The Cambodia Daily
Illegally Logged Concessions Face Invalidation
The Ministry of Agriculture will request that Prime Minister Hun Sen from now on revoke all economic land concessions (ELC) whose owners are found guilty of illegal logging or other major forestry crimes, a ministry official said yesterday. ...
Injunction Issued Against Garment Factory
The Kandal Provincial Court issued an injunction yesterday against Yung Wah Industrial Co. Ltd., preventing the company from selling assets at its two garment factories in Takhmao City where thousands of workers have been protesting the past two days over unpaid wages. ...
Optimism as Cashew Season Gets Under Way
As the cashew-harvesting season in Cambodia’s northeastern provinces begins, farmers are expecting a good crop due to favorable weather conditions last year, an official said yesterday. ...
Vietnamese Firm’s Land Concession Could be Canceled
The Ministry of Agriculture will ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to cancel a 4,900-hectare economic land concession belonging to a Vietnamese rubber company in Ratanakkiri province on the grounds that the firm has been illegally logging on a large scale, officials said yesterday. According to ...
Preah Vihear Families File Complaints As Land Set Aside for Airport
More than 60 families living in Preah Vihear province filed a complaint with rights group Ahdoc yesterday after officials announced that their land had been set aside for a new airport and would not be measured for private land titles, local officials said. Adhoc Preah ...
Thousands Protest, Claiming Unpaid Salaries
Thousands of employees of two Singaporean-owned Yung Wah Industrial (Cambodia) Co.Ltd. factories, which produce shirts for Gap Inc. among other international brands, went on strike yesterday in Kandal province, claiming that they were not paid their salaries for last month. “Normally, salaries are paid between the ...
Rights Group Denounces Gag Order on Lawyers Before Election
New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Cambodian Bar Association of trying to silence potential government critics ahead of July’s national elections by imposing restrictions on lawyers making public statements. The Bar Association and the Information Ministry have both issued edicts that ...
Thousands of Workers Protest For Increase of Minimum Wage
More than 5,000 workers from across seven factories in Svay Rieng province protested yesterday, demanding a doubling of the current minimum wage, a provincial labor official said yesterday. The country’s minimum wage sits at $61, and is supplemented by a $5 health benefit and a ...
Gag Order on Lawyers Sparked by Comments in Mfone Case
A controversial order instructing lawyers to consult the Cambodian Bar Association before making public statements was triggered by comments made by an attorney involved in the high-profile legal battle involving mobile operator Mfone, a spokesman confirmed on Monday. Kuoy Thunna—who is representing Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gag-order-on-lawyers-sparked-by-comments-in-mfone-case-10015/
Senator's Wife Showers Police, Military With New Year Cash
At 9 a.m. yesterday, more than 200 soldiers, police and military police officers were gathered outside a large mansion on Street 55 in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district. All were waiting for their promised “ang pao” – red envelopes containing cash usually handed out during ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/senators-wife-showers-police-military-with-new-year-cash-9831/
Lawmakers to Discuss Sesan 2 Dam Draft Law
The National Assembly has announced that it will discuss a draft law on the financing of a controversial dam project in Stung Treng province on February 15, a move environmental groups called premature. Meach Mean, coordinator for 3S Rivers Protection Network – which has been ...
Lack of Redress For Farmers Contributes to H5N1 Spread
While the ministries of health and agriculture are taking measures to stem the spread of avian influenza – which claimed its fifth victim in just three weeks on Thursday – a lack of compensation for poultry owners affected by culling is limiting their effectiveness, officials ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lack-of-redress-for-farmers-contributes-to-h5n1-spread-9854/
Lawyers Instructed to Seek Approval Before Speaking to Media
Lawyers must now obtain permission from the Cambodian Bar Association before speaking to television and radio media in order to ensure that they do not speak out of turn, the association’s president said in a meeting on Friday. “First, we want to ensure a high quality ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawyers-instructed-to-seek-approval-before-speaking-to-media-9756/
French Firm Out of Railway Rehabilition Project
The head of the government department in charge of railways made a dramatic about-face yesterday, saying that French construction firm TSO (Cambodia) Co. Ltd. was being thrown off the donor-funded railway rehabilitation project. Contacted on Tuesday, Ly Borin, director of the Transport Ministry’s railway department, denied ...
Officials to Map Bunong Land for Communal Titles This Month
Efforts to map the ancestral land of five ethnic Bunong communities that have long sought collective property titles in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district will finally begin later this month, with funding for the project coming from the U.N., officials said yesterday. “We are working in ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-to-map-bunong-land-for-communal-titles-this-month-9644/
Naga Corp Reports 23 Percent Profit Growth
NagaCorp Ltd., the Hong Kong-listed company that runs Phnom Penh’s only licensed casino, saw its profits grow by 23 percent in 2012, the firm said in an announcement. In its financial results for the year, released Wednesday to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company that ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/nagacorp-reports-23-percent-profit-growth-9646/
Government Orders Railway Repairs to Start
The government has ordered French construction firm TSO (Cambodia) Co. Ltd. to resume work repairing the railway line between Phnom Penh and Serei Saophoan City in Banteay Meanchey province, an official said yesterday. The French firm has been contracted to rehabilitate the France-build railway – a ...
France Ready for Talks on Gas Power Plant
Utilities giant Electricite de France (EdF) is preparing to enter negotiations with Cambodia over the construction of a power plant to use up natural gas locked up in disputed waters off the country’s coast, France’s ambassador-in-waiting to Cambodia said on Tuesday. Serge Mostura, who is still ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/france-ready-for-talks-on-gas-power-plant-9596/
Jarai File Complaint Over Firm Filling In Lake
Etnhic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s Kakeo district yesterday filed a complaint with the provincial court, accusing a Vietnamese rubber company of clearing their ancestral land and filling in a lake they use for fishing and irrigation. Local officials say the company intends to ...
Ambition Trumps Reality in Investment Figures
Since 2008, a whopping $28 billion worth of investments has been pledged by local and international firms looking to set up luxury hotels, a new airport and even Cambodia’s first horse racing venue. But a closer look at the list of investments approved by the Cambodian ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/ambition-trumps-reality-in-investment-figures-9387/
Draft Law for Lower Sesan Dam Details Plans for Compensation
A draft law on the financing of a controversial dam project in Stung Treng province obtained yesterday shows that about $38 million will be spent on the resettlement of almost 800 families. This marks a significant decrease from the more than 1,000 families the companies ...
National Land Program Dropped Communal Titles
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme announced in June originally included a directive for granting collective property titles to indigenous communities, but this part of the program was scrapped weeks later as it was deemed too costly and time-consuming, documents obtained yesterday show. For “indigenous ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/national-land-program-dropped-communal-titles-9480/
Villagers Claim Injustice in Land-titling Project
More than 200 villagers living on an economic land concession on Pursat province say they were unfairly left out of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-measuring program after local authorities on Saturday printed the names of families eligible for land titles. Chhuon Khurn, chief of Phteah ...
Company Building Lower Sesan 2 Dam Gets OK to Clear Land
Representatives of a massive hydropower dam project in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district approached local authorities late last month informing them that the government had granted the company permission to clear 36,000 hectares of land for a reservoir, officials said on Sunday. The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-building-lower-sesan-2-dam-gets-ok-to-clear-land-9252/