The Phnom Penh Post
Meters mean 'money down drain'
The sole provider of water and electricity in Koh Kong province’s Khemerak Phumin town, LYP group, was demanding that all rental buildings install water meters at exorbitant rates for the region, residents said yesterday. Building managers sent intervention papers to provincial governor Bun Leut on July ...
Bail granted for disgraced officials
Four officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction arrested last week on bribery charges involving millions of dollars would be freed on bail in the next few days, officials said yesterday. Kuy Bunson, director of the Ministry of Interior’s prisons department, said he had ...
Charges vague as court calls in ADHOC official
In a mysteriously vague citation, Adhoc monitoring head Chan Saveth has been called to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to face charges of “providing assistance to specific perpetrators”. Although the court’s summons, which asks Saveth to appear on August 24, provides no specifics as to the ...
Letter holds key for Tai Yang
It’s been marked by violence, fervent protests and a stream of recriminations, but now bureaucracy is hampering efforts to resolve the seven-week-long strike at the Tai Yang and Camwell factories, which supply Levi’s and Gap, a trade-union advocate said yesterday. Dave Welsh, country director of the American ...
Increase in tourists equals more operators
The number of tour operators registered with Ministry of Tourism increased by more than 10 per cent in the first half of this year compared to last year due to an upswing in the number of tourists visiting the Kingdom, insiders say. Figures from the tourism ministry showed ...
Senator Kok An's Case Back in
The Appeal Court yesterday began hearing now-incarcerated former Anco Brothers deputy general director Heng Chheang’s appeal against Senator Kok An’s requested Phnom Penh Municipal Court injunction over his property. Chheang, and his wife, Tep Kolap, former Phnom Penh International University director, were convicted and sentenced to ...
Approved investment drops
Latest figures show the total value of approved investment in the Kingdom declined by more than 70 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the equivalent period a year before. Economists and officials are unconcerned, however, saying that some big projects during ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012081457967/Business/big-dip-in-approved-investments.html
Trafficked fishermen released-for a price
A group of eight Cambodians held for ransom on a Thai fishing boat were freed over the weekend after their families paid 1,000 baht (US$32) per person to a human trafficker in Thailand who is still holding another nine victims, victims and police said yesterday. The ...
ADB maps Kingdom's needs
The private sector and industry professionals were engaged yesterday in the first consultation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government in an effort to understand the factors affecting Cambodia’s economy, and ultimately determined that human capital, infrastructure, innovation and regulatory issues as the key areas ...
Bank to study loan possibilities for rice
Delegates from the Import-Export Bank of China will visit Cambodia next week to discuss loans for the rice-processing and exporting sector, according to government officials. Son Kunthor, president of the state-owned Cambodian Rural Development Bank, said yesterday that Chinese delegates will come to study the feasibility of ...
Group discovers illegal logging
An expedition to expose illegal logging uncovered about 50 hectares of clear-felled forest yesterday that activists from the Prey Lang Community Network have filmed and photographed to lobby government officials, a group representative said. Chum Yin said more than 60 villagers had traveled to seven villages ...
Campaign spending in NGOs' sight
A consortium of election NGOs had banded together in a bid to push through a Campaign Finance Law that would put a ceiling on political party campaign spending ahead of next year’s national elections, representatives said yesterday. The NGO Working Group on Political Finance has embarked ...
Business concept competition a success
A business concept competition between university students from Cambodia, Japan and Myanmar that provided the perfect opportunity for improving business plans and networking with business people yesterday was won by one of Cambodia’s own. Lay Huy Huoy, a second-year student at Cambodian Mekong University majoring in business and ...
Not all app stores online
Smartphones and the accompanying online stores that sell applications for them may be gaining ground across emerging markets, according to a study conducted by a London-based telecommunications research and analysis firm, but Cambodia’s market is limited by a lack of places to legitimately purchase apps, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012081357948/Business/slow-demand-for-paid-phones-apps.html
Prey Lang villagers on forest watch
Nearly 100 Prey Lang villagers in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district will today embark on a three-day “forest watch” mission to monitor what community representatives say are increased illegal logging activities in the jungle. This is the fourth time the community has conducted monitoring in the ...
Drought fears ignite action
Concerns that a drought may soon grip some of Cambodia’s provinces intensified after the government allocated thousands of cubic metres of water to more than 20,000 hectares of dried rice paddies in a mission to save valuable rice crops last weekend. Although the rainy season has cloaked ...
E-Revolution equals jobs
The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in cooperation with a number of organisations launched a new e-waste management project yesterday in Cambodia in a bid to recycle the country’s burgeoning electronic waste and to provide job opportunities, as Hurleypalmerflatt opened an office in Cambodia to provide jobs for ...
Vehicle Imports up 45 pct in first half
Ministry of Commerce officials maintained that low import taxes and increased demand from consumers were the causes behind the 45.26 increase in vehicle imports in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year. The data showed 486,827 vehicles, of all makes and ...
Taxes and capital obstacles for small business owners
The exclamations of dismay that come from small-business people in Cambodia when someone tries to take a picture of their shop are to be expected, as they believe the photo will be used to make them pay taxes they cannot afford, but that doesn’t mean ...
Fees too high: AirAsia CEO
While AirAsia, one of the world’s largest low-cost airline, is gearing toward an expansion in the region, the company’s chief executive said that serving Cambodia was expensive due to high airport fees. Airport charges are high and restrictive, as are over-flight fees, compared to other countries in ...
Land officials rounded up in ACU bust
Four officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction accused of land dispute-related corruption were arrested on Monday by the Anti-Corruption Unit. An official who declined to be named told the Post yesterday that Sa Reth Boramy, deputy general director of General Department ...
Malaysia workers reject wage deal
Cambodian garment workers at a factory in Malaysia that supplies major international brands were on strike for a third day in a row yesterday, refusing an agreement on accommodation and demanding higher salaries. Representatives of the workers at the Honsin Apparel Sdn Bhd factory in Jahor ...
China firm proposes $6.5bn deal
Chinese firms have huge ambitions for Cambodia, with a second firm this week proposing three projects worth an estimated US$6.5 billion to the National Assembly yesterday, but no deadlines were set for the implementation of the projects, according to officials. Pan Xiaoping, chairman of Ruijin Investment Holding Ltd, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012080957898/Business/china-firm-proposes-65bn-deal.html
Mekong villagers wary of Xayaburi dam
Fishermen bring their boats to shore, pack away their traps and hand over the day’s catch to their awaiting families on the banks of the Mekong River in Kratie province’s Chitra Borei district. “When my husband arrives home each day, we eat some of what he ...