The Phnom Penh Post
A logging free-for-all
The scale of mass logging in once-dense woodlands in Cambodia’s north now more closely resembles the free-for-all of a gold rush than the sustainable forestry more often associated with these communities. With the financial backing of powerful businessmen, villagers in three districts of Preah Vihear are ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-free-all
Unions drum up strike support
At the site where security forces shot dead at least four people during a nationwide strike on January 3, union leaders yesterday passed out fliers encouraging workers to join a stay-at-home strike after Khmer New Year. When workers filed out of Canadia Industrial Park’s gates for ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-drum-strike-support
Flood repair bill under estimate
The National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) released a report yesterday showing that only $356 million was spent on the restoration of infrastructure destroyed by last year’s floods – far below the $500 million in damage estimated beforehand. Nhim Vanda, vice chairman of the NCDM, said ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/flood-repair-bill-under-estimate
Luxury resort looks for new lease of life with redesigned blueprint
A new blueprint for the long-delayed Snake Island (Koh Pos) resort development off the coast of Sihanoukville will soon be completed, and investment of up to $1 billion is hoped to kick-start the project, which has a planned completion date of 2018, according to the ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/luxury-resort-looks-new-lease-life-redesigned-blueprint
Jail time for governor if summons ignored
The governor of Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district will face arrest if he fails to appear for a second summons to Ratanakkiri Provincial Court to answer questions about his alleged involvement in the illegal logging of protected land around the Ou’Sinlair waterfall, the court said yesterday. The ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/jail-time-governor-if-summons-ignored
Acid services reduced
With acid attacks in steep decline – not a single attack has been recorded so far this year – the only organisation working directly with acid survivors on the ground is scaling back its services by 75 per cent. Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC) is no ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/acid-services-reduced
Beeline to launch 4G network by year’s end
Mobile network operator Beeline announced on Monday that it will launch a 4G service by the end of the year. Hout Vanthan, the chairman of parent company Sotelco, said the 4G network will be available in Phnom Penh by the fourth quarter of 2014. ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/beeline-launch-4g-network-year%E2%80%99s-end
Cyber bill raises concerns
Cambodia’s highly secretive draft law on cybercrime, which has never been released publicly, seeks to criminalise online content that “slanders or undermines” government agencies, ministries or officials or affects “political cohesiveness”, a copy obtained by the Post reveals. The law, which was first announced in May ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cyber-bill-raises-concerns
Cashew plantations ‘destroyed’
Representatives of 50 families in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday alleging that a Vietnamese concessionaire is responsible for destroying about 50 hectares of cashew plantations. Sorl Penh, 58, a representative for the villagers from Nhang commune, said yesterday that ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cashew-plantations-%E2%80%98destroyed%E2%80%99
Return reps, upgrade paycheck, say strikers
More than 200 workers at a company connected to Thai firm K Cement downed tools yesterday and protested in front of the factory in Kampot province, demanding major pay increases and for fired unionists to be reinstated. Ty Yann, secretary of the Building and Wood Workers ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/return-reps-upgrade-paycheck-say-strikers
City Hall to shepherd public bus operation
City Hall has taken over the recently launched public bus route in Phnom Penh pending a review of the Chinese-owned firm that is contracted to run the fledgling service, a company official said yesterday. Lim Andre, Global (Cambodia) Trade Development’s manager in Phnom Penh, said yesterday ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/city-hall-shepherd-public-bus-operation
Costs don’t top brands’ concerns
In their latest bid for a $160 minimum monthly wage for the garment industry, independent unions will lead a “stay at home” strike late next week. While the chances of that figure being approved anytime soon seem slight – the government has only just announced a ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/costs-don%E2%80%99t-top-brands%E2%80%99-concerns
Rethinking investment laws
Cambodia’s 11-year-old investment law may be the most liberal in the region, according to the World Bank, but in practice, day-to-day business operations are far from simple, economists and business operators say. Mey Kalyan, senior adviser to the Supreme National Economic Council, said that despite a ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rethinking-investment-laws
Ministry shake-up as AEC integration looms
The Ministry of Commerce is undergoing an internal shake-up to better position itself for the opening up of trade across the region. Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol told the Post yesterday that ahead of Asean Economic Community (AEC) integration in 2015, new divisions were being established and others realigned ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ministry-shake-aec-integration-looms
Schools take funding plan to the bank
Like mob deals and black market trades, the Cambodian school budget is dealt in suitcases of cash. Four times a year, the school operating budget is dispersed in stacks of cash transferred from the central bank to the Ministry of Education, eventually ending up with the ...
Laignee Barron and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/schools-take-funding-plan-bank
Cops on call for KNY
As hundreds of thousands participate in the annual mass migration from Phnom Penh to their home provinces for Khmer New Year next week, military police will remain at their posts. National Military Police in the capital and provincial outlets will be working at full capacity 24 ...
Vong Sokheng and Maria Wirth
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cops-call-kny
Rice sector credit boost
The government-backed Rural Development Bank (RDB) will lend $64 million to Cambodia’s agriculture sector in 2014, the bank’s top official said yesterday. Sun Kunthor, president of RDB, said most of the funding would be used to support growth in Cambodia’s rice sector as it strives to ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-sector-credit-boost
Palace says King’s name still intact
The Royal Palace yesterday said the letter sent by opposition leader Sam Rainsy to King Norodom Sihamoni last week that elicited a furious response from the government for “insulting” the King, did not, in fact, disrespect the monarch’s “honour and name”. A statement signed by the ...
Kevin Ponniah and Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/palace-says-king%E2%80%99s-name-still-intact
Factories not monitoring chemicals, says ministry
Following the mass fainting of hundreds of workers at garment factories last week, an official at the Ministry of Labour has raised concerns over the control of toxic chemicals. Leng Tong, director of the Labour Ministry’s occupational health and safety department, said factories should be providing ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factories-not-monitoring-chemicals-says-ministry
Villagers make plea over crocs
A group of villagers from Koh Kong’s Areng Valley gathered outside the offices of Flora & Fauna International (FFI) in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding a say in a project designed to relocate endangered Siamese crocodiles from the site of the planned Stung Cheay Areng dam. ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-make-plea-over-crocs
Businesses warned not to increase holiday rate
With Khmer New Year arriving next week, Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned tourism-related businesses against increasing service prices during the three-day holiday. Speaking at a graduation ceremony for students at Vanda Institute of Accounting in Koh Pich yesterday, the prime minister appealed to hotels, guesthouses, ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/businesses-warned-not-increase-holiday-rate
Pardons given to 70
Seventy prisoners are to be released during Khmer New Year next week in an amnesty that will also see hundreds of prison sentences reduced by up to a year. The Ministry of Justice approved 555 applications for sentence reductions and pardons following a request by its ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pardons-given-70
Python peddler arrested
Police in Kandal province’s Koh Thom district seized a shipment of live pythons en route to market in Vietnam on Friday, arresting the accused smuggler and turning the snakes over to conservation group Wildlife Alliance, police said yesterday. ...
Kim Sarom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/python-peddler-arrested
Angkor ready for surge of tourists
Siem Reap hotel operators are preparing for a deluge of tourists this Khmer New Year season the likes of which is not often seen, tourism officials say. Chheuy Chhorn, deputy director of Siem Reap’s tourism department, said after attracting 170,000 visitors to the first annual Angkor ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/angkor-ready-surge-tourists