News
Tropical storm threatens to extend floods
The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology yesterday warned that a tropical storm, which is forecast to hit the coast of Vietnam this weekend, will worsen flooding across much of Cambodia. ...
By Aun Pheap, P. 18
Increase in civil servants' salaries
The salary for Cambodian civil servants has seen an average increase of 540 per cent compared to salaries in 2001, according to a report from the national news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse last Thursday. Yim Serey Vathanak, national project coordinator on trade unions for social ...
Ethnic Bunong Groups Granted New Land Titles
The government has completed the communal land-titling process for three ethnic Bunong communities in Mondolkiri province living on 1,000 hectares of land in Keo Seima district, villagers and a rights group said yesterday. The three new titles-which will bring to six the total number of communal titles granted ...
Report Shows Advanced Illegal Timber Trade
Cambodia is among the tropical countries whose forests are being cleared using increasingly advanced methods to feed a growing global trade in illegal timber worth at least $30 billion a year, according to a new report. The report, Green carbon, black trade, a joint effort by ...
Govt hits back at critics
The recent deluge of comments critical toward the Cambodian government is an attempt to sow political chaos, a senior official said yesterday. At a press conference held at the Council of Ministers, Keo Remy, deputy chairman of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit, blasted several individuals ...
Ministry official under scrutiny
Svay Rieng Provincial Court officials are investigating an employee of the Ministry of Interior who is accused of fraudulently selling his land to someone and not honouring the deal. Ros Sithan, a logistics department officer at the ministry, was arrested on the evening of September 28, ...
IMF revises GDP projection for Cambodia upward to 7%
The International Monetary Fund has revised Cambodia’s economic growth projection to between 6.5 and 7 per cent, up from 6.2 per cent in April, saying the country could manage a sound macro-economy because of the growth in four main sectors: manufacturing, tourism, agriculture and construction. According to Ek ...
Rapid Reaction Unit Spokesman Blasts Critics of Hun Sen
A senior government spokesman held an impromptu press conference at the Council of Ministers yesterday to defend Prime Minister Hun Sen against critics and accused the U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia [Surya Subedi] of being biased in his assessment of the country’s electoral process. In ...
Oxfam urges freeze of land investments
Global development group Oxfam on Wednesday called on the World Bank to suspend financing for large-scale land acquisitions to ensure that its practices do not encourage foreign land grabs in developing countries. Oxfam urged Jim Yong Kim, the lender’s new president, to announce a six-month moratorium ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/04/worldbank-oxfam-land-idUSL1E8L2LKF20121004
Donors Criticize Sonando Sentence
Three of the Cambodia’s most important donors have now condemned the 20-year jail term handed down to independent radio station owner Mam Sonando for alleged insurrection activities-a verdict branded as politically motivated by many local and international human rights groups. Despite the tough words from the normally very ...
Workers' 'resignations' disputed
Workers at shuttered plush-toy company First & Main claimed yesterday their bosses had forced them to thumbprint resignation letters they had not written, a plan they feared could deny them severance pay. Mech Mom, a representative of the 357 workers at the US-owned factory, in the ...
Group awaits eviction No. 2
Families in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district face a tense morning as they prepare for the familiar sound of authorities moving in to evict them. Nineteen families in Andong village were told in a letter from district authorities that today was the deadline for them ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012100359062/National-news/group-awaits-eviction-no-2.html
Tep Kolap case 'now ended'
An outstanding court warrant for Phnom Penh International University rector Tep Kolap was dropped after the intervention of the premier and his wife, according to Phnom Penh Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth. Declining to comment on the extent of the premier’s intervention, deputy commander of ...
U.S. Lends Vietnam $118 Million for Satellite
The United States says it will give Vietnam a loan of more than $100 million to buy a telecommunications satellite from a U.S. companyLockheed Martin Ex-Im says the satellite will provide coverage to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. It says President Barack Obama was required to ...
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/10/03/2012100300498.html
UN envoy focuses on land disputes in Cambodia
A UN envoy has called on the international community to pay more attention to human rights issues in Cambodia. The call comes amid ongoing land disputes and legal harassment of activists. Surya Subedi is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia and has submitted ...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-01/an-cambodia-human-rights/4289544?section=business
Sonando gets 20 years
In a move that stunned his supporters and drew ire from rights groups and foreign embassies alike, independent radio station owner Mam Sonando was sentenced to 20 years in prison yesterday on charges of insurrection. Sonando, owner of broadcaster Beehive Radio and president of the rights ...
Hun Sen Says Land Management Ministry in Need of More Staff
Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that there was a lack of staff at the Ministry of Land Management, and suggested that the students in his land measuring program be utilized to rectify the shortage. Mr. Hun Sen made the comments while visiting Pursat province’s Phnom ...
Cambodia Hopes to Benefit from Joint Oil Project
Cambodia will receive most of the income derived from a joint project to exploit promising offshore oil reserves, official sources have confirmed here. Ek Tha, spokesman for the Cabinet Office said that in negotiations with Chevron, the government proposed reaping 70 to 80 percent of the ...
http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=576551&Itemid=1
Thai flood: thousands may evacuate in Northwestern Cambodia
Due to rising water level in Thailand’s reservoirs caused by heavy rainfall, the Thai government announced the opening of a dam in Sa Kaeo province, located about 20 km from the Cambodian border. This decision will potentially affect 10,000 Cambodian families in Poipet, Serei Sophorn ...
Rice Exports Increases Two Percent
Cambodia’s total milled rice exports increased just two percent to 131,064 tons over the first nine months of this year in comparison to the same period last year, according to data released from the Ministry of Agriculture ...
UAE says mulling investment in halal food, rice in Cambodia
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considering investing in halal food production and rice milling in Cambodia, visiting UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi said here on Tuesday. Speaking in a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-10/02/c_131885280.htm
Tiger Airways launches daily service to Singapore
Direct daily flights between Phnom Penh and Singapore started yesterday with the first Tiger Airways flight departing at 8:30am and landing in Singapore at 11:30am, kicking off a seven-days-a-week low-cost service. The company is offering a special price of US$38 one-way from Phnom Penh to Singapore ...
Tiger Airway's 1st Flight Lands in Phnom Penh
Tiger Airways inaugural flight from Singapore to Cambodia touched down at Phnom Penh International Airport yesterday morning, making the low-cost carrier the 21st airline to offer daily flights to the capital. Mao Havanall, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, said yesterday ...
Garment Exports to EU Catching Up With US
The value of garment and shoe exports to the European Union are expected to reach the same level as those sent to the U.S. by 2013, an official from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said yesterday. Garment, textile and shoe exports to the E.U. ...