The Cambodia Daily
Int’l Groups Urge Gov’t To Free Boeng Kak 15
Freedom House and several other international human rights groups condemned the conviction of 13 Phnom Penh women last week who are locked in a land dispute with CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin and called for their release in a joint statement issued Tuesday. The women were arrested ...
Garment Exports Grow 15% in First Quarter
Garment and footwear exports from Cambodia increased 15.29 percent to $1.29 billion in the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2011, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce. While exports to the European Union rose 46.76 percent to $376.14 million in ...
Protest Becomes Secession When Liberties Are Taken With Words
This month’s eviction of villagers in Kratie province that resulted in the death of a 14-year-old girl was one of many such violent incidents over land that have erupted in Cambodia in recent years. But what set the May 16 violence apart was a word: ...
Hello Mobile Posts 27% Growth in Q1 Revenues
Malaysia-based telecommunications firm Axiata Group said yesterday that revenues at its Hello mobile phone operator in Cambodia grew by 27.3 percent to $2.21 million at the end of the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2011. ...
Japanese Firm set to Open Plant in Poipet
Japanese electronics firm Nidec Corporation has invested about $37.5 million to establish a factory in Poipet City that will produce parts for computer hard drives ...
Commune Vote Predictable, but Margins Less So
With Sunday’s commune elections quickly approaching, the five main political parties are all predicting substantial gains over how they faired in the last election in 2007, though none deny that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) will continue to dominate the polls. And with the entrance ...
SRP Campaign Videos Put Focus on Evictions
While the CPP in Phnom Penh has spent much of the campaign period broadcasting speeches by Prime Minister Hun Sen, hosting music concerts and sending well-known comedians into the streets to work the crowds, the SRP has a starker campaign focus. When the sun sets, 10 ...
91 NGOs Condemn Gov't Violence in Statement
Ninety-one NGOs put their names to a statement yesterday condemning the government’s escalating use of armed force against peaceful protesters and urged the authorities to engage with them to “break the current cycle of violence and impunity.” Joined by local human rights groups such as Adhoc ...
Wait Out Elections, Firm in Land Dispute Told
Despite facing criminal charges, 70 villagers from Kompong Chhnang province embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the KDC Development Company have moved back onto the contested land, court officials and villagers said yesterday. KDC, which is owned by Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy ...
Seventy Workers Faint at Factory Supplying H&M
More than 70 workers at a factory in Kompong Speu province that produces garments for the Swedish clothing brand H&M were hospitalized Monday after they fainted at their workplace. Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union, said the workers at the Anful garment factory in ...
Phnom Penh Garment Factory Protest Resolved
More than 4,000 workers from two Phnom Penh garment factories belonging to a company that supplies international brands Gap, H&M and Levi Strauss returned to work yesterday after reaching an agreement with owners, union and factory representatives said yesterday. Eah Chip Eang, personnel manager for SL ...
State Utility Staff May Be Registered To Vote Twice
The SRP yesterday said it had found that more than 90 employees of state-owned power company Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) were registered to vote in two separate places for Sunday’s commune elections and warned that the ruling CPP may use such government employees to vote ...
Buses to Run Direct to and from Bangkok
Starting next month, 80 Cambodian and Thai buses and trucks will be allowed to transport goods and passengers directly between Bangkok and Phnom Penh for the first time, an official said yesterday. Suon Vanhong, deputy director of transport at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, ...
SEZ Shooting Suspect Under Court Supervision
The Svay Rieng Provincial Court has placed former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith under court “supervision” after questioning him last week in connection to the Feb. 20 shooting of three female factory workers, according to investigating Judge Pech Chhoeut. Mr. Chhoeut said the ex-governor was questioned ...
Protesters Call For Release of Boeng Kak 15
About 100 residents from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community rallied in front of the National Assembly yesterday to demand the release of 13 women sentenced to jail last week and two others now in pretrial detention for opposing evictions resulting from a real estate project ...
China Donates $19M During Asean Defense Meet
As the region’s top brass gathered in Phnom Penh for the Sixth Asean Defense Ministers Meeting, it was Beijing that once again stole the show with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie signing off on nearly $19 million in military aid to Cambodia. In the country on ...
New Phnom Penh Overpass Will Affect About 100 Families
More than 60 families will have their homes destroyed to make way for a new overpass in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district once construction begins in June, according to a statement posted Saturday on the city’s website. The overpass spanning Monireth Boulevard will displace 66 families and ...
Garment Protest Turns Violent After Accord Fails
Violence erupted yesterday morning during a long-running protest at a Phnom Penh factory that produces clothing for international brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss when about 1,000 workers broke the factory’s gate and started hurling rocks to break its windows, protesters and military police officers ...
Protesters Forgo Roadblock, Distribute Petitions
Villagers in Koh Kong province involved in a long-running land dispute with two sugar cane plantations linked to CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat handed out petitions to passing motorists along National Road 48 demanding their land back. It was a change of pace for the villagers, ...
Radio Competition Aims To Teach Labor Law
A radio competition organized by the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia will enable garment workers to showcase their knowledge and teach the public about the country’s Labor Law, an ILO representative said yesterday. “The objective is not only to allow workers to express their ...
Gov't Requires Bus Companies To Submit Driver Information
In response to a spate of deadly bus crashes in the country, the government has ordered all bus companies to provide authorities with detailed histories of all their drivers, an official at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said yesterday. Peou Maly, deputy director-general at the ministry’s transportation department, ...
IT Firm Sues Thaicom Over Mfone Ownership
Thai information technology firm Infobahn Co. Ltd. has filed a lawsuit against telecommunications conglomerate Thaicom Public Company Ltd. for breaching an agreement made last year to sell 41.14 percent of its shares, a deal that also includes a 51 percent stake in the Cambodian mobile ...
Acleda Raises Capital by Nearly 30 Percent
Acleda Bank has raised its bank capital—the amount of money it has available for expenditure—by 28 percent to $113.16 million, the bank announced in a statement on Friday. In Channy, CEO of Acleda, said yesterday the extra capital would be used to increase its loan portfolio ...
Court Silent On Charges Against Monk
A Phnom Penh Municipal Court official yesterday refused to disclose the nature of “incitement” charges issued in February against well-known monk Loun Sovath, while the Ministry of Justice claimed it was unaware of the case against the social campaigner. According to documents dated Feb. 14 and ...