The Phnom Penh Post
Mining firm expects quick silver exploits
A mining outfit in Battambang province will begin copper and silver extraction within two years, the company’s chief executive said yesterday. Wild Bull Resources, an Australian firm partnering with local miner Angkor Thumopich Resources (ATR), would join a small group of companies claiming a quick turnaround ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062556990/Business/mining-silver-exploits.html
Soldiers cry foul over ‘land grabbing’
About 1,500 representatives of military families in Oddar Meanchey province are planning to file a complaint directly to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s office accusing a high-ranking Royal Cambodian Armed Forces general of selling a large chunk of their land to two Vietnamese rubber companies. The soldiers, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062557004/National-news/soldiers-land-grabbed.html
‘Beaten, unfed’ teen maid dies
A 16-year-old died at Calmette hospital in Phnom Penh yesterday morning after succumbing to an illness she contracted while working in virtual slavery as a maid in Malaysia, her family said. Toch Srey Neth signed up to go to Malaysia as a maid through the now-defunct ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062557002/National-news/teen-maid-dies.html
Cambodia Life takes long view approach
A new, government-owned life insurance company aims to provide a safety net for Cambodian families, according to In Meatra, director-general of the Cambodia Life Insurance Company Plc. Located on the 21st floor of Canadia Tower, Cambodia Life opened on May 21 and has 23 employees. “Cambodia ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062256944/Business/cambodia-life-takes-long-view.html
Halal food exports could boost trade
Cambodia could attract an increasing number of Malaysian investors interested in food production and global export if moves to create a halal food recognition body were implemented, Malaysian ambassador Mond Tahir Nasruddin said yesterday. Officials were working together to establish the halal food product recognition ...
TNS launches new office in Cambodia
International market- research company TNS has announced the opening of the company’s first office in Cambodia, and has joined forces with MSD, a Cambodian market and social research firm that is a “long-standing partner”, an official company statement said. Ralf Matthaes has been appointed regional managing ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062256943/Business/tns-new-office-cambodia.html
Garment workers' strikes pay off
The determination of 3,000 garment factory workers in Kampong Chhnang province’s M&V factory has finally paid off. Workers will return to the factory floor today after management finally agreed to their four-point list of demands yesterday, after initially refusing to budge. Noun Sam Ol, deputy president of ...
Factories still skimping: ILO
Cambodia’s garment exports exceeded US$1 billion during the first quarter of 2012, yet many factories are failing to pay workers proper maternity leave benefits or address issues of fainting, a labour report says. The International Labour Organization-Better Factories Cambodia’s Twenty Eighth Synthesis Report on Working Conditions ...
Local oil prices fall slowly
The current volatility of oil prices on the global market is bringing cuts in prices at Cambodia’s five main petroleum retailers. However, some observers say the current fall in prices is too limited. Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that super oil retailed at 5,200 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062156925/Business/cambodia-oil-prices-fall.html
Proof of residency required
The Phnom Penh municipal authority has called on Borei Keila residents evicted on January 3 to present official documents proving they are eligible for housing. City Hall’s request came as part of a statement criticising NGOs and political parties that encouraged “poor” residents, who were not ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062156928/National-news/borei-keila-residency.html
Relocation Woes Persist: Australia
The Australian Embassy conceded that problems have plagued the relocation process of about 160 families moved to Trapeang Anhchanh on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last September. The families were moved for a railway rehabilitation project partially funded by the Australian government’s AusAID. “We agree on the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062156934/National-news/relocation-woes-australia.html
Korean College for Siem Reap
Cheju Halla, a Korean university, plans to build a university of tourism and hospitality in Siem Reap next year, Tourism Minister Thong Khon told reporters yesterday at a meeting with Han Soo Kim, the new South Korean ambassador to Cambodia. The Ministry of Tourism has requested ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062156924/Business/korean-college-siem-reap.html
Bo Xilai accomplice's location uncertain
Patrick Devillers, the French national and associate of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, seemed to be putting down roots in Cambodia. The architect – whose shadowy presence has been on the fringes of one of modern China’s largest political scandals – owned land and a restaurant ...
Fear accompanies summons over land disputes
Less than a week after Prime Minister Hun Sen called for land to be returned to villagers embroiled in land disputes, a Pursat province villager has been summonsed by the court in a scenario many see as all too common in these disputes. Kuch Veng, a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062056901/National-news/fear-accompanies-summons.html
Border crime in Interpol’s sights
An ASEAN-first Interpol database tracking transnational crime between Cambodia and Vietnam was launched in Phnom Penh yesterday. Keo Vannthan, head of Cambodia’s Interpol Bureau at the Ministry of Interior, said the European Union had pledged almost US$800,000 to the pilot EU-ASEAN Migration Border Management Program project ...
Cambodian worker alleges Thai police of humiliating treatment, abuse
A Cambodian migrant worker has alleged that he and dozens of fellow migrants were arrested, beaten, stripped naked and shaved bald by Thai police, who then extorted money from them just because they did not have the correct location on their working visas. The allegation is ...
Bo Xilai associate arrested in Phnom Penh
Cambodian authorities yesterday arrested French architect Patrick Devillers – friend and business associate of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai – and may be moving to extradite him to China to face unspecified charges there, police said. Phnom Penh Police Commissioner Touch Naroth confirmed the arrest to ...
Microsoft's Super Wi-Fi could change game
A technology called “Super Wi-Fi” that uses the frequency spectrum between television channels called “white spaces” could be a game-changing force in how people connect to the internet, especially in places like Cambodia. The technology, which requires specialised equipment costing about US$2,000 for a base station ...
China to back Kampot power plant
An unnamed Chinese investor will put nearly US$400 million into a 300-megawatt coal-powered plant in Kampot province, officials said yesterday. The plant, slated for a November groundbreaking, will provide power for the Kampot Special Economic Zone, the nearby Prey Nob oil refinery in Preah Sihanouk province ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061956867/Business/china-to-back-kampot-plant.html
Women slow to climb Cambodia's market
Women’s economic roles in Cambodia have made slower progress than in many other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, World Bank economists said yesterday. The region as a whole has seen tremendous gains in the way of gender equality during the past 20 years, but increasing wages ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061956865/Business/women-not-on-top-in-market.html
Boeung Kak duo's release sparks hope
One of the two Boeung Kak lake residents released on bail from Prey Sar prison on Friday is prepared to be a witness in the appeal trial of the 13 women convicted and sent to jail last month – but only if he is invited ...
Cambodia to cede two villages to Vietnam
Cambodia would have to give two villages to Vietnam if it wanted to retain another two deemed the territory of the Kingdom’s eastern neighbour by the former French Indochina colonial administration, a government minister said yesterday. Last year, the Cambodian government announced it was speeding up ...
Court rules Nautisco solvent
Nautisco Seafood Manufacturing, once Cambodia’s premier seafood-processing company, will not undergo government-brokered restructuring after a Cambodian appeals court yesterday declared the company solvent. The ruling was a first test for the law on corporate restructuring and insolvency. The decision sounds positive for the company. But now the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061556808/Business/court-rules-nautisco-solvent.html
Expectations exceeded at new dental hospital
When Dr. Tith Hongyoeu opened Roomchang Dental and Aesthetic Hospital in a new 10-storey building on Street 184 just off Norodom Boulevard six months ago, it was the realisation of a dream come true for a poor boy from Kampong Thom province who grew up ...