The Phnom Penh Post
Union bosses called in
Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday summonsed three senior leaders of Cambodia’s largest independent garment union for questioning over claims they embezzled money meant to be paid to workers in compensation following an industrial dispute, a court official has said. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-bosses-called
Lawyer has hopes Veng Sreng clients will be freed
A lawyer representing three of the 23 people arrested during garment strike clashes on January 2 and 3 hopes the capital’s court will drop charges against her clients when it hears their case on April 18, she said yesterday. ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lawyer-has-hopes-veng-sreng-clients-will-be-freed
Brands ‘failing their workers’
European mega-brands are not doing enough to ensure that the Cambodian workers who make their products receive a basic living wage, according to a report released today. Tailored Wages, an analysis of 50 of Europe’s biggest clothing brands, found that many major high-street chains are doing ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brands-%E2%80%98failing-their-workers%E2%80%99
Aeon MFI to expand in Cambodia
Aeon Microfinance (Cambodia) plans to expand its branches in Cambodia this year and also diversify its products from the current base after two years of operating in the Kingdom, officials with the company say. Until now, the microfinance institution (MFI) – which is part of the ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/aeon-mfi-expand-cambodia
Workers to file stories from the factory floor
The Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) is hoping to turn a select group of garment workers into muckrakers by offering a journalism program through the Voice of Democracy news outlet. Free of charge, the course will last until October and have a firm focus on ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-file-stories-factory-floor
Hundreds protest Laos dam
Yin Vuth, one of hundreds of Cambodians who protested against the Don Sahong dam over the weekend, said that if construction on the project in Laos goes ahead, the fish will disappear, and once the fish disappear, the dolphins will be next. “All we will have ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hundreds-protest-laos-dam
Big dip in illegal fishing: gov’t
Cambodian authorities intervened in far fewer illegal fishing cases last year compared with 2012, when Prime Minister Hun Sen first banned commercial angling nationwide in a bid to replenish waterways and aid small-scale fishermen. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which released an ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-dip-illegal-fishing-gov%E2%80%99t
Slight change of plans
A few thousand opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party supporters marched through central Phnom Penh yesterday as the party held its largest public gathering in the capital since protesters were chased out of Freedom Park in early January. Although Prime Minister Hun Sen suggested in late February ...
Meas Sokchea and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/slight-change-plans
Tough talk on ELCs
Economic land concessionaires not abiding by their contracts could have their licences revoked if they have seriously breached the terms, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said. Illegally seizing forest land would be punished under the Law on Forestry, he said on Friday, speaking at an annual ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tough-talk-elcs
Boxes for donations, not bribes: minister
The minister of education proposed yesterday that donation boxes for teachers be installed in schools across the country, but stressed their aim would be to diminish rather than grow a culture of bribery in the system. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron presented the idea for the ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/boxes-donations-not-bribes-minister
A recipe for disaster
Small plastic packets filled with a mix of pills of various sizes, shapes and colours sit piled on the counter of a pharmacy in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, home to several large garment factories. At 2,000 riel a pop, about 50 cents, these packs are sold ...
Kevin Ponniah and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/recipe-disaster
Relocated ‘need more’
Minister of Environment Say Sam El urged economic land concessionaire Union Development Group (UDG) – the mega-resort developer at the centre of a long-running Koh Kong province land dispute – to provide sufficient infrastructure in the relocation areas provided for residents it displaced, a ministry ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/relocated-%E2%80%98need-more%E2%80%99
Forecast: coast in danger
Residents along Cambodia’s coastline may want to relocate to higher ground in the wake of a climate-change assessment that predicts much of the Kingdom’s coast could be submerged by rising sea levels. Based on predictive models that take into account global temperature trends and melting ice ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forecast-coast-danger
Cambodian shot, killed in Thailand
A Cambodian national was fatally shot near the Thailand-Cambodia border on Wednesday in the latest of a string of deadly incidents along the border this month, officials said yesterday. Theng Sokla, 27, a native of Pailin province’s Sala Krao district, was hunting for animals on a ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodian-shot-killed-thailand
Firm ‘logging in sanctuary’
A company in Mondulkiri’s Sok San commune has been gradually cutting down a community forest, pushing more than 100 families off their land, villagers said yesterday. “That land belongs to us, the government granted it to us in 1999. But the company invaded and let us ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/firm-%E2%80%98logging-sanctuary%E2%80%99
Residential property prices see steady growth
A property expert and investor in the construction sector says that home prices have increased between 10 and 20 per cent so far this year compared to last year. Kim Heang, president of Khmer Real Estate, says that demand for property in boreys is healthy. Most ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/residential-property-prices-see-steady-growth
Exam proctors promised pay boost
The Ministry of Education is promising to pay national exam proctors double the fees earned last year in its newest move to stymie widespread bribes exchanged for exam answers or inflated scores. Previously, proctors earned an average salary of 190, 000 riel ($47.50) over the three-day ...
Chhay Channyda, P.4
http://phnompenhpost.com
Patrol detains loggers
A forest patrol in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district spotted five loggers clearing the community’s ancestral forest on Tuesday, villagers and rights group Adhoc said yesterday. Adhoc provincial coordinator Chhay Thy said that three representatives of nearly 200 ethnic Jarai families in Pak Nhai commune asked for help ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/patrol-detains-loggers
District forestry boss charged over ‘logging’
The director of the Lumphat district forestry department in Ratanakkiri province was charged and put in pre-trial detention on Monday for allegedly logging on protected land around Ou’Sinlair waterfall, police and court officials revealed yesterday. Deputy Police Chief Klol Thoeun said that Meung Bunthin was picked ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/district-forestry-boss-charged-over-%E2%80%98logging%E2%80%99
Small-scale construction firms suffer amid slump in demand
Small business owners in the pillar construction industry say they are facing hard times as demand increases for large pillars but diminishes for small-scale construction. Chheang Bona, director of 7FTD Co, Ltd in Vihear Sour commune, in Kandal province’s Ksach Kandal district, said that his ...
The Editor
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/small-scale-construction-firms-suffer-amid-slump-demand
Improved economic conditions boost land prices in Battambang city, province
Battambang land prices have increased this year, according to a local real estate firm. Sorn Seap, general manager of Key Real Estate, said land prices in Battambang city, capital of the province of the same name, have increased by around 12 per cent this year compared ...
‘People’s congress’ to test ban
Opposition leaders yesterday announced plans to hold a thousands-strong “people’s congress” in the capital’s Freedom Park on Sunday, despite a ban on gatherings at the site. Cambodia National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy and vice-president Kem Sokha, following their return from overseas trips to Australia, New ...
Meas Sokchea and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98people%E2%80%99s-congress%E2%80%99-test-ban
Unions to lead holiday strike
When is a strike not a strike? That’s a question being asked after union leaders yesterday announced they will inform garment factory owners that their members want to use annual leave days to wage their stay-at-home strike the week after Khmer New Year. The leaders of eight ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-lead-holiday-strike
PM to fete controversial dam
In the wake of several international scandals, the 120-megawatt Stung Atai hydropower plant in Pursat province and its transmission line will be inaugurated today in a celebration headed by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The $255 million hydropower project financed by China Development Bank has been operating ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-fete-controversial-dam