News
Anti-Graft Unit to Give Telecom Staff Anti-Corruption Education
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has ordered staff at Telecom Cambodia to attend a meeting today in order to “educate” them about the country’s Anti-Corruption Law after they made graft allegations and held demonstrations against the firm’s director-general Lao Sarouen earlier this month, Minister of Posts ...
Moto imports jump 55 per cent
IMPORTS of motor scooters reached 264,085 units, with a total value of $139 million in the first 11 months of last year – a 55 per cent jump from 170,380 units worth $86.5 million in the corresponding period of 2011, according to data from the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761643/Business/moto-imports-jump-55-per-cent.html
No plans for Islamic banking services yet
WHILE investments from the Middle East into Cambodia are expected to increase over the next few years, the central bank here currently has no plans to launch Islamic banking services. Recent events like Qatar Airway’s Doha-Phnom Penh flights, which launched earlier this month, have been expected ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761645/Business/no-plans-for-islamic-banking-services-yet.html
Wide Gap Hampers Cambodian Wage Talks
A higher minimum salary for Cambodia’s garment and footwear worker is still not within sight after talks broke down Tuesday between unions representing the workers and their employers, officials said. The garment and footwear workers unions proposed to nearly double the current minimum monthly wage of ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-02262013140215.html
Operations commence at 18MW Kirirom III hydro power plant in Cambodia
The Cambodian government has commenced operations at the 18MW Kirirom III hydro power plant in the southwestern part of the country. The facility will produce 78 million KWh of electricity a year and help the country reduce its power shortage crisis and dependence on oil-fueled electricity. ...
KTH mall to be officially inaugurated
The KTH Premium Power Mall, opposite the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, will be officially inaugurated on March 1 by K Thong Huot Telecom Co (KTH). The 1,200-square-metre mall will focus on international brands of electronic products. A mall representative told the Post the business would cater ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022661601/Business/kth-mall-to-be-officially-inaugurated.html
Charcoal prices rise in urban areas
Deforestation and Cambodia’s strong economic growth have resulted in an increase in the price of charcoal, an energy source the poor are dependent on, charcoal vendors say. The price of charcoal in Phnom Penh had increased at least 200 riel ($0.05) a kilogram compared to 2012, charcoal ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022661597/Business/charcoal-prices-rise-in-urban-areas.html
NagaWorld Workers on Strike After Firings
More than 500 workers from Phnom Penh’s NagaWorld Casino demonstrated on Monday, in what was their fourth straight day of strike action in front of the casino over wages and the firing of four staff members Sok Narith, deputy secretary general of the Cambodian Tourism and ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/nagaworld-workers-on-strike-after-firings-11761/
Villagers File Complaint Against Vietnamese Rubber Firm
Twelve ethnic Tampuon families living in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district yesterday filed a complaint with the provincial land management department, accusing the owners of a Vietnamese rubber plantation of clearing their farmland, local official said. Tun Vantham, chief of Samuth Loeu village in Seda commune, said ...
Villagers may get land titles
Representatives of 171 Pursat families who claim to have been unfairly left out of the government’s land-titling process said they have reached a tentative agreement with the minister of Industry, Mines and Energy to continue farming on the Bakan district land they have occupied for ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022661603/National/villagers-may-get-land-titles.html
Middle class boosts local Samsung sales
Cambodia’s encouraging economic climate had paved the way for the K-four Electronic company to launch Samsung’s latest refrigerator in this country, company representatives said. Kith Bunnarong, of K-four Electronic, said the comp-any’s sales in this country had increased since 2010, when it began working with Thai ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022661596/Business/middle-class-boosts-local-samsung-sales.html
Qatar plans bank in Cambodia to enhance trade
Qatar’s ambassador to Cambodia says his country wants to open a bank here in an effort to enhance, and attract more, trade and investment from Middle East countries to the Kingdom. Bloomberg reported yesterday that Arqaam Capital, a Dubai-based investment bank, had said it was ...
Logger Reported Dead as Rosewood Trade Directive Announced
Amid reports that a second Cambodian has been killed this year by Thai armed forces while illegally logging in Thai border territory, officials had little detail yesterday on a government directive that is aimed at ending the international demand for rosewood from Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun ...
Phnom Penh Port Shifts Focus to Cruise Boats
With a new Chinese-built container port on the Mekong River in Kandal province now operational, the existing port in Phnom Penh is undergoing renovations to shift its focus to the growing number of cruise ships docking in the capital, an official said yesterday. Eang Veng ...
Cambodian poor pushed out of their homes by developers
A mother of four, with the youngest on her hip, said she was not impressed by the palatial government buildings where Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Council of Ministers have their offices. Her own home is a wood-and-tin shack now partially buried under the ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Cambodian-poor-pushed-out-of-their-homes-by-develo-30200729.html
Local MFIs’ high-tech investment
The first time Leang Horng, a resident of Kandal province’s Saang district, made use of a micro-finance institution, a loan was the only service he needed. At that time, Horng had no idea about deposits or money transfers. But things have changed in the past few ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022661599/Business/local-mfis-high-tech-investment.html
PM Hun Sen ushers in new dam
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday inaugurated the third in a string of six Chinese-funded hydropower dam projects, offering lavish praise for the superpower as he officially opened the $47 million Kirirom 3 dam in Koh Kong. “I am really pleased for the new ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561590/National/pm-hun-sen-ushers-in-new-dam.html
Agreement for Government’s Jet Not Yet Signed
In the latest clarification from the government on the subject of it’s new private airliner, a senior aviation official said yesterday that the French-made Airbus A320 is not yet the property of Cambodia, as ownership documents have not been finalized. The 150-seat jet made its inaugural ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/agreement-for-governments-jet-not-yet-signed-11571/
Manufacturing to diversify
While Cambodia seeks to diversify its manufacturing sector and encourage higher-value-added activities, experts say it must be supported by the right mix of government policies. The Asia Development Bank (ADB) says that the sharp increase of foreign direct investment (FDI) from $900 million in 2011 to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561577/Business/manufacturing-to-diversify.html
Unequal treatment at Cambodian factories
The ongoing story of garment workers left jobless by company closures in late December is fast becoming A Tale of Two Factories: one group of workers has everything before it, the other has nothing. It’s this widening gulf between workers at Yung Wah Industrial and Kingsland ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561588/National/unequal-treatment-at-factories.html
ILO Respond to Scathing Stanford Report on Factory Monitoring
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Better Factories Program (BFC) has responded to a scathing report released last week by Stanford University, which said the ILO program was ineffectual as it had not helped secure Cambodian workers a significant wage increase since the program started over ...
PM’s Logging Decree ‘Too Late’
Activists are welcoming Prime Minister Hun Sen’s public vow to prevent logging and rosewood trafficking, but they also say it’s too little too late to have any serious impact on protecting Cambodia’s already decimated forests. In a speech on Friday at the Ministry of Interior, Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561589/National/pm-s-logging-decree-too-late.html
Fracking a problem for SE Asia
Impoverished countries hoping to strike it rich by developing their limited oil and gas reserves are being urged to move quickly or risk having their expectations clipped by fracking, which is depressing market prices while adding life to fields once thought exhausted. The ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561573/Business/fracking-a-problem-for-se-asia.html
Hun Sen says Hydropower Is the Key to Stable Electricity Prices
Cambodia’s focus on hydropower will reduce its independence on oil and ensure nationwide access to electricity at a stable price, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech Saturday during the inauguration of a $47.1 million hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. However environmental groups ...