Southeast Asia Globe
Outpost Cambodia launches startup sponsorship competition
The co-working and co-living space Outpost Cambodia announced details of a startup competition today that will offer a winning company free 24/7 access to a desk for up to six people for six months in its workspace on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar peninsula, four specialised consultations with ...
Euan Black
http://sea-globe.com/outpost-cambodia/
Why the West was doomed to fail in Cambodia
Backed by China, Prime Minister Hun Sen has entered 2018 triumphant from his decades-long struggle with the West – and set the stage for his succession. ...
Paul Millar
http://sea-globe.com/where-next/
“The more we produce rice, the poorer and poorer we get”
For millennia, rice has been the backbone of Cambodia’s all-encompassing agricultural sector. But with global rice prices falling and neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam mobilising their vast resources and workforces to boost domestic production, experts say the crop that has underpinned the nation’s ...
Paul Millar
http://sea-globe.com/cambodia-future-rice/#
How Cambodia’s record deforestation is driving crippling drought
Massive deforestation is playing a crucial role in the droughts that have devastated Cambodia. But despite an official ban on timber exports, forests continue to be cut down at a record rate.The Cambodian government awarded between 30 and 40 logging concessions to private companies during ...
Euan Black
http://sea-globe.com/deforestation-drought-cambodia/
Cambodian parliament passes law that could destroy the opposition
Cambodia’s parliament today passed a controversial provision that severely curtails the power of the country’s opposition parties and effectively bans former opposition leader Sam Rainsy from returning to power. ...
Logan Connor
http://sea-globe.com/cambodian-parliament-passes-law-destroy-opposition/
Tourism forum to focus on ‘authentic’ Mekong experiences
This year’s theme will be “Authentic Experiences along the Mekong River.” According to Jens Thraenhart, executive director of the MTCO, “Travellers want to be able to truly experience the country that they are visiting and come away with a true appreciation of the local experience. ...
Logan Connor
http://sea-globe.com/mekong-tourism-forum/
Failure to enforce jobs quota law shortchanges Cambodia’s disabled
If there is to be an end to the cycle of poverty that afflicts many Cambodians with disabilities, then most experts agree that stable employment will be one of the prerequisites. ...
David Hutt
http://sea-globe.com/lack-enforcement-cambodia-disabled-law/
A man’s world
Straining under the weight of bricks, buckets and metal bars, a faceless army carry their loads from trucks to a massive building site on Penh Penh’s Diamond Island. Hidden beneath wide-brimmed hats and kramas masking their faces from dust and the sun, the battalion of ...
Frédéric Janssens
http://sea-globe.com/female-construction-workers-cambodia/
The canes of wrath
Satiating the demands of the global sugar industry is big business for Cambodia’s sugarcane plantations. Yet accusations of human rights abuses and land grabs in the Kingdom have left a bitter aftertaste for many on the ground as companies vie for a larger slice of ...
Long-overdue Consolidation of the Kingdom’s Mobile Telecoms Market May Have Operators Feeling Hopeful, but Challenges Remain
After years of immersion in a vicious price war, battle weary and capital-haemorrhaging [sic] mobile operators in Cambodia’s oversaturated telecommunications sector may finally have reason to breathe a sigh of relief; 2013 might be cited as the year the tide turned. Tarred by legal threats, ...
Monitoring for Nothing: Is the ILO’s ‘Better Factories’ programme failing the Kingdom’s garment workers?
The United Nations in Cambodia has taken a beating in recent months. The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal has been plagued by high-profile resignations and accusations of political interference. Elsewhere human rights activists have criticised the UN’s failure to take a firm stance against an increasingly ...
Frédéric Janssens
http://sea-globe.com/monitoring-for-nothing/
Covering Cambodia
With the number of cars on Cambodia’s roads growing at a consistent pace, high-end automotive distributors are jockeying for a foothold in the market, but they are not the only ones who stand to benefit from Cambodia’s splurge on cars. Working on the sidelines, the ...
Sweet Prospects
The sugar palm is a national symbol for Cambodia. Harvested by the country’s poor for centuries, no part of the palm tree goes to waste in a process that fashions the tree into a range of products. The durable and strong leaves are weaved into ...
The drugs don’t work: Despite the best efforts of the authorities, producers of fake medicines are making a killing in Cambodia
“Counterfeit medicine kills, while real medicine heals.” This was the simple but apt message selected just over a year ago for a poster campaign in Cambodia that aimed to raise awareness of the risks of counterfeit medications, as part of a government crackdown on the ...
A smooth ride?
It’s not a claim every country can make, but Cambodia builds its own cars. A country known for its low-skilled workforce, the Kingdom exceeded expectations with its January release of the Angkor Car, a mini-electric vehicle able to get up to 300 kilometres per charge. ...
Chugging along- The rehabilitation of the Kingdom’s railways is essential to boosting regional economic ties, but the mammoth project needs to pick up speed
A glance around Battambang’s dilapidated train station reveals the monumental task it will be to complete the Cambodian segment of the ‘iron silk road’, which will connect Southeast Asia to Europe by rail for the first time. Cows graze between missing rails in front of ...
Hunters and Hunted
Unable to effectively police the Cardamoms alone, the Cambodian government partners itself with several international NGOs. The forests directly north of Highway 48 arc patrolled with the help of Wildlife Alliance. Beginning in 2002 with two ranger stations, Wildlife Alliance now operates six outposts in the ...
The Bottom Line
Clashes between garment workers and the local manufacturing industry came to a head in February when three women were shot while protesting for increased bonuses outside their workplace. It was almost five more months before manufacturers and governing bodies agreed to raise the earning potential ...
Caution: Work Ahead
Émile Coué was a French psychologist who introduced a method of self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better,” was his mantra. He died in 1926 and probably never visited Cambodia, but his spirit has been hovering over ...