The Phnom Penh Post
Garment strikers set sights for capital again
Strikers from Kandal province’s Tai Yang and Camwell factories, which supply Levi’s and Gap, will converge on the capital again today to keep pressing for seniority bonuses, Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said. The 150 workers who remain on strikewill deliver a petition to ...
Questions over Laos dam
A decision on whether to build the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos is a life and death one that will affect Cambodians downstream, according to Foreign Minister Hor Namhong. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Namhong said the controversial 1,260-megawatt hydropower dam has ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072357562/National-news/questions-over-laos-dam.html
Land concession cancelled by PM
The Cambodian government has cancelled a 14,981-hectare concession in the Cardamom mountains granted to an Australian firm for a banana plantation, the conservation group Wildlife Alliance has reported. Wildlife Alliance has long lobbied against the concession in Koh Kong province’s southern cardamom forest on which Indochina ...
Cambodia's export growth falls
Increased labour strife in the garment sector and slumping Western economies contributed to a slow-down in Cambodia’s exports during the first six months of the year, with total growth dropping by about 74 per cent year on year. Exports rose, to US$2.5 billion, up 12 per ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072357550/Business/export-growth-falls.html
Ford takes 20 per cent of new car market
Before the big dinner with Hillary Clinton, Prime Minister Hun Sen and the leaders of Thailand and Myanmar on July 13 in Siem Reap, Tom Whitcraft of RMA Group, which owns the Ford dealership in Cambodia, sat down for an interview. Whitcraft said Ford has about ...
Thai media targets Kingdom
RSiam, the country-music business unit of RS Public Company Limited, a Thai entertainment company, is seeking partners in Cambodia and Laos, said RS executive vice president Soopachai Nillawan. RS owns a record label, produces programming for television, makes films, publishes magazines and promotes concerts. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072357548/Business/thai-media-targets-kingdom.html
Cambodian fishermen returned from Africa
Two Cambodian fishermen, trafficked into slave labour in South Africa in mid-2011, returned safely to Phnom Penh on Friday after being rescued by legal resource group the Community Legal Education Center. ...
Cambodia mulls over atomic energy power
Cambodia is mulling over a nuclear power option to feed its anemic energy sector, although private sector pundits called the rough plan a dream – a dangerous one at that. The government plans to use atomic energy in the future as oil, coal and biomass power ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057525/Business/cambodia-mulls-atomic-power.html
Local microfinance institute invests in new ATM network
Hattha Kaksekar Ltd, a local microfinance institution, has invested almost US$2 million in a new ATM network, the company announced yesterday. Hattha Kaksekar now has around $32 million in deposits and will become the first financial institution to use SmartVista, an automated ATM process which also ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057524/Business/mfi-to-invest-in-new-atm-network.html
Locked-up villagers set off protests
More than 100 villagers protested in front of Banan district hall in Battambang province yesterday, demanding the release of six villagers who were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly accepting money to illegally divide state land. The six suspects have been accused of advertising land and then ...
Villagers fight for forest despite warning
Villagers from Svay Rieng province’s Krasaing commune have vowed to continue their protests to preserve a patch of community forest earmarked for clearing, despite receiving an official warning yesterday. Residents said it would affect over 2,700 people. ...
World Bank raps dam study firm
The World Bank has blacklisted an arm of the company that carried out a much-criticised study into the Xayaburi hydro dam project, it has confirmed. According to the bank’s website, Pöyry Management Consulting Oy Finland has been banned from conducting business with the bank for three ...
Factory workers hold out for more
Little more than a week after garment workers were granted a US$10 monthly increase in allowances and bonuses, thousands of workers at a number of factories joined strikes with a clear message yesterday: they need more. Workers rallied outside factory gates and some marched to the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057529/National-news/workers-hold-out-for-more.html
Police seize luxury wood in house raid
About 2,000 kilograms of Kran-houng luxury timber worth tens of thousands of dollars and a Toyota Camry car were seized by authorities in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district on Wednesday, military police said yesterday. ...
PM looks to counter OPEC, push rice-exporting power
Cambodia will push to finalise a rice-exporting bloc with four other regional countries by the end of the year in a bid to become the world’s “food basket”, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The group of countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar – ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071957506/Business/pm-looks-to-counter-opec.html
Phnom Penh's new apartments soar on high rents
Real estate developments covered in green tarp have sprung up across the capital’s Boeung Kang Kong commune, and housing units are filling before the projects are finished, insiders said. The value of construction approvals in Phnom Penh jumped by 557.5 per cent in March to US$150.5 ...
Japanese companies face domestic employee shortage
Japanese companies are facing a shortage of skilled workers which is hindering progress in Japanese-owned electronic factories, the Japanese Business Association of Cambodia (JBAC) said. The statement comes after the Asian Development Bank said in April that a shortage of skilled workers would continue to hinder ...
Senator Kok An files new lawsuits
A defence lawyer for tycoon Kok An revealed yesterday that the senator had filed lawsuits in March against six relatives of Heng Chheang and his wife, Tep Kolap, both of whom were convicted last December of embezzling US$58 million from An’s wife’s Anco Brothers Co ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071957513/National-news/senator-files-new-lawsuits.html
Kantha Bopha hospitals get another $1 million
The Cambodian government donated $1 million to Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospitals on July 18, said Minister of Health Mam Bunheng. The donation came to the free outpatient medical institution as it’s facing a budget shortfall. ...
More water transport needed
Cambodia’s waterways go largely unused for domestic shipping, a factor hurting the competitveness of the country’s logistics and agriculture sectors, experts said yesterday. Cambodia lost ground this year in a measure of logistics performance. As rice millers and exporters push toward the 1 million-tonne rice goal ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071857471/Business/waterways-needed.html
Cambodia’s GDP is revised
Slumping garment exports led yesterday to an official downgrade for Cambodian’s growth outlook this year – albeit a slight one. Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon projected 6.9 per cent year-on-year gross domestic product growth for 2012, down a tenth of a percentage point from ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071857475/Business/cambodia-gdp-is-revised.html
Cambodia will not export rice to Philippines
After the Philippines government issued their own policy regarding milled rice exports the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia has expressed its disinterest in exporting milled rice to its neighbour, Cambodia’s Commerce Minister said yesterday. Local rice millers will not be encouraged to make any efforts to ...
Cambodia wakes up to coffee
The Cambodian coffee industry has seen a rapid increase in market value over the last few years, rising from production of about 18 tonnes per year in 2009, to more than 2,370 tonnes last year, market insiders said. Local coffee sales increased to 30 tonnes in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071857470/Business/cambodia-wakes-up-to-coffee.html
SMEs seek own SEZ
The Federation of Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia (FASMEC) is now pushing for the establishment of a special economic zone (SEZ) for small and medium sized enterprises and is currently discussing such a move with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071857474/Business/smes-seek-own-sez.html