News
Bank Collapse Sees Property Up for Grabs
A prime piece of Phnom Penh real estate was put up for auction last week by a South Koran government agency attempting to recoup taxpayers’ money lost during a bank collapse last year. Bids have been made that could see a new development on the site, ...
Poipet Casino Dragging Feet on Promise
A casino in Poipet that pays wages only in Thai baht is yet to fulfil its promise to improve conditions for its 500 workers, a union representative said yesterday. Workers are still working 12-hour days – often without a break – at the Tropicana Casino, one ...
UN Concerned By Authorities' Use of Violence
Unprovoked violence by government and private security guards, the use of weapons to quell protests, and communities resorting to violent means in land disputes is a growing cause for concern in Cambodia, the U.N.’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in its ...
After bust, cosmetics shops under scrutiny
Less than a week after the arrest of alleged beauty parlour madam Chan Sreynuch, military police say they are taking a closer look at a number of hair salons and beauty shops in Phnom Penh suspected of being involved in human trafficking and prostitution. According to ...
Rights record under fire
A pair of reports to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today and tomorrow paint a bleak image of a country whose rights record has worsened considerably over the past year. An annual report from the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in ...
Police Say RCAF Trying to Bury Fatal Crash With Cash
Military officials are attempting to squelch a potential lawsuit from relatives of three people killed Friday when Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers smuggling wood through Siem Reap province drove a military truck, donated by the U.S. government, into the family’s motorbike, police officials said. ...
Casinos flush with locals
At 7am, the border crossing from Vietnam to Svay Rieng’s Bavet town is already buzzing with the activity of foreign gamblers arriving for a day at the casinos along National Highway 1. But throughout the day, a steady trickle of Cambodian players make their way ...
Land Disputes Focus Ire on Chinese Investors
Among thousands of residents in the Boeung Kak Lake district of the capital whose land has been targeted for redevelopment by a Chinese-financed real estate company, Tep Vanny carried a letter explaining the “sadness and suffering” caused by the project — which has turned Phnom ...
Lone Firm Takes 23,000 Hectares for Plantations in Preah Vihear
A Malaysian company has been granted three tracts of land totaling more than 23,000 hectares for oil palm and rubber plantations in Preah Vihear province, according to documents submitted to the Malaysian stock exchange. The acquisition flout the legal maximum of concession land that a single ...
As Tensions Grow, Residents Pitted Against Authorities, ‘Not Companies’
Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers embroiled in longstanding land disputes with two private companies in Phnom Penh say the authorities are protecting business interests over the public, as thousands of families lose their homes under forced evictions. This has turned the protesters and government officials ...
Floodwaters Recede in Banteay Meanchey
Floodwaters appeared to be receding in Banteay Meanchey province yesterday, after almost a week of heavy rains saw several communes inundated and over 4,000 families evacuated, provincial authorities said. “The situation is now under control,” said Ngor Mengchroun, governor of Poipet City-one of the worst hit ...
Cambodian king visits Vietnam to cement bilateral ties
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni began a 3-day state visit to Vietnam starting on Monday at the invitation of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, local media reported. The visit, the fourth made by Cambodian king since he came to the throne in 2004, will likely elevate further ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-09/24/c_131869525.htm
Future of E-Business linked to skills
The future of e-business in Cambodia depends on gaining better skills, a group of students heard yesterday at the University of Puthisastra. In a panel discussion on the future of e-business as part of BarCamp Phnom Penh, T.O. Software president Heng Chamroeun offered advice to the ...
Dolphin drawcard
In an effort to boost tourist numbers, the Ministry of Tourism will host an eco-tourism seminar in the northeastern provinces to showcase its main attraction, the Irrawaddy dolphins of the Mekong River. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, said last week that officials attempted to hold the eco-tourism seminar ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012092458861/Business/dolphin-drawcard.html
Maid Talk Premature: Ministry
The Ministry of Labour has played down reports it is close to sending domestic workers to Singapore, a country that has only recently granted foreign maids a weekly day off. The two countries’ governments had been in talks with Singapore’s Association of Employment Agencies about placing ...
Verdict Due in Kandal Judge Corruption Case
The Kandal Provincial Court on Friday tried a former provincial judge, Huoth Heang, and his clerk, Lim Kompheak, both of whom stand accused of corruption. On January 20, Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) officials arrested Judge Heang during a sting operation in which the judge was caught accepting a ...
Democracy on the decline: think tank
Cambodia ranks among the lowest in the region on its ability to reform; corruption, political stasis and a rapidly widening income gap are hindering its progress, according to a recent survey of the country’s democratic institutions. Transformation Index, which every two years ranks countries considered ...
Malaysia - Cambodia trade increases
More than 24,000 Cambodians visited Malaysia during the first half of 2012, while Malaysian arrivals to Cambodia numbered 54,000, an increase of 11.1 per cent compared with the same period in 2011. Ambassador Hussein’s remarks came during the the first three-day Malaysia Travel and Shopping ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012092458862/Business/malaysia-cambodia-trade-increases.html
Long-Delayed Donor Meeting Set for Wednesday
The government and its foreign donors are preparing for their next high-level aid meeting Wednesday, their first sine the government surprised donors in August 2011 by indefinitely suspending the meetings, citing the global financial crisis. However, officials at the Finance Ministry and the Council for the ...
Army Truck Carrying Illegal Timber Kills Family
A family of three, including an 18-year old girl, died when the driver of a military truck carrying illegally cut wood slammed into their motorbike in Siem Reap province, officials said yesterday. The family died at the scene while the occupants of the military truck, seen ...
Record Bad Medicine Haul
Police seized more than two tonnes of dangerous counterfeit medication on Saturday and arrested a Phnom Penh pharmacy owner in a sting officials say has netted the largest-ever haul of illegal medication in Cambodia. After nine days of surveillance, the Ministry of Interior’s Economic Police unit swooped ...
Protesters Stage EU faint-ins
In a year in which more than a thousand Cambodian garment factory workers have fainted on the job, activists across Europe are demonstrating for higher wages and better working conditions in the Kingdom’s factories. Throughout the past week, demonstrators mimicked faintings by collapsing on the floors ...
Thailand's Khon Kaen sees double-digit revenue growth next year
Khon Kaen Sugar Industry KSL.BK, Thailand’s fourth largest sugar producer, expects revenue could grow as much as a fifth next year, fuelled by expansion and a bumper sugarcane crop in 2012/13, the company’s chief executive said on Monday Chalush said sugar production from factories in Laos ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/us-thailand-sugar-idUSBRE88N05S20120924
Hun Sen Lashes Out at Critics of Land Project
Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at unnamed “stupid” analysts for alleging that he was overseeing the issuance of land titles to a community in Kratie province on Friday to appease the suffering of the people there. “I would like to send a message to ...