ODC English Site
Six-year-old Cambodian girl dies from bird flu: WHO
A six-year-old Cambodian girl has died from bird flu, bringing the country’s toll from the deadly virus to nine so far this year, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday. The girl, from the southern province of Kampot, died in a children’s hospital in the capital Phnom ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=N2EzN2ZiZjA3ZTA
Sihanoukville to be the site of first marina
Russian sailor Andrey Mantula plans to build what he is calling Cambodia’s first marina off the beaches of Preah Sihanouk province. Mantula, who has lived in Cambodia for one year, is heading up the project. He expects construction to start on October 1 of this year. ...
Demand for Gold Rises as World Price Falls
Gold prices in Phnom Penh have plummeted by almost a quarter in the past six months as international prices dropped, sparking a rush on buying gold locally, traders said Tuesday. Gold was selling at $1,540 per damlung (26.67 damlung is equal to 1 kg of gold) ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/demand-for-gold-rises-as-world-price-falls-33097/
Election gag: Calls made for overturn of media ban
Civil society organisations and local communities yesterday called on the government to cancel an order banning all media from broadcasting foreign election-related reports in the five days before the election. The joint statement, signed by 21 civil society groups, comes after the government on Saturday rescinded ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/election-gag-calls-made-overturn-media-ban
Entrepreneurs visits Cambodia for business opportunities
Two dozens of Chinese entrepreneurs in the World Eminence Chinese Business Association have been visiting Cambodia to seek possibilities to broaden trade and investment ties between China and Cambodia. The group, led by Xia Lingsheng, the Association’s executive vice president, met with Tep Ngorn, the 2nd ...
Ministry, NGOs Meet Over Trafficking Report
Ministry of Interior officials held a closed-door meeting Monday with NGO representatives to contest Cambodia’s recent downgrade on the U.S. State Department’s Global Trafficking in Persons Report, which the ministry will discuss in a meeting with the U.S. Embassy this week. The annual report, released last ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-ngos-meet-over-trafficking-report-32932/
Hong Kong calls for hike in imports
After a visit to Phnom Penh last week, John C Tsang, finance secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, took to his blog to call for more direct imports of Cambodian rice, which he says comes through a third country. In a post on June ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013070266597/Business/hong-kong-calls-for-hike-in-imports.html
Housing Activists Clash With Police in Street Protest
At least two women were injured Monday as housing rights activists clashed with police in Phnom Penh. The activists had been demonstrating by sitting in a major street in front of City Hall to demand land titles in two ongoing land disputes in the capital, those ...
Playing with a bad hand
It’s been more than a year since union leader Sat Sep was fired from the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Poipet town, a dismissal that sparked strikes and ended in senior members of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation being driven from the casino’s ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013070166584/National/playing-with-a-bad-hand.html
Rubber Company Joins CPP Gift-Giving Ceremony in Ratanakkiri
Representatives of a Vietnamese rubber firm that has been accused of contributing to the illegal deforestation of vast tracts of land in northeast Cambodia joined local CPP-aligned government officials in Ratanakkiri province on Friday to hand out rice, salt and sugar to more than 400 ...
Map connects factories and buyers
In light of ongoing disputes over working conditions in the garment sector, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) released yesterday details on hundreds of factories it believes will offer greater transparency along the garment supply chain – from producers to buyers – and shine ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013070166578/Business/map-connects-factories-and-buyers.html
Foreign Radio Broadcasts Banned Ahead of Election
The Ministry of Information has banned the broadcast of all Khmer-language programs by foreign radio stations for the entire 31 days of the pre-election campaign period and on election day, July 28, warning that legal action will ensue if stations fail to comply. The ban, announced ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/foreign-radio-broadcasts-banned-ahead-of-election-32648/
ADB to loan $55 million to Cambodia's rice sector
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $55 million to help transform the rice sector of Cambodia into a viable commercial industry as well as taking care of the land and water resources. ADB’s Climate-Resilient Rice Commercialization Sector Development Program―which will run ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=ZjI4NDZjMzFlMmE
Desperate families pursue final options
Families who claim a foreigner fabricated documents to sell their land to port officials and a military commander more than seven years ago have desperately appealed to government bodies to intervene. The 104 families who have exhausted legal avenues after both the provincial and Supreme Court ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062866543/National/desperate-families-pursue-final-options.html
Unlike Past Elections, Property Investors Remain Buoyant
Ahead of elections 10 years ago, people across the country would hoard rice in case the vote sent the country spiraling into a state of turmoil. Businesses across the country would bide their time before making any major investments. And those who could afford to ...
China to help conserve Cambodia's Angkor World Heritage Site
Cambodia’s Apsara Authority and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the project of sustainable management of the existing resources for conservation and sustainable development in Angkor World Heritage Site and Siem Reap region. The deal was inked between ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-06/27/c_132492881.htm
Cambodia's garment exports up 22 pct in 5 months
Cambodia’s garment industry, the country’s biggest income earner, recorded 2.06 billion U.S. dollars in export value in the first five months of this year, up 22 percent on the same period last year, a Commerce Ministry’s report showed Tuesday. Garment export accounts for more than 80 ...
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2013-06/27/c_132492345.htm
UN praises Cambodia 'success' in addressing child labor in fisheries
Two UN agencies praised Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration Thursday as an “example of success” for addressing child labour in fisheries. In a joint report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Labour Organization recalled that the fisheries agency began raising awareness of ...
Lao dam unapproved yet under way: NGO
The construction of Don Sahong Dam, the second of 11 potential and controversial Mekong mainstream dams, is moving ahead without approval from Mekong River Commission members, according to a conservationist group report. Located less than two kilometres from the Cambodian-Lao border, the dam has been slammed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062766515/National/lao-dam-unapproved-yet-under-way-ngo.html
Families in Land Dispute With City Detained for Questioning
Three men locked in a land dispute with Phnom Penh authorities were questioned both by the police and the municipal court Wednesday after they were accused of destroying property on land the government has swapped with a private firm. Ly Bun Heang, said that he, his ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-in-land-dispute-with-city-detained-for-questioning-32193/
Mekong Dams Could Be a Threat to Cambodia’s Food Security
The construction of two hydroelectric dams proposed for the Mekong River would lead to steep declines in the availability of fish-an essential source of protein for Cambodians- potentially threatening food security, according to a new report by the fisheries administration. The study by the administration’s Inland Fisheries ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mekong-dams-could-be-threat-to-cambodias-food-security-32202/
Lao Dams, Mining Ruining Sekong Water Quality in Cambodia
Dam-building and gold mining in southern Laos are ruining water quality downstream on the Sekong River in Cambodia, where villagers are no longer able to drink or use the water, according to an environmental group. The activities undertaken by Lao and Vietnamese companies on the Sekong’s ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/sekong-06252013190742.html
Former Cambodia governor jailed in absentia for shooting three factory workers
A Cambodian court sentenced a former governor in absentia to 18 months in prison for shooting three female workers at a factory supplying sportswear giant Puma, a judge said yesterday. The women, employees of Puma supplier Kaoway Sports, were wounded when someone opened fire on protesters ...
http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1268733/ex-cambodian-official-convicted-absentia
Beware risk with ASEAN investment
Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have become magnets for Chinese investment amid the global economic slump. Among the most recent deals, Hunan Province-based Xinyuan Mining Co Ltd bought a license to exploit a 28 million square meter gold mine in Cambodia, and ...