News
Strike justified, suppression not, experts say
Garment workers’ calls for a $160 minimum wage are justified and should be honored, a new report by an international team of academics and labor experts has found. The authors—including a team from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, South Korean and ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/strike-justified-suppression-not-experts-say-53255/
At-large official given four years in prison
Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday convicted and sentenced in absentia a senior official at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport for directing money from employees’ salaries to his own pocket. Seng Setha, 52, general director of the ministry’s administration and human resources department, was sentenced ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/large-official-given-four-years-prison
Phnom Penh governor tells officials to ‘fix frustrated people’
The Phnom Penh governor on Tuesday told city officials to halt corruption and work harder to provide public services in an effort to restore confidence among the people who were so frustrated with the ruling party that they voted for the opposition CNRP in last ...
Phnom Penh governor on crusade to shut down shisha cafes
Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong said Tuesday he would shut down the shisha bars—where customers smoke flavored tobacco through large Middle-Eastern style water pipes—that have recently sprung up around the city. While the governor noted there was nothing illegal about the pipes or tobacco, he told ...
Phann Ana and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-governor-on-crusade-to-shut-down-shisha-cafes-53247/
Hun Sen lifts protest ban
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday called on the authorities to lift their bans on public rallies to grant equal rights to citizens. Speaking at inauguration ceremony of a coal power plant in Sihanouk province, he said the city and provincial authorities have to allow the ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=ZjgzNWEwMTBjNDR
Physicians protest against office sale
Some 100 physicians from the Phnom Penh Municipal Referral Hospital staged a protest on Tuesday after their superiors planned to sell the current hospital building. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=MmQ5YWRkMDViNTM
Hun Sen warns strikes will lead to factory closures
Prime Minister Hun Sen once again warned the labor union leaders would be held responsible for the closure of factories which can be caused by protests and strikes. “It is very difficult to attract the garment investors to Cambodia, so if the protests and strikes ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=OTJjZTJiYTAzNzE
PATA Travel Mart set for Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Pacific Asia Travel Association will hold the 37th PATA Travel Mart at Diamond Island Convention & Exhibition Centre, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The event is being hosted by the ministry of tourism of Cambodia and will take place from September 17th-19th. PTM 2014 will offer delegates the ...
Breaking Travel News Staff
http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/pata-travel-mart-set-for-phnom-penh-cambodia/
Cambodian judge sued for threatening to shoot villagers in land disputes
Over 100 families, who live in Kampong Chhnang, filed complaints against a provincial court judge and his group for allegedly threatening to shoot them in land disputes. The residents sued San Sophat, a judge at Kampong Chhnang Provincial Court, his bodyguard, and Hem Dara, a lawyer, ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=ZWY2MTI3MmE0YmV
CPP, CNRP cancels meeting of election reform committee
The ruling Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) decided to cancel their meeting, which is scheduled for February 27, according to a CNRP official. The meeting of the two parties’ working groups was suspended not because of political issues, but ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=NGNkMTZiNDc2NGY
Cambodian PM holds opposition-backed unions responsible for future factory closures due to strikes
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the opposition-aligned unions, inciting garment workers to stage strikes for higher wages, must take responsibilities for any future closures of factories. “The government has worked very hard to attract investors to build factories and has urged manufacturers to ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-02/25/c_133142013.htm
Cambodia to host Open Source Tech Conference
Phnom Penh will host one of Asia’s biggest technology conferences later this month. FossAsia, a conference on open source and free software, will be held in the capital Feb. 28 to March 2—a free event open to students, developers and entrepreneurs. Technologies discussed at the conference will ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodia-to-host-open-source-tech-conference/1858192.html
UDG accused of farming instead of building
The Chinese-owned Union Development Group in Koh Kong province is bulldozing swaths of its land concession, originally intended for a massive tourist resort, to plant cassava and palm oil trees instead, a CNRP lawmaker-elect said Monday. Son Chhay, lawmaker-elect and CNRP chief whip, visited the area ...
Lauren Crothers and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/udg-accused-of-farming-instead-of-building-53164/
Grave sites cleared by rubber firms: NGOs
Four Vietnamese rubber firms are responsible for destroying an estimated 1,000 hectares of community forest, including an indigenous graveyard, in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district, a group of NGOs have claimed. The land dispute involving 196 families living in Talav commune dates back to 2011, Chhay Thy, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grave-sites-cleared-rubber-firms-ngos
Governor to resign from post
Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Sbong Sarath will resign on April 17 to transition into a position on the provincial council of Prey Veng following this May’s council elections, he confirmed yesterday. ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/governor-resign-post
Ministry of Environment decides to move office again
The Ministry of Environment will relocate its offices to a plot of land near NagaWorld Hotel and Casino in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district after its planned new headquarters in Meanchey district were declared too far from the city’s center by the new environment minister, ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-of-environment-decides-to-move-office-again-53144/
Dredging ferry catches fire
A sand-dredging ferry caught fire and two of its pumping machines exploded yesterday in Kandal’s Kien Svay district. The blast sent a black plume of smoke over the Mekong and caused oil to leak into the river. Yem Sokhum, Phomthom commune police chief, said that according to ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dredging-ferry-catches-fire
Ranariddh to re-enter politics with new party
Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who became first prime minister of Cambodia after the 1993 U.N.-sponsored elections, will form a new party and re-enter the political arena, according to his cabinet chief. “The prince has a plan to create a new party,” said Naranarith Anandayath, chief of Prince ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ranariddh-to-re-enter-politics-with-new-party-53156/
Education system out of its depth
When Sim Sok Toeur, 32, returned from study in Australia last April, he did so with a vision for Phnom Penh’s skyline. For Sok Toeur, a scholarship to study overseas granted him a better quality of education than was possible in Cambodia – even though ...
Maria Wirth
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/education-system-out-its-depth
Gender gains lacking: report
Cambodian women are bumping up against a steadfast glass ceiling, according to an annual report by the Cambodian National Council for Women. The report, released yesterday, tracks what the government has done to execute the prime minister’s 16 recommendations regarding women’s access to and engagement in ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gender-gains-lacking-report
BreadTalk chain set to open up in the capital
Singaporean bakery chain BreadTalk will open up in two locations in Phnom Penh this July, the bakery’s franchisee confirmed yesterday. Ly Daline, CEO of Cham & Ly Corporation, whose company will run BreadTalk in Phnom Penh, said a rising middle class means changes in consumer ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/breadtalk-chain-set-open-capital
Kings of concessions
Vietnam and China lead the pack of foreign companies granted economic land concessions in Cambodia for agro-industrial development by a wide margin, new data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries show. According to the ministry’s annual report, released last month, since 1993 the ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kings-concessions
Villagers file complaint over chief stealing land
Five families from Oddar Meanchey province’s Samraong district have filed a complaint with district authorities and rights group Adhoc in a bid to reclaim more than 16 hectares of land they allege was sold to other villagers by their village chief without their permission. Adhoc provincial ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-file-complaint-over-chief-stealing-land-53166/
IFC Ombudsman to help settle Phnom Penh airport land dispute
Representatives for the hundreds of families facing eviction from homes around Phnom Penh International Airport have agreed to let the compliance ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank, mediate a solution to the land dispute with the ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ifc-ombudsman-to-help-settle-phnom-penh-airport-land-dispute-53146/