News
Court Detains Two More Land Activists
Protesters from both neighborhoods gathered in front of the Phnom Penh Court on Wednesday to demand the release of the three. Phnom Penh Municipal Court is holding two more land protesters, following the detention of one woman on Tuesday. The two activists, from the Borei Keila neighborhood, ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/court-detain-two-more-land-activists/1502315.html
New report evaluates decade of Better Factories Cambodia
A new report – 10 Years of the Better Factories Cambodia Project: A critical evaluation – has been released by Clean Clothes Campaign and Community Legal Education Center. Started in 2001, the goal of the Better Factories program is to improve the working conditions in ...
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=115382
Cambodia, Iran to Strengthen Economic Cooperation
Cambodia and Iran had agreed to enhance bilateral relations and cooperation in economics, trade, investment and culture, a Cambodian senior official said. The verbal agreement was made between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Aug. 30 when Hun Sen ...
http://tehrantimes.com/economy-and-business/101255-cambodia-iran-to-strengthen-economic-cooperation
ASEAN forum to tackle migrant worker safety
One of the biggest challenges to protecting Cambodian migrant workers is the sheer distance between their homeland and the countries they are working in, Ministry of Labour officials said yesterday. A pattern has emerged in which brokers lure more and more Cambodians away from traditional border-country ...
Ensure fairness, Kirk advises
Cambodia needs to ensure fair treatment of both domestic and foreign investors if it wants to attract more foreign investors, accordsing to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Kirk presented the idea during a press conference last week in Siem Reap durig the ASEAN-US Business Summit by ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090558496/Business/ensure-fairness-kirk-advises.html
Laos, Cambodia set for more listings
Private companies and state enterprises are expected to raise large amounts of funds via the stock exchanges in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia over the next several years. More private firms will list on the Cambodian and Laotian bourses next year, their executives told media yesterday at ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Laos-Cambodia-set-for-more-listings-30189439.html
Hello staff contracts 'breached'
Almost 100 members of the sales and service staff of mobile phone provider Hellopoint are awaiting a meeting with the Ministry of Labour after submitting a complaint last month claiming that a policy introduced in July amounted to a breach of their employment contracts. According to ...
Bulldozing of crops reignites dispute
Contractors hired by Cambodian land brokers bulldozed through four hectares of villagers’ crops in Poipet town on Monday, breaching a truce contract that protected the villagers’ land until January 1 next year. According to the contract, the families residing on land claimed by 11 independent Cambodian ...
ADB has a long road ahead after big flood
A breached flood protection dyke near Prey Ven city that, had it burst during the disastrous 2011 flooding, would have added a further 30,000 to the almost 52,000 households evacuated, is one project nearing completion in Cambodia’s Flood Damage Emergency Reconstruction Project. But the Asian Development ...
PM will hand-deliver titles
Prime Minister Hun Sen will personally deliver land titles to residents in Kratie province’s Snuol district on September 21 following the completion of the land measuring mission by volunteer youth there. According to the premier’s order, land titles have been granted in three forms of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090558506/National-news/pm-will-hand-deliver-titles.html
Dredging licenses up for grabs
The government has granted contracts to three unnamed private companies to invest in dredging operations along parts of the , but is withholding the companies’ names and information on the specific areas for the large-scale projects. Lim Kean Hor, the Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology, told ...
Questions over bonuses
Unions and labour groups fear a solitary sick day could cost garment workers their entire month’s attendance bonuses – about 15 per cent of their base wage – under a new scheme meant to make life easier. The Kingdom’s 600,000 garment and footwear workers will receive ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090558510/National-news/questions-over-bonuses.html
B Kak Woman Arrested
Prominent Boeung Kak villager and protester Yorm Bopha was yesterday jailed in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison, after she and her husband – en route to check for their names on a voting register – were pounced on by police in plain clothes in what ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090558509/National-news/b-kak-woman-arrested.html
Police: farmers intended to log
Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers arrested 18 Cambodian farmers trying to cross the border in Oddar Meanchey province to illegally log in Thailand on Saturday. The farmers, between 20 and 40 years old, were travelling in a rented van equipped with axes, saws and other tools, ...
Maids' mother told to drop complaint: NGO
The recruitment firm HRD Company had allegedly threatened the mother of two sisters working as maids in Malaysia, pressuring her to withdraw her NGO complaint seeking help in repatriating her daughters or risk having all communication with them cut, a rights group said yesterday. Pov Chhan, ...
Officials cheated me: farmer
A cassava grower in Siem Reap’s Srei Snom district has accused a district police chief and a deputy commune chief of cheating him out of his land after they doctored the grower’s testimony in a court case. Em Socheat, a lawyer for land owner Yem Savuth, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090458481/National-news/officials-cheated-me-farmer.html
Gov't Reports $25M From Rents in Six Months
The government earned just over $25 million in rental fees from state land leased to private companies in the first six months of the year, according to new figures from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. While the data shows that earning have risen, critics say ...
Emerging Mining Sector to Be Subject to Grassroots Scrutiny
As mining companies continue to scour Cambodia for minerals, work is also under way to build a network of local monitors and activists to shed light on the country’s often-opaque mining sector and its practices. {T]he Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has granted an unknown ...
Fisheries Official Questioned Over Clearing Flooded Forest
A fisheries official accused of involvement in the clearing of an area of protected flooded forest in Kampong Thom province in July was questioned at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Korn Chanseiha, chief of the Fisheries Administration’s Stong district office, is one of about 20 officials ...
Needs compared with the UK
Cambodia’s needs and how they overlap with the UK’s strengths are an important issue in trade and investment relations between the two countries, according to British Ambassador Mark Gooding during a presentation to the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) yesterday. Bilateral trade is mainly driven by ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090458466/Business/uk-to-diversify-trade-ambassador.html
Villagers Told Eviction Is for Obama's Safety
More than 180 families living adjacent to the Phnom Penh International Airport were told yesterday that they must vacate their homes to make was for a security road to ensure the safety of U.S. President Barack Obama, who is expected to visit in November. Var Sarang, deputy ...
Japanesee NGO Admonishes Forced Evictions
A okyo-based human rights group has called on the government to cease forced evictions and branded the use of armed forces against ordinary citizens defending their land as an :unforgivable human rights violation.” Human Rights Now (HRN), which in June sent a team of Japanese investigators ...
Still no motion on union law
As the latest draft of Cambodia’s long-awaited trade-union law sits idly at the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Labour officials have turned to outsiders to help hasten its enactment, a union advocate said yesterday. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, said ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090458479/National-news/still-no-motion-on-union-law.html
China Gives $523M, Thanks Cambodia for Asean Help
Prime Minister Hun Sen returned home yesterday from a quick trip to Beijing with the promise of some $523 million in new loans and grants, one day after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jabao praised Cambodia for helping China maintain “friendly relations” with Asean. Speaking with ...