The Phnom Penh Post
Room for compromise in wage debate: official
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia and unions both need to compromise further to secure a “proper wage” for garment workers whose lives are hampered by their current $61 minimum wage, a Ministry of Social Affairs official overseeing wage negotiations said yesterday. “The government needs the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661779/National/room-for-compromise-in-wage-debate-official.html
Cambodia Post to tie up with Thailand
Cambodia Post, a state-owned enterprise with plans to list on Cambodia’s bourse, will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) today with the Thai Post intended to provide electronic money transfer services between the two ASEAN neighbours. The initiative hopes to tap the growing remittance via ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661775/Business/cambodia-post-to-tie-up-with-thailand.html
Foreign activists detained
Police arrested five activists from labour-rights group Clean Clothes Campaign yesterday outside the E Garment factory in Kandal province. Neuv Sakhan, deputy director of the Kandal provincial immigration police, told the Post four women and one man, from Norway, Belgium, England and Austria, had been taken ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661780/National/foreign-activists-detained.html
Toilets, trucks on agenda
The government announced new plans for developing both transportation and rural sanitation at the annual meeting of the Ministry of Rural Development at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall in Phnom Penh yesterday. According to officials at the event, the ministry will be completing by year’s end a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661784/National/toilets-trucks-on-agenda.html
Ethnic villagers fight lake fill-in
One hundred and thirteen Jarai families from Ratanakkiri’s Bakeo district are sending a letter of protest to the provincial fishery administration today, after a Vietnamese rubber company started filling in a lake that they had promised last month to preserve for villagers. Rochom Ven, chief of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561737/National/ethnic-villagers-fight-lake-fill-in.html
Villagers fear eviction looms
Villagers who fear eviction from their homes of 30 years in Kratie province travelled to Phnom Penh yesterday to plead for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s intervention. Fifteen representatives of 88 families who live close to Kratie Airport, in Kratie town’s Srei Padav village, said provincial authorities ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561741/National/villagers-fear-eviction-looms.html
Graduates lacking skills: report
EVEN though about 50 per cent of Cambodian university students studied business management, the banking sector has been hesitant to recruit them, insiders said yesterday. A 2010 report by the recruitment agency HRINC (Cambodia) projected that the supply of business, marketing, management, banking and finance, economics ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561746/Business/graduates-lacking-skills-report.html
Rice exports at a flying pace
Cambodia milled rice exports reached 49,815 tonnes in the first two months of this year, an increase of 106 per cent from the same period last year. Jasmine rice was the biggest part of the exports, followed by long grain white rice, data from the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561743/Business/rice-exports-at-a-flying-pace.html
Japanese to bolster SEZ development
A GROUP of Japanese businessmen yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Sonatra Group chairman Sorn Sokna to develop a special economic zone along the Mekong River at the site of the Prey Veng ferry terminals. The ferry service is expected to become redundant when the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561750/Business/japanese-to-bolster-sez-development.html
Thais to set up maize plant
THAI agribusiness giant Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods is setting up a new silo and drying plant for maize in Pailin province. The exact investment cost is not known. According to a newspaper report in The Nation, the plant, together with a planned feed-meal plant in Laos, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561742/Business/thais-to-set-up-maize-plant.html
‘Historic’ deal for workers
Labour-rights groups are lauding a “historic” deal that will result in about $200,000 in wages and benefits being paid to workers who were stranded when the Kingsland Garment factory in Phnom Penh closed unannounced in December. In a meeting on Friday that took place as more ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030461726/National/historic-deal-for-workers.html
Japan to strengthen local SME’s capacities
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announced yesterday that it will provide technical support for Cambodian small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), strengthening their capacities through the establishment of a national policy, officials said. Meng Saktheara, director-general of the General Department of Industry at the Ministry of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561745/Business/japan-to-strengthen-local-sme-s-capacities.html
Second-hand, first in imports
Cambodia imported almost 10 times as many used clothes as new ones in the first 11 months of last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Some 79,217 tonnes of used garments worth $61.5 million were brought in during that period, compared ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030461731/Business/second-hand-first-in-imports.html
Acleda seeks bidders for ATM drive
Cambodia’s largest commercial bank, Acleda, plans to install 30 automatic teller machines (ATMs) this year as the bank expects about a million new depositors during the coming year. Acleda president and chief executive In Channy told the Post yesterday additional ATMs would be installed in Phnom ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030461728/Business/acleda-seeks-bidders-for-atm-drive.html
Fake fertiliser cuts crop yields
FARMERS’ crop yields are being undercut by unregistered middlemen selling fake fertiliser, and government efforts to combat this have proved ineffective, according to independent research from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). CDRI’s preliminary research, conducted as part of a larger program investigating agricultural policies for ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030161683/Business/fake-fertiliser-cuts-crop-yields.html
Mega-bank joins forces with Canadia
CANADIA Bank and Japan-based Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday agreeing to work together to tap the flow of Japanese investors into the Kingdom. The MoU was signed by Canadia Bank chief executive officer Michael Lor and Masato Miyachi, the general manager ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030161679/Business/mega-bank-joins-forces-with-canadia.html
ACU to act on Telecom claims
The president of the group responsible for rooting out government graft said yesterday that his investigators will look into allegations of corruption filed by state-owned Telecom Cambodia (TC) employees against the director-general of the company, Lao Saroeun. Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) President Om Yentieng told reporters after ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861665/National/acu-to-act-on-telecom-claims.html
Brit brands target local market
MORE UK-based brands were looking to set up shop in Cambodia, Britain’s ambassador to Cambodia, Mark Gooding, said yesterday. Gooding said at Costa Coffee’s official opening in Phnom Penh he was pleased by the arrival of the international chain, the largest coffee brand in the UK, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030161680/Business/brit-brands-target-local-market.html
Investment to aid low earners
US-BASED Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) yesterday signed a deal to provide a $5 million long-term loan to Thaneakea Phum (Cambodia) Ltd (TPC), a local microfinance institution (MFI), to support TPC’s expansion of its home improvement loans for low-income Cambodians. Fernanda Lima, director of US-based socially ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861653/Business/investment-to-aid-low-earners.html
Kampot land prices stable
Property experts said the land prices in Kampot province have been “stable” in early 2013 despite trading more actively than last year. Nuon Rithy, managing director at the Bonna Realty Group, said the trading of land in Kampot province is quiet and nothing changes much because ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861646/Real-Estate/kampot-land-prices-stable.html
CSX to increase trade times
THE Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), the recently established bourse with a single player, will increase the number of trade executions from twice to six times a day, a move that will take effect on March 11. A CSX officer and the managing director of a securities ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861659/Business/csx-to-increase-trade-times.html
Direct flights set for all ASEAN this year
CAMBODIA will have direct flights to all ASEAN member states this year in order to promote stronger growth of the tourism sector in the Kingdom, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Cambodia will become fully connected to the ASEAN region ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861655/Business/direct-flights-set-for-all-asean-this-year.html
Foreign investment in Cambodia’s property rises
Property experts say foreign companies are coming to invest in Cambodia’s property sector, as they see the growth and potential of the Kingdom. Sung Bonna, director of Bonna Realty Group, said that the number of foreign companies in the sector has grown, and most are from ...
Need for more transparency
GREATER transparency along the garment supply chain, from producers to buyers, is required in order to strengthen the accountability of retailers, factories and governments in protecting the rights of workers, Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said yesterday. Speaking in Phnom ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861656/Business/need-for-more-transparency.html