The Phnom Penh Post
Deal would send workers to Saudi Arabia
Cambodia is nearing a deal that would open a pipeline of workers to Saudi Arabia, a country where Southeast Asian migrants have in the past been abused and even executed for crimes that include “sorcery”. Following a meeting in Hanoi last week with Saudi Ambassador Salah ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/deal-would-send-workers-saudi-arabia
Can’t fight, forced to take flight
The residents of Por Sen Chey district’s Prey Chisak village could do nothing but stand and stare. Early yesterday, representatives of Green Goal, a private company tasked with measuring and marking sought-after property for Phnom Penh’s airport expansion, arrived in the village and started to measure ...
Chhay Channyda and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/can%E2%80%99t-fight-forced-take-flight
Court rules in tycoon’s favour
Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday ruled in favour of a mining tycoon and convicted a Chinese-Cambodian widow of defaming the oknha during an embittered land dispute. Sok Neang Gek, 46, an interpreter at a garment factory in the capital, was fined $1,000 and ordered to compensate ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/court-rules-tycoon%E2%80%99s-favour
In debt, out of work
They save for months, borrowing from family and friends, even taking out loans, to pour as much as a year’s worth of earnings into the hands of recruiters that may have no intention and certainly have no guarantee of procuring overseas employment. Recruitment agencies, several of ...
Laignee Barron and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/debt-out-work
Russey Keo governor summonsed to court
The governor of Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district has been summonsed to court for questioning on allegations that he and his wife cheated a former secretary of state at the Ministry of Rural Development out of $730,000 through a fraudulent sale of state land and ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/russey-keo-governor-summonsed-court
Labour leaders decry bail payment and nine arrests
Labour union leaders denounced the government yesterday, alleging unfair treatment in the wake of nine union worker arrests last week and a hefty bail payment by a union president yesterday. Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), yesterday paid $25,000 ...
Sean Teehan and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/labour-leaders-decry-bail-payment-and-nine-arrests
Beaten journo preps lawsuit
A journalist with Voice of Democracy (VOD) who was badly beaten by security forces at the site of a planned demonstration in the capital earlier this month left for Thailand yesterday for an operation, and plans to file suit against his attackers next week, he ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/beaten-journo-preps-lawsuit
Logging a resource issue, says official
A forestry official with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) who is usually tight-lipped acknowledged last week that his agency has struggled to combat illegal logging, blaming a shortage of manpower and entrenched opportunistic logging by villagers – explanations that were laughed off ...
May Titthara and Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-resource-issue-says-official
Bag snatchings jump: EU
After being presented with statistics showing a more than 100 per cent rise in petty crime against foreigners, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng yesterday called on police officials to look into what’s causing the problem. Nicolas Baudouin, a spokesman for the French Embassy, confirmed that a ...
Vong Sokheng and Joe Freeman
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bag-snatchings-jump-eu
Weather damage: Storms ruin dozens of lives, homes
At least 31 people were killed and 64 injured by storms during the first four months of this year, according to figures from the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM). Keo Vy, cabinet director at the NCDM, said strong winds and rains led to three deaths ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/weather-damage-storms-ruin-dozens-lives-homes
Farming’s primacy ‘hinders’
Cambodia’s economic productivity is in trouble, struggling with an inability to turn a youthful population into a skilled workforce and stunted by an over-reliance on agriculture, according to a new World Bank report. In Cambodia and Vietnam, diversification of labour from the farming sector contributed to ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/farming%E2%80%99s-primacy-%E2%80%98hinders%E2%80%99
Prisoners to receive pardons
Hundreds of prisoners will be pardoned or see their sentences reduced on Tuesday following a request by the Ministry of Interior to the King. The royal pardons and sentence reductions, which benefit 339 inmates, coincide with Pisak Bochea Day, a celebration of the Buddha’s birth. ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/prisoners-receive-pardons
‘Gangsters’ target rights worker
A land dispute in the capital’s Tuol Kork district escalated further on Friday when a group of “gangsters” allegedly threatened the life of a human rights worker taking video footage for a documentary on the conflict. “Six men pushed me off the site. One screamed: ‘I ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98gangsters%E2%80%99-target-rights-worker
Million-home dilemma
A soaring population and increased migration to urban areas will create demand for more than a million new homes by 2030, according to a draft national housing policy. Approved by the Council of Ministers on Friday after a series of revisions, the draft highlights the increasing ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/million-home-dilemma
Rights group slams SL case
A trial for two teens charged with intentional violence from a Stung Meanchey riot in November was unfair to the defendants, a statement released yesterday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. Calling the trial “deeply flawed”, HRW said the judge in the case showed open hostility ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rights-group-slams-sl-case
Kia enters market with high hopes
Kia Motors opened its first showroom in Cambodia on Friday and the local authorised dealer, A&A Auto Group, says the time is right for the Korean carmaker to join the ranks of those looking to tap the country’s growing middle class. Sin Soveoung, sales manager for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/kia-enters-market-high-hopes
Brewery strike pays off for staff
Staff at a brewery that produces Angkor Beer returned to work on the weekend after management agreed to a strike-ending $30 raise on Saturday. More than 1,000 workers at Cambrew Ltd in Preah Sihanouk province walked off the job on Thursday after a month of wage-increase ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brewery-strike-pays-staff
Hospital after school
A rowdy 8-year-old boy has accused his teacher of hitting him over the head with a small whiteboard during class on Thursday, leaving him with a bloody head wound. Sok Kim Heng said yesterday that he spat on another student and, in return, his teacher whacked ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hospital-after-school
Lead-up to poll saw SLCs spike
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 ban on the allocation of economic land concessions was supposed to halt the unpopular practice of turning over large swaths of property to developers. And going by the numbers last year, it worked. But in the vacuum, according to local rights ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lead-poll-saw-slcs-spike
Parking rules kicked to kerb
City Hall is turning its focus to Phnom Penh’s “anarchic parking” situation. Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong yesterday said the municipality plans to cancel old contracts awarding private companies the right to charge for parking in certain parts of the city, and introduce new restrictions on ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/parking-rules-kicked-kerb
Standards must improve: official
Small food and beverage makers are at risk of being uncertified when the ASEAN economic community takes shape in 2015, with the vast majority far from achieving international quality and safety standards, a government official says. Him Phanith, the deputy director of National Productivity Center, said ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/standards-must-improve-official
Staff poaching spurs bank action
Cambodia’s banking sector is looking to establish a collective fund to help recoup staff training expenses lost from competitors poaching employees off one another, Grant Knuckey, CEO of ANZ Royal said yesterday. Speaking at the launch of ANZ Royal’s business confidence index in Phnom Penh yesterday, ...
Eddie Morton and Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/staff-poaching-spurs-bank-action
CNRP threatened over rhetoric
A government spokesman warned yesterday that legal action may be taken against the opposition leaders if their “unlawful” campaign rhetoric incites unrest. Tith Sothea, spokesman for the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit, said that the government will consider filing complaints against Cambodia National ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-threatened-over-rhetoric
Exports of rubber up, but prices on the fall
Despite a large increase in exports during the first quarter, natural rubber producers continue to see declining revenues, as world prices fall further. The latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce show natural rubber exports grew 26 per cent during the first quarter of 2014, compared ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/exports-rubber-prices-fall