The Phnom Penh Post
Factory flaws go live
Unionists and labour rights officials are applauding a website scheduled to go live today that will hold to account garment factories that flout Cambodia’s labour law. The site, created and maintained by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program, will publicly name factories ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-flaws-go-live
Vendors fight for right to stay put
Food vendors at Phnom Penh’s O’Russey Market have fought and won a battle against eviction. On Friday, about 80 vendors, including some who have sold food at the market since 1997, were told to clear out of what has become a heavily congested parking lot outside ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/vendors-fight-right-stay-put
Villager rep held over burning firm’s timber
A representative for villagers living in Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district who say that buyers from a local company failed to uphold a 2007 land deal has been charged and temporarily detained by local authorities for allegedly destroying private property. Haing Noeur, 50, was detained on Saturday after ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villager-rep-held-over-burning-firm%E2%80%99s-timber
CPP wants leash on watchdogs
The ruling party wants “biased” election watchdogs to be on a tight leash by the next election and wants the opposition to agree to it, senior Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap said yesterday ahead of the third meeting of a bipartisan election reform committee ...
Vong Sokheng and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cpp-wants-leash-watchdogs
Bitcoin enthusiast eyes Cambodia
Local entrepreneur Ki Chong Tran believes he has the solution to many of Cambodia’s problems. On March 1, Tran submitted what he described as a “long-held weight off his chest” – a six-page proposal to the New York-based Bitcoin Foundation outlining all the ways the ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/bitcoin-enthusiast-eyes-cambodia
Authorities allowing logging: M’kiri locals
Members of six ethnic communities in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town yesterday accused local authorities of blocking their efforts to protect community and wildlife sanctuary forests, where they say luxury timbers are logged by Villas Development, a company co-owned by the wife of Mondulkiri Deputy Governor ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/authorities-allowing-logging-m%E2%80%99kiri-locals
Alleged land dispute victims file petition
Alleged victims in seven separate land disputes in Kampong Cham province yesterday agreed to file a petition to the provincial governor, following a meeting with rights group Adhoc. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/alleged-land-dispute-victims-file-petition
Fifteen ‘gunned down’
Twelve Cambodians were shot dead by Thai security forces on March 5 after illegally crossing the border from Choam Ksan district in Preah Vihear province to log timber, Cambodian officials said yesterday. Another three illegal loggers were killed on Wednesday and two others are still missing, ...
Cheang Sokha and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fifteen-%E2%80%98gunned-down%E2%80%99
Dam critics unswayed
Cambodian environmental groups yesterday stepped up their calls for the Don Sahong dam in Laos to be cancelled, after a visit to the site failed to convince them the hydropower project would not harm the Mekong River and the people who depend on it. ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-critics-unswayed
Be up front with NEC plans, CNRP tells CPP
A day after opposition leader Sam Rainsy said election reform talks were being “cut off” due to ruling party intransigence on the issue of National Election Committee reform, the opposition has asked the Cambodian People’s Party to officially declare its stance on the matter. Senior CPP ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/be-front-nec-plans-cnrp-tells-cpp
Construction on Siem Reap terminal pushed back
Construction of the new Siem Reap International Airport (SRIA) passenger terminal has been delayed a third time due to a hold-up of design and layout approval, officials say. ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/construction-siem-reap-terminal-pushed-back
Latrine numbers up
The number of Cambodian rural households with access to latrines increased from 23 to 33 per cent in 2013, a Ministry of Rural Development report released yesterday says. Chreay Pom, director of the ministry’s rural health care department, said that last year, the ministry constructed about ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/latrine-numbers
EU concludes ‘frank’ talks on rights, reform
Four days of high-level policy meetings between the European Union and Cambodia wrapped up in Brussels yesterday, after seeing “frank and in-depth exchanges” on a number of issues, including human rights, according to an EU press statement released last night. Ahead of the meeting of ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/eu-concludes-%E2%80%98frank%E2%80%99-talks-rights-reform
True refuge still elusive for refugees
It took three illegal border crossings, several bribed officials and six months in an overcrowded detention centre before Mohammed Ibrahim* finally arrived in Cambodia. Four years later, the ethnic Rohingya, a victim of violence and oppression in strife-torn Rakhine state in Myanmar’s west, is one of ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/true-refuge-still-elusive-refugees
Businesses need help fighting corruption: CAMFEBA
Corruption is weighing on businesses, and the avenues to address it are limited, according to Cambodia’s leading employer association. At a joint conference with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Cambodian Federation of Employers (CAMFEBA) in Phnom Penh yesterday, the employer representative called on the ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/businesses-need-help-fighting-corruption-camfeba
Freedom Park off-limits: city
Freedom Park will remain off limits indefinitely for protesters, authorities said yesterday, despite Prime Minister Hun Sen suggesting last month that a ban on public assembly was being lifted. Pich Saroeun, chief of Russey Keo district’s Chroy Changva commune, said Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong had ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/freedom-park-limits-city
Power couple linked to Sinohydro project
Two of the country’s most powerful and politically connected business owners are on the board of governors of the company thought to have brokered a controversial deal between the world’s largest hydropower developer and the Cambodian government, documents obtained by the Post show. Cambodian People’s Party ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/power-couple-linked-sinohydro-project
Minority of unions still strike
A small number of workers from four union groups took part in a stay-at-home-strike yesterday, union leaders said, after mass industrial action was postponed the day before. Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said members of his union from a “small amount” of factories had ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minority-unions-still-strike
Construction on triple-tower Times Centre to start in June
Work on a triple-skyscraper complex near Olympic Stadium announced in February is due to get under way in June this year and be completed in 2017, according to the project supervisor. With its slogan “The heart of Phnom Penh”, Times Centre is slated to feature three ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/construction-triple-tower-times-centre-start-june
Scepticism over social land grants
Nearly a million hectares of land has been granted to ordinary Cambodian citizens through social land concessions (SLC) since May 2012, the government has claimed, though civil society groups have cast doubt on that high figure and questioned how many landless or evicted poor have ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/scepticism-over-social-land-grants
Pursat land dispute leads to destruction
Villagers in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, locked in an ongoing land dispute with local tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Co Ltd, claimed yesterday that security forces and environmental officers opened fire and tried to burn down their houses and plantations on Tuesday after ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pursat-land-dispute-leads-destruction
CNRP to walk away from talks
Negotiations between the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party and ruling Cambodian People’s Party looked like they might screech to an abrupt halt yesterday, as opposition leaders visiting supporters in Tbong Khmum province said they will “cut off” talks. Speaking to about 1,000 supporters in the province’s ...
Meas Sokchea and Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-walk-away-talks
Clean water access ‘improves’
Cambodia is making steady headway towards its goal of providing universal clean-water access. “The 2013 population census shows that the percentage of people who now have clean water sources has climbed to 49 per cent. We will be able to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goal ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/clean-water-access-%E2%80%98improves%E2%80%99
Grand Twins sets listing date
Taiwanese garment manufacturer Grand Twins International says it will officially list and start trading on the Cambodia Stock Exchange (CSX) on May 8 after spending several weeks whipping up interest from local investors, whose appetite remains on the low side so far. Stanley Shen, a spokesman ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/grand-twins-sets-listing-date