News
Agriculture to see lending growth
Some commercial banks could increase loans to the agricultural sector this year, according to industry insiders who cited improvements in the sector and a rise in crop prices. Cambodian farmers lack the capital needed for inputs such as seeds and fertiliser, while domestic rice millers often ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012012654151/Business/agriculture-to-see-lending-growth.html
Worker 'threatened' for speaking to press
A Cambodian migrant worker in Thailand has said that a recruitment firm in Phnom Penh that sent him and about 1,000 others to work at an “exploitative” factory is threatening him because he spoke to the press. Keo Ratha, 37, said yesterday he received a threatening ...
Vulnerable evictees speak out
An 11-year-old HIV-positive girl evicted from Borei Keila moved back to Phnom Penh to live with her aunt because she had no access to medication at her relocation site in Kandal province, she said yesterday. During another day of protests outside the National Assembly, schoolgirl Theng ...
Oversupply leads to a fall in pork prices
Pig prices in Cambodia have fallen by 18 percent in the past three months due to a massive oversupply of pork in the country, an official at the Cambodian Pig Raisers Association said yesterday. The reason for the oversupply is twofold: Thailand increased its pig exports ...
Claim about quantity of city's plastic waste prompts debate
It was supposed to be about supermarkets helping the planet by cutting down on plastic bags, but it turned into a war of words – and a veritable duel of conflicting data – over just how many plastic products Phnom Penh’s population discards each day. On ...
Illegal rosewood seized from overturned cruiser
Authorities in Preah Vihear province on Monday confiscated one ton of illegally logged rosewood from a Land Cruiser that had crashed after careening out of control on a sharp bend, environment officials said yesterday. The vehicle was found in the early hours of Monday, overturned on ...
Footage shows chaos, panic during shooting
Dramatic new video footage of the January 18 Kratie province land dispute shooting has been released on the internet, depicting TTY rubber company security guards opening fire on a crowd of unarmed villagers. The 48-second video, recorded by a villager on a mobile phone and uploaded ...
Fumes lead to factory fainting
About 60 female workers at a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district were rushed to a nearby hospital yesterday after fainting from inhaling paint fumes. Tuol Sangke commune police chief said that workers at King First Industrial Co Ltd began vomiting and complaining of ...
Firms, gov't discuss $50m banana farm plan
Plans for a 5,000-hectare banana farming project in Koh Kong province, proposed last year by an Australian and a Japanese company, look set to go ahead, with state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) yesterday reporting that the project would cost $50 million. Last Friday, the ...
Thailand and Cambodia in talks over demand for migrant labor
Thailand has appealed to Cambodia to send more migrant workers to the country due to a high demand for labor following last year’s devastating floods, while Cambodia has in turn asked that Thailand render the migration process safer, speedier and cheaper, Choub Narth, deputy director ...
Four companies narrow in on Phnom Penh bus service
Seven months after City Hall called for companies to submit proposals for the city’s first-ever bus service, Phnom Penh Municipality has announced that four out of seven companies who have shown interest will be considered. The municipality in May and June 2011 invited all interested companies ...
Evictees mark 3rd anniversary of Dey Krahorm
More than 300 demonstrators yesterday marked the third anniversary of the forced eviction of Phnom Penh’s Dey Krahorm community, one of the city’s most violent land evictions. Five international rights groups also sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen urging the government to stop land ...
Milled rice exports fall in January
Some of Cambodia’s biggest exporters have experienced a sizeable decline in milled-rice shipments this month, with one insider putting the number as high as 40 per cent year-on-year. The waning figure stands in stark contrast to last year’s milled-rice export numbers, which increased about 22 per ...
Kingdom relieved after US internet law fails to pass
The postponement of two US internet piracy bills last week was met with relief by human rights and media experts in Cambodia, who say the overreaching grasp of the proposed legislation would hinder the internet’s progress and growth in the Kingdom. The US House of Representative’s ...
Villagers wary of Pheapimex olive branch
A deadly land dispute in Pursat province ended over the weekend with a victory for the villagers, but they said yesterday this might have more to do with the upcoming commune elections than a change of heart within the company owned by the wife of ...
Company backtracks, says villagers will now get land
The director of TTY rubber company, whose guards shot four land protestors in Kratie province last week, said he will give land back to the protesting villagers, backtracking on his vow Friday not to give up any of the land granted to him by the ...
Firms may invest in light rail, traffic lights
Japanese technology companies Toshiba Corp and Kyosan Electric have met with Phnom Penh Municipality to discuss investing in a light rail system and new traffic light network. According to an announcement on the municipality’s website yesterday, Kazutoshi Fukuda, managing director of Kyosan Electric, and Yasuyoshi Mugiya, ...
2011 rubber prices surge 132 per cent on demand
Cambodia’s 2011 rubber exports and export prices grew by 5.5 per cent and 131 per cent respectively, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce obtained by the Post. The data shows rubber exports last year totalled 46,727 tonnes, compared to 30,040 tonnes in 2010. Export ...
MIME backs Kingdom SMEs
The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy is set to provide a total of US$800,000 to small and medium enterprises as part of an initiative to strengthen the sector’s technical and competitive strategy. As many as 30 companies would receive the financing, Meng Satheara, the ministry’s ...
Borei Keila villagers set to sue
Women from Borei Keila who escaped Prey Speu social affairs centre last Wednesday made another impassioned plea for housing and compensation at rights group Licadho’s Phnom Penh headquarters on Friday. Armed with copies of a Borei Keila construction agreement from 2004 and in tears, they spoke ...
Villagers set to regain land
Villagers from Kratie province, who blocked National Road 76a last week after four of their own were shot by guards working for agro-development firm TTY, appear to be on their way to receiving farmland they lost to the company in an economic land concession. A statement ...
Human Rights Watch slams government for poor rights record
With a focus on the NGO draft law and allegations of government interference in the Khmer Rouge tribunal, international rights group Human Rights Watch blasted Cambodia’s rights record in its annual report yesterday. The government was quick to hit back at the criticism, saying that HRW ...
Export figures up 42% in 2011
Strong growth in garment, textile, and agricultural exports drove a 42.7 per cent increase in Cambodia’s total exports for 2011, official Ministry of Commerce data shows. The Kingdom exported $4.98 billion in goods last year, compared with $3.49 billion the year before. Market diversification and a relaxing ...
Pol Pot on the tourist map
The Documentation Centre of Cambodia has joined a coalition of government ministries on an study tour to establish a tourism plan in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey, officials said yesterday. Anlong Veng was the last stronghold for the Khmer ...