ODC English Site
Salt Harvest Below Forecast
The Kep-Kompot Salt Producers Community says salt production fell nearly 50 per cent below forecasts because of early rainfall, which is assumed to end salt harvesting for the year. Prime Minister Hun Sen, however, has stepped in to ensure that price remains stable. Hun Sen ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041965112/Business/salt-harvest-below-forecast.html
Firm to Develop Gold Mine in Ratanakkiri
A subsidiary of Indian firm Mesco Steel has arrived in Cambodia to begin developing a gold mine in Ratanakkiri province, according to an investor involved in the deal. Mesco Gold has paid a fee of $1.2 million to Canada-listed exploration firm Angkor Gold to develop a ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/firm-to-develop-gold-mine-in-ratanakkiri-19319/
World Bank Blocks Firm After Cambodia Project Probe
A bribery investigation by the World Bank has discovered misconduct by a major Canadian construction firm that was awarded a $5 million contract to help expand access to electricity in rural Cambodia, the bank said. In December 2009, SNC-Lavalin announced that it has been awarded ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-bank-blocks-firm-after-cambodia-project-probe-19199/
Cambodia's bourse sees slow progress in 1st year of operations
The Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) has seen slow progress in its first year of operations because there has been only one listed firm and public knowledge about the stock market remains low, officials said Thursday. The CSX was officially launched trading on April 18 last year ...
Nguon Sovan
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-04/18/c_132320982.htm
Tate & Lyle Defends Sugar Plantation Deal In Koh Kong
A U.K. firm being sued by 200 Cambodian farmers over the loss of their land to two sugar plantations has defended its business dealings, claiming that the affected families were dealt with legally and were properly compensated for the loss of their properties. Local farmers ...
Firm Announces Rice Energy Plan in Cambodia
A U.S.-based energy company has announced that it is planning a biomass project using genetically modified rice in Cambodia, in a purportedly massive deal about which little information has been made public. In a statement posted online Thursday, Sino Bioenergy Corp. said it had signed a ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/firm-announces-rice-energy-plan-in-cambodia-19105/
Better Work to collaborate on HERproject in Cambodia
In May 2013, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and Better Work will launch HERproject in Cambodia. HERproject links multinational companies and their factories to local NGOs to create sustainable workplace programmes that increase women’s health awareness. The project also seeks to demonstrate the return on investment ...
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=144819
Koh Kong Sugar Firm Makes Offer to Return Disputed Land
The Thai owners of a pair of sugar plantations in Koh Kong province accused of forcing hundreds of farmers off their land will give the land back if it can be proved that those evicted legally own the land, rights workers and a village representative ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/koh-kong-sugar-firm-makes-offer-to-return-disputed-land-18770/
World Bank Urged To Review Policies in Places Like Cambodia
The World Bank is under pressure to review some of its policies around the world to ensure that in countries like Cambodia it is not funding the wrong projects. In a discussion at George Washington University this week, panelists said the World Bank is needed for ...
ILO Says Fire Safety Measures Lacking in Garment Sector
Cambodia’s garment industry is experiencing a worrying rise in fire safety violations as factories struggle to cope with a sharp increase in the number of orders they are receiving, the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) said in a report on Thursday. The ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ilo-says-fire-safety-measures-lacking-in-garment-sector-18628/
Farmers Sue UK Sugar Firm For Millions
Hundreds of Cambodian families are suing the British sugar firm Tate & Lyle in one of the U.K’s highest courts over a pair of plantations in Koh Kong province they accuse of violently forcing them off their land and out of their homes. The British law ...
Cambodia Lacks Research Enough To Tackle Its Problems, Analysts Say
Not enough priority is given to research in Cambodia, threatening its long term development, economists and other experts say. Larry Strange, executive director of the Cambodian Development Research Institute, says the country cannot plan for major reform, build its economy, or reduce poverty without proper analysis ...
Firms accused of illegal logging in Ratanakkiri
Families in Ratanakiri province yesterday logged a complaint with rights group Adhoc accusing a trio of economic land concession (ELC) owners of illegally logging outside of their concession areas and felling their vital resin and palm oil trees. Chan Naroun said she was among 29 families ...
Thousands drawn to Prey Lang
More than 10,000 families have poured into an area of Prey Lang forest in Kampong Thom province since January, clearing 20,000 hectares of trees to sell as luxury timber and building houses, Prey Lang Community Network members claimed yesterday. Many are believed to be from ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041165034/National/thousands-drawn-to-prey-lang.html
Cambodian Exports to EU See Rapid Growth in 2012
Cambodia’s exports to the European Union (E.U.) grew to $2.32 billion in 2012, a 23 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to the E.U.’s latest trade figures. The figures, released this week by the European Commission’s trade office, testify to the region’s growing role ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodian-exports-to-eu-see-rapid-growth-in-2012-18329/
Fishermen feeling the heat
Rising water temperatures are affecting fisheries and marine life, said several representatives of Cambodia’s aquaculture industry, and the effect is decreasing seed production and lowering aquaculture farmers’ productivity. Say Sorn, president of aquaculture seed production in Siem Reap province, told the Post yesterday that water temperature ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041165024/Business/fishermen-feeling-the-heat.html
Water investors criticise return
Holders of shares in the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) have criticised the level of dividend payment that they will receive from the company. PPWSA, which is the only company listed on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), was to pay its first dividend to 1,500 ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041165029/Business/water-investors-criticise-return.html
Duty-Free Sugar Exports to EU Hit $13 Million
The European Union (E.U.) last year continued to import millions of dollars worth of duty-free sugar from Cambodian plantations that have forced hundreds of families off their land despite calls from European lawmakers for the trade benefits to end, according to the latest E.U. data. Thailand’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/duty-free-sugar-exports-to-eu-hit-13-million-18114/
Tiffany to polish diamonds
Luxury jewellery brand Tiffany & Co is building a diamond-polishing factory in Phnom Penh, as the company, which has enjoyed increasing sales, seeks to ensure it can continue supplying the diamonds it needs. Construction began last month on the 1.2-hectare factory, along with a training centre, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041064983/Business/tiffany-to-polish-diamonds.html
Cambodia's economy to grow by 7.2 pct in 2013, stronger in 2014: ADB
Cambodia’s economic growth is forecast at 7.2 percent in 2013, picking up to 7.5 percent next year as recovery in Europe and the United States takes hold, according to the Asian Development Bank’s annual economic outlook released on Tuesday. The United States and Europe are the ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-04/09/c_132295116.htm
Monitoring for Nothing: Is the ILO’s ‘Better Factories’ programme failing the Kingdom’s garment workers?
The United Nations in Cambodia has taken a beating in recent months. The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal has been plagued by high-profile resignations and accusations of political interference. Elsewhere human rights activists have criticised the UN’s failure to take a firm stance against an increasingly ...
Frédéric Janssens
http://sea-globe.com/monitoring-for-nothing/
Forest activists say lives threatened
Two anti-logging activists who went into hiding yesterday have alleged that they received death threats from police because they set fire to logs cut from a protected area in Kratie province. The activists have been leading an increasingly confrontational campaign against Vietnamese firm Binh Phuoc Kratie ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040964966/National/forest-activists-say-lives-threatened.html
Land Titling Program Favors Wealthy Businessman
In Washington today, attendees of the World Bank’s Annual Conference on Land and Poverty will hear a flattering account of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ambitious project to furnish nearly half a million Cambodian families with new private land titles just in time for July’s national ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-titling-program-favors-wealthy-businessman-17831/