The Cambodia Daily
Cambodia ranked ninth most at risk for disasters
Cambodia was ranked the ninth most at risk country of being exposed to natural disasters out of 173 countries surveyed in a new report by the UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security A UNDP report released in August supported the World Risk report’s findings ...
Land for Rubber Farms to Nearly Double by 2020
Cambodia expects to almost double the amount of land used to cultivate rubber between now and 2020, a move that rights groups say could result in more evictions across Cambodia. Ly Phalla, director general of General Directorate of Rubber Plantations, said yesterday that there are ...
Country’s Buyers Discuss Faintings, Union Law
Multiple government ministries and the International Labor organization will form a group to investigate the mass fainting that have plagued Cambodia’s garment industry over the past several months, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said yesterday. There have been at least 15 mass fainting since the beginning ...
K Thom Authorities Prevent NGO Workshop
Authorities in Kompong Thom province yesterday forced a pagoda to withdraw its invitation to host a workshop about forest protection, continuing their pressure on two NGOs that provide community legal education in the province, a monk and NGO worker said. Chin Neth, chief monk at ...
Officials Move to Bring Unruly Garment Subcontractors in Line
Citing a government investigation that revealed factories colluding with unlicensed subcontractors to use unethical labor sources including prisoners, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh has asked the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia to urge adherence to labor law. Rehabilitation programs meant to teach vocational skills such ...
Mining Firm Hit With Fines for Illegal Exports
A mining company owned by the wife of RCAF Major General Nim Meng has been ordered by the government to pay fines and unpaid taxes after the firm was found to have illegally exported minerals from Cambodia, a report released yesterday by the Cambodian Investment ...
Investment by China Doubles In First Half
Cambodia approved $1.2 billion in investments from China in the first six months of the year, a 104 percent increase in the amount of Chinese money set to flood into the economy compared to the same period last year, the Cambodian Investment Board said. The ...
Road Crash Report Shows Fatalities Up Year-to-Year
Road accidents claimed the lives of 1,816 people in 2010, a slight increase from the 1,717 killed in 2009, according to a report by the Cambodia Road Crash and Victim Information System. The total number of casualties from road accidents reached 18,287 in 2010, according ...
Activists, Journalist Summoned Over Incitement
Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has summoned for questioning two rights group activists and a journalist over charges that they incited ethnic minority villagers in Lumphat district to violence in 2009, a court official said yesterday. The case against the three men – Adhoc provincial coordinator Pen ...
Police Warn NGOs Over Workshops
Kompong Thom provincial authorities have threatened to shut down two NGOs who have been providing free legal education to poor villagers in the province, accusing the groups of fomenting rural unrest against private investors. The NGOs, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and the Natural ...
US Fortune 500 Firms Wrap Up Cambodia Visit
A US-Asean Business Council delegation representing 11 fortune 500 companies concluded a two-day visit to Phnom Penh on Saturday, the council said in a statement. With Cambodia scheduled to take the chairmanship of Asean next year, members from US companies such as Chevron, GE, Abbot, ...
Garment Factory Lease Issues Cause Protests Over Severance
Afraid that the Dai Young Cambodia Co garment factory in Phnom Penh would not be renewing its land lease, more than 800 workers protested on Saturday at the factory in Russei Keo district demanding that the owner sign a guarantee of severance pay, labor unions ...
USAID Report Offers New Way to Protect Prey Long Forest
The government should abandon its current management of Prey Long forest and shift to a plan that conserves the forst while also optimizing its economic uses, such as agriculture, carbon credits and controlled timber exploitation, according to a recent report by the US Agency for ...
Thailand’s Former Official Denies Secret Oil Talks
Thailand’s former Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban has denied Cambodia’s recent claim that he initiated secret bilateral talks over coveted oil reserves in disputed Gulf of Thailand waters, Thai news service MCOT reported Saturday. In a statement last week, the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority said ...
Land Grabs Mar Cambodia’s Investment Boom
The evictions and so-called “land grabs” have angered aid donors, putting at stake hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid as well as a trade scheme that gives Cambodian produce tariff-free access to the EU. International donors and lenders such as the World Bank ...
24 More Faint at Dangkao District Garment Factory
Continuing the spate of mass fainting at Phnom Penh garment factories, 24 workers fainted at the Heart Enterprise factory on Friday, prompting the factory to shut down for the second time in a week, officials said. The Dangkao district garment factory had reopened on Friday ...
Moody’s Downgrades Acleda, Cites Risk
Ratings agency Moody’s changed its outlook on Acleda Bank’s financial strength yesterday to “negative” from “stable” and downgraded its rating of the bank’s local currency deposits to Ba2 from Ba1. The rating downgrade was applied due to changes in shareholders at the bank over the ...
Nine Companies Barred From State Projects for Not Paying Tax
The Ministry of Finanace in August barred nine local companies from working on government infrastructure projects for allegedly failing to pay tax owed on several projects funded by foreign money, government and company officials said yesterday. The move by Finance Minister Keat Chhon to freeze ...
Report Says Reforms Were Hard to Drill Home at Petrol Authority
The Cambodian National Petroleum Authority restricted vital information and failed to cooperate with consultants working for the Asian Development Bank who were deployed to the authority between 2007 and 2010 as part of a $1 million project to strengthen governance at the body, a new ...
World Bank Influence Curbed by ‘New’ Donors
The World Bank is losing influence in Cambodia to “emerging donors” and making no major headway in stemming corruption, the Bank’s Independent Evaluation Groups said in a report released Wednesday. Specifically focused on the World Bank;s 2007 anti-corruption initiative through 2010, the report uses six ...
Property Developers Seek Ministry Licenses
Several property developers ave approached the Ministry of Finance to ask for licenses after the ministry warned buyers last month not to purchase housing fro developers who are not licensed to sell their properties. The ministry’s warning, issued Aug 11, identified three local developers that ...
Cruise Ship Arrivals Dip 31% in First Half
The number of visitors arriving by cruise ship in Sihanoukville dropped steeply in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year, a Tourism Ministry official said yesterday. A lack of attractions in Sihanoukville and high visa fees were keeping ...
At Least 50 Garment Workers Faint Over Two Days
At least 50 garment factory workers fainted over the past two days in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district, bringing the number of workers who have fainted in the district in August to 60, workers and union members said yesterday. N Tuesday, workers from Heart Enterprise Cambodia ...
Land Rights Still Unclear in Pheapimex Dispute
Following a decision in March to give land back to residents of 13 communes in Pursat province from a vast economic land concession belong to the conglomerate Pheapimex, boundaries have yet to be drawn, and ownership of the land still remains unclear, residents and a ...