News
At 10th Anniversary, Arbitration Council Faces Funding Shortage
The Arbitration Council, an independent body that resolves labor disputes in Cambodia’s garment sector, celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday, though officials expressed concern that funding for the body was due to run out in March next year. Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of ...
As Foreign Aid Increases, Questions About Conditions
Cambodia has seen huge growth of foreign aid and loans over the past two decades, but experts are beginning to question its worth—and what conditions might be attached. Total aid from 1993 to 2012 amounts to around $10 billion, with the percentage of aid coming as ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/as-foreign-aid-increases-questions-about-conditions/1664821.html
Cambodian, Thai state-owned broadcasters ink cooperation deal
The National Television of Cambodia and the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand (MCOT) on Tuesday signed a television cooperation agreement, focusing on the exchange of TV programs and information. The deal was inked between director general of the National Television of Cambodia Kem Gunawadh and MCOT’s ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/21/c_132398350.htm
Seven Feared Trapped in Gold Mine Collapse
A gold mine shaft has collapsed in Preah Vihear province, trapping at least seven miners, officials said Monday. The collapse took place in a shaft that is typically mined by up to 60 people at a time, he [Rovieng Police Chief Sin Thorn]. Sin Thorn said ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/seven-feared-trapped-in-gold-mine-collapse/1664837.html
Cambodia launches cassava development project under China, UNDP support
Cambodia launched Tuesday the second phase of cassava development project under the support of China and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Cambodia and China signed a Protocol on the Exports of Cambodian Cassava to Chinese Market in December 2010, under which China allowed Cambodia ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/21/c_132397799.htm
Fear Remains as Factory Reopens
More than 20 people fainted yesterday at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province, where two workers were crushed to death in a ceiling collapse last Thursday. Workers and union officials said an electrical short-circuit scared workers returning for the first time since the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165744/National/fear-remains-as-factory-reopens.html
Solar panels see sunny times ahead
Officials and business people say solar panels are gaining in popularity in rural areas, where the power grid does not reach. Mao Sangat, director of Solar Energy Cambodia, told the Post yesterday that his company saw increases of installation of solar power systems for families whose ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165730/Business/solar-panels-see-sunny-times-ahead.html
Homeowners petition ADB
The occupants of 90 Phnom Penh households whose homes were partially or completely dismantled to make way for the Railway Rehabilitation Project partly funded by the ADB have demanded the bank offer them fair compensation. In a letter submitted to the Inter-Ministerial Resettlement Committee, the ADB, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165738/National/homeowners-petition-adb.html
Luxury rosewood bust
Nearly three tonnes of illegally logged rosewood was seized during a raid on the home of a former military police officer in Stung Treng province yesterday. Provincial deputy prosecutor Sun Yeut, who took part in a multi-departmental raid that included police and Forestry Administration officials, said ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165743/National/luxury-rosewood-bust.html
Scepticism over government statistics
Getting reliable statistical data remains a challenge for Cambodia’s government, as a lack of cooporation among the ministries and corruption still distort what is reality. Industry insiders say this is a problem, especially as reliable data are the base of reference when the Association of Southeast ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165728/Business/scepticism-over-government-statistics.html
Factory Dining Hall Collapses in Phnom Penh; 23 injured
The dining hall of a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district that supplies clothes to U.S. brand Gap collapsed into a pond Monday, injuring more than 20 workers who were eating lunch, workers and officials said. The hall, which is part of Top World Garment ...
Cambodians Abroad Sent Home $256M Last Year
Cambodian migrant workers sent home $256 million last year, according to a report from a U.N. agency and the World Bank, which was released in Bangkok yesterday. The report from the bank and Rome-based International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), titled Sending Money Home to Asia, ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/cambodians-abroad-sent-home-256m-last-year-25574/
Packaged MSG imports plummet
Cambodian imports of packaged monosodium glutamate (MSG) totalled just 2,086 tonnes last year, the lowest amount since 2002, according to import figures from the customs department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The import figures showed that from 2002 to 2010, Cambodia had imported a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165729/Business/packaged-msg-imports-plummet.html
Accident rocks garment industry again
For the second time in five days, Cambodia’s garment industry has been rocked by another partial collapse of a structure at a factory. Garment workers are reporting that at least 10 people, including a pregnant woman, have been injured after a concrete platform collapsed into a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065721/National/accident-rocks-garment-industry-again.html
Cambodia, Vietnam Trade Rises
Two-way trade between Vietnam and Cambodia in the first four months of the year reached nearly US$1.3 billion, a 10 per cent rise over the same period last year. According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Cambodia, Vietnam’s exports to Cambodia fetched over $1 billion while ...
The Cambodia Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YzA1YWUwMDU3OTh
Cambodia sells more, buys less
Trade between Thailand and Cambodia went off in a wild divergence in the first quarter of this year. Exports from Cambodia rose 19% to US$102 million (2.9 billion baht) year-on-year, while Thailand’s imports recorded a 4% decline to $1 billion, the Phnom Penh Post reported on ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/351002/strong-baht-sends-thai-exports-to-cambodia-down
Investments in Cambodia Up
Vietnam’s investment in Cambodia has increased significantly in the last three years, but a mechanism to encourage and oversee investments in prioritized sectors is needed, according to diplomatic sources. Tan Nguyen Tien, head of the economic section at the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, said Vietnam’s ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NjA1NjRhYTIxOTd
Thai generator looking at Kingdom
Thailand-based Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Pcl (RATCH) has “seriously assessed” investment possibility in neighbouring countries including Cambodia, a company statement said last Thursday. It said it had geared up for business expansion in domestic and international markets in the potential existing investment bases Laos and Australia, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065705/Business/thai-generator-looking-at-kingdom.html
‘Take it or leave it’
The uncle of a man who died in Thursday’s ceiling collapse at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province claimed yesterday that the company had threatened to give the family nothing if they did not agree to an on-the-spot payout. It came as a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065719/National/take-it-or-leave-it.html
Kampot pepper yield down
This year’s weather has proven too hot for the Kingdom’s famous Kampot pepper, as yields of the spice dropped for the first time since 2008. Some 22 tonnes of pepper were harvested this year between January and May, short of the 27 tonnes predicted for this ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065706/Business/kampot-pepper-yield-down.html
Agriculture needs more loans, irrigation systems, experts say
Accessing low-interest loans for rice cultivation is a challenge because the industry in Cambodia is dependant upon rainfall and not irrigation and is thus more risky, experts said last week. In a meeting on the private sector development in the rice sector, Lim Heng, vice president ...
Troubled Village Embroiled In New Land Disputes
A year after a massive military raid here that left a 14-year old girl dead and hundreds of families evicted, there remains little sign of the original land dispute that turned this rural village into a hotbed of agitation. But a new firm and a government-issued ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/troubled-village-embroiled-in-new-land-disputes-25184/
Protestors Block National Road Over Energy Prices
About 300 people on Saturday blocked off a stretch of National Road 5 in Banteay Meanchey province protesting what they call is an unfair increase in electricity prices. Protesters believe that the private electricity supplier, Sok Vitith, altered the Commune’s electricity converter without telling the ...
Cambodia exports to Thailand rise as nations improve economic ties
Cambodia’s total exports to Thailand sharply increased in the first quarter of the year, according to official data from Ministry of Commerce received by the Post last week. Officials said the rise is the result of efforts by both countries to improve trade facilitation and economic ...