The Phnom Penh Post
Community forests fall short
A newly leaked document attesting to a $15,000 deal between representatives of Ratanakkiri’s Samut Krom village and a timber trader to allow Vietnamese-backed logging in the community’s forest appears to add further weight to its critique. ...
Phak Seangly and Shaun Turton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/community-forests-fall-short
Deal gives UAE more confidence to invest
The Kingdom’s investment authority signed an agreement yesterday to promote and protect investments between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Cambodia, a move government officials hope will attract foreign direct investment from the oil-rich Gulf state, which currently stands at almost zero. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/deal-gives-uae-more-confidence-invest
PM weighs in as floods continue in Kingdom
Water levels in the Mekong River in Stung Treng province climbed to emergency levels yesterday morning as Prime Minister Hun Sen took to Face-book to order local authorities to look out for residents. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-weighs-floods-continue-kingdom
Fintech could be ‘game changer’
Addressing the delegates, Chea Serey, director general of National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), stressed the role and importance of digital finance initiatives in broadening financial inclusion. She said digital finance could be a “game changer” for Cambodia’s nascent financial sector as it enables financial service ...
Brian Ng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/fintech-could-be-game-changer
New era looms for Kantha Bopha
During the first six months of this year, the hospitals recorded $7.7 million in private donations from Switzerland, compared to $7.4 million during the first six months in 2016, according to Laurent. ...
Yesenia Amaro and Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-era-looms-kantha-bopha
Minister calls for car check-ups
Transport Minister Sun Chanthol said yesterday that there are about 150,000 cars on Cambodia’s roads without valid road safety certificates, and called on vehicle owners to schedule safety checks on his ministry’s website or risk being fined by police. ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minister-calls-car-check-ups
Metfone operator plans for big foreign revenue
Viettel Group, the Vietnamese military-owned operator of Cambodian mobile operator Metfone, expects to pull in $1.4 billion in revenue this year from overseas investments, Vietnamese state-owned media reported yesterday. ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/metfone-operator-plans-big-foreign-revenue
Vanny maintains innocence
Jailed activist Tep Vanny yesterday maintained her innocence and called on the judge to overturn her conviction in a hearing at the Appeal Court yesterday, as about 80 protesters demonstrated for her release outside. ...
Niem Chheng and Leonie Kijewski
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vanny-maintains-innocence
Preah Sihanouk families seek titles
About a hundred families in Preah Sihanouk province gathered outside their local commune office on Tuesday to demand authorities follow through on what they said were promises to give them titles to land in what is now a Chinese land concession. ...
Soth Koemsoeun
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/preah-sihanouk-families-seek-titles
No concrete solutions for cement shortage
Despite being home to several cement factories, real estate industry experts say Cambodia’s cement manufacturing sector has yet to fulfill demands of the fast developing building boom. ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-property/no-concrete-solutions-cement-shortage
Tax department rakes in $1.2B in revenue
The General Department of Taxation (GDT) collected a whopping $1.19 billion in tax revenue during the first half of this year, an increase of 32 percent compared to the same period last year, led by a surge of value-added tax (VAT) and profit-tax revenue. ...
Kali Kotoski and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tax-department-rakes-12b-revenue
Vietnam rubber firm reaches accord with Ratanakkiri ethnic villages
In an agreement mediated by the International Finance Corporation’s watchdog mechanism, a controversial Vietnamese rubber firm has reached a deal with 11 ethnic minority villages affected by its Ratanakkiri operations to return nearly 20 community “spirit mountains”, restore streams filled or polluted by its activities ...
Phak Seangly and Martin de Bourmont
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vietnam-rubber-firm-reaches-accord-ratanakkiri-ethnic-villages
UN officials blocked from visiting villages near dam
Since Sunday, Military Police and provincial police officials have been stopping outsiders from entering Sesan district’s Srekor and Kbal Romea villages as 200 people – mostly ethnic minorities from all over Cambodia – continued to gather in defiance of the blockade for a series of events, including ...
Phak Seangly and Martin de Bourmont
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/un-officials-blocked-visiting-villages-near-dam
CNRP meets as new Party Law clears council
Cambodia National Rescue Party leaders yesterday summoned members from across the Kingdom instructing them how to comply with impending new laws that will see former party President Sam Rainsy scrubbed clean from their prolific billboards – but not without a hint of defiance. ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-meets-new-party-law-clears-council
Surrogacy exit rules released, with parents required to provide yearly updates
Parents of children born to surrogate mothers in Cambodia will be required to provide the government with yearly updates of their child’s mental and physical development, according to new guidelines officially disseminated to embassies for the first time yesterday. ...
Kong Meta and Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/surrogacy-exit-rules-released-parents-required-provide-yearly-updates
Government opens $27M emergency fund to corn farmers
The government has officially made $27 million in emergency funds, initially intended for the rice sector, available for struggling corn farmers at a 5 percent annual interest rate to help prop up low market prices and free up liquidity after farmers protested earlier this month, ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/government-opens-27m-emergency-fund-corn-farmers
More suspects in Thailand arms smuggling case sought
Banteay Meanchey Provincial Police are hunting four more suspects believed to be connected to a recent case of smuggling weapons to Thailand, with an official saying the group is accused of transporting the ordnance across the border. ...
Niem Chheng and Shaun Turton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/more-suspects-thailand-arms-smuggling-case-sought
PM announces plan for social security system
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday announced that the government has plans to have a functioning social security system operational in the country by 2025, including universal health care, unemployment insurance and old-aged pensions. ...
Touch Sokha and Yesenia Amaro
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-announces-plan-social-security-system
Migrant worker protections ‘lacking’, reports find
Cambodia lacks effective mechanisms to protect its citizens working both as legal and undocumented migrants abroad, where such workers also face insufficient protection from the countries that receive them, according to two new reports published last week. ...
Leonie Kijewski and Soth Koemsoeun
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/migrant-worker-protections-lacking-reports-find
Cambodia’s Facebook crackdown: Police are monitoring site for ‘enemies’ and ‘rebel movements’
National Police are monitoring Facebook to repress attempts to create a “rebel movement against the government” through negative posts and are working to better control civil society groups that have “opposition trends” and try to cause instability in society, a semiannual police report issued yesterday ...
US dollar used to curb inflation
Cambodia’s central bank purchased a total of $479.4 million worth of cash during the first half of this year to convert to riel, utilising one of the few tools the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has to stabilise the value of the local currency and ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/us-dollar-used-curb-inflation
Activist ‘threatened’ for tip over land clearing
An ethnic Kuoy activist in Stung Treng province says his life was threatened after he tipped authorities off to an alleged land grab on Saturday involving two suspects who remain at large. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activist-threatened-tip-over-land-clearing
Bond to funnel benefits to women
An $8 million bond set to debut on Singapore’s stock exchange will mobilise private capital to support social enterprises and microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, providing nearly half a million women in these countries with more access to credit in order ...
Brian Ng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/bond-funnel-benefits-women
Deminer among three Cambodians arrested for arms sale
Banteay Meanchey police have arrested three men, including a deminer from the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), for their alleged involvement in selling three mortars seized last week by Thai authorities, who, in a separate raid in Thailand near the country’s border with Myanmar, detained ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/deminer-among-three-cambodians-arrested-arms-sale