanchey province said he would be happy to meet with community forestry members who say that new military bases are threatening their plans to sell millions of dollars worth of carbon credits to foreign companies in ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rcaf-denies-clearing-carbon-trade-forest-21777/