The Phnom Penh Post
Big strides for savings in MFIs
Microfinance deposits are on the rise, a positive trend that the industry says is moving the country towards a reduced dependency on foreign funding and that will eventually lead to greater control over interest rates. The seven microfinance institutions licensed to take deposits collected $209 million ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/big-strides-savings-mfis
Cracking down 101
A deal to end the political deadlock may reduce demonstrations in the streets, but the authorities are leaving nothing to chance – Daun Penh’s notorious district security guards are finally receiving proper government training. City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche, who has previously said the baton-wielding district ...
Daniel Pye and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cracking-down-101
Hun Sen demands bus lines
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday used the inauguration of the Stung Meanchey overpass to call for the speedy formation of a government bus authority, as the capital eyes two new planned routes and 18 by 2020. During his speech at the site of the approximately $19 ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hun-sen-demands-bus-lines
Maiden landing at beachside airport
Sihanouk Ville International Airport received its first international flight this week, a landing the industry hopes will open up the coastal resort destination to more foreign tourists. A flight by South Korea-based Skywings Asia Airlines, an international charter carrier, arrived from Seoul on Tuesday. One hundred ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/maiden-landing-beachside-airport
Cashew nut export numbers aren’t adding up: producers
Cambodian cashew nut exports are on the rise, yet export figures are still well below production numbers, with thousands of tonnes unaccounted for. Unshelled cashew nut exports totalled close to $2.5 million in the first six months of the year, with 2,800 tonnes exported, a rise ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cashew-nut-export-numbers-aren%E2%80%99t-adding-producers
Cults Ministry seizes discs from self-proclaimed ‘god’
Staff from the Ministry of Cults and Religion seized promotional material from a man claiming to be a Buddhist “god” on Sunday in Kandal province, officials said yesterday. The operation was conducted at Reachea pagoda, where Thean Vuthy had been promoting himself as the fifth and ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cults-ministry-seizes-discs-self-proclaimed-%E2%80%98god%E2%80%99
Crops pulled: Locals and NGO staffer questioned
About 150 ethnic Kuoy villagers gathered outside Preah Vihear Provincial Court yesterday to protest the questioning of eight villagers and an NGO staff member for allegedly inciting villagers in Tbeng Meanchey district to destroy 36 tonnes of sugarcane. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/crops-pulled-locals-and-ngo-staffer-questioned
CNRP’s wish list for NEC narrows
The opposition is eyeing two leading civil society figures and deputy party leader Kem Sokha’s daughter to fill the three remaining slots the party holds on the nine-member National Election Committee, according to a high-level party source. Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker-elect Kuoy Bunroeun has already ...
Meas Sokchea, Kevin Ponniah and David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp%E2%80%99s-wish-list-nec-narrows
Expatriates need IDs: government
Expatriates working in Cambodia without labour identification cards will face fines and even jail when strict new enforcement kicks in, according to a July 16 joint statement from the ministries of interior and labour. Government inspectors, the statement adds, will begin checking workplaces immediately in order ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/expatriates-need-ids-government
Wages do not compute: ILO
NGOs say the Ministry of Labour’s use of its own method for determining the garment industry’s minimum wage is risking a repeat of the tensions that exploded in violent protests in January, when authorities killed at least five people. More than six months after the Labour ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wages-do-not-compute-ilo
SECC plans same-day settlement on trading
The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) is planning new measures for trading on the local stock exchange that it says will encourage investors to trade more actively. Investors currently need to wait for six intervals – occurring every half-hour between 8.30am and 11.30am – ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/secc-plans-same-day-settlement-trading
Demonstrators say jobs in Japan promised
Hundreds of Cambodians hoping to migrate to Japan to work in the electronics industry yesterday protested outside an NGO that they claim conned them out of up to $200 each with promises of jobs. About 100 protesters – out of a total of 300 who are ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/demonstrators-say-jobs-japan-promised
Tougher ELC oversight pledged
In what is the government’s latest pledge to hold tycoons and foreign investors to account for their business practices, the Ministry of Environment will begin assessing existing and proposed economic land concessions (ELCs), cancelling or rejecting those that have negative social or environment impacts, a ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tougher-elc-oversight-pledged
US-listed education provider moves in
US-listed firm Nord Anglia Education has taken over the management of Northbridge International School, the education provider announced earlier this month. Nord Anglia, which currently operates 29 schools stretching from the US to the Middle East, to China, on July 10 took over the day-to-day operations ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/us-listed-education-provider-moves
Forestry revenues falling short
Rights groups have called on the government to increase tax rates for logging companies amid the latest domestic revenue figures. According to the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, timber exports produced $9.4 million in government tax revenue during the first half of the year, up ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/forestry-revenues-falling-short
Gov’t gives telecom firms time to digest new draft law
The ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) has postponed a two-day meeting with telecom firms to discuss a controversial draft law leaked to the Post last week, which details the government’s plan to assert control over the industry. A representative from one telecommunications provider who wished ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gov%E2%80%99t-gives-telecom-firms-time-digest-new-draft-law
Anglers ‘invading’: Villagers say rivals taking over fish lot
More than 200 residents from seven villages in Ratanakkiri province’s Taveng district have filed a complaint to the local Administrative Fisheries Department and two right groups over claims that rival anglers in the area are collecting fish in their protected lot by poisoning the catch. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/anglers-%E2%80%98invading%E2%80%99-villagers-say-rivals-taking-over-fish-lot
Down to the power of one
One person will hold the balance of power on the overhauled National Election Committee when the political agreement signed by the opposition and ruling parties on Tuesday is implemented. Sitting beside four members from the ruling party and four from the opposition, the man or woman ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/down-power-one
Workers clash: At factory in Kandal, fight over protest
Melees at a garment factory in Kandal province between striking workers and employees who are against the industrial action have left five people mildly injured. Employees at the Tae Young factory began striking a week ago, calling for two administrators at the plant to be fired, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-clash-factory-kandal-fight-over-protest
Interested, but not yet committed
From the finance to the education sector, the interest from companies looking to list on Cambodia’s nascent stock exchange is on the rise, a CSX official said yesterday, after a meeting with some of the Kingdom’s largest firms. Some 30 companies, the CSX say, are eyeing ...
Daniel de Carteret and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/interested-not-yet-committed
Deal making waves abroad
With the country’s longest post-election deadlock now over and the opposition parliamentarians ready to take their seats, at least some of the CNRP’s most lucrative supporters – those overseas – are struggling to swallow the new concessions. “Join[ing] the CPP [in the National Assembly] is the ...
Laignee Barron, Charles Rollet and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/deal-making-waves-abroad
New rules for proctors
In its continuing campaign to clean up the grade 12 national exam, the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has warned that anyone caught leaking copies of the test or selling answers could find themselves imprisoned. Punishments for misbehaving exam observers are spelled out in an ACU statement released ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-rules-proctors
Homes move due to floods
Coastal erosion became serious enough in Kampong Cham province for authorities to dismantle and move 13 houses along the Mekong. Officials are planning to do the same for about 100 others to prevent them from falling into the river due to rising water levels over the ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/homes-move-due-floods
Telecom law outrage
Cambodia’s telecom sector is outraged over a draft law handed down by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) on Wednesday, which details a government plan to assert control over the industry. In what is being labeled an “unprecedented, draconian” effort to nationalise the industry, the ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/telecom-law-outrage