The Phnom Penh Post

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 – ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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.   ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Three years after authorities demolished the last houses in Phnom Penh’s Group 78 community, evictees relocated to the outskirts of the capital are still struggling, the Housing Rights Task Force said yesterday. More than 200 members of the Group 78 community gathered close to the site ...

Another alleged “secessionist” involved in a land dispute was arrested yesterday in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, where villagers said authorities continued a prolonged forced eviction that has led to the destruction of some 500 homes. Three other men accused of attempting to create an autonomous ...

Families living along a planned national train route in Poipet town were told they have 10 days to vacate their properties or be forcibly evicted, residents and NGOs said yesterday. Eang Vuthy, Development Watch Program Manager of Equitable Cambodia, said an eviction notice from the Poipet ...

A day before Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly called for the arrest of Mam Sonando, the Beehive Radio station director hosted a fiery broadcast from The Hague, where lawyers were trying to launch a case against the premier in the International Criminal Court. Just under three ...

Inner city students enlisted into Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-titling program have been getting a taste of the rural life and some of them are ready to come home. Prepped with a two-day crash course in surveying, more than 1,000 youths have been dispatched across ...

Beehive radio station director and accused “secessionist” Mam Sonando was sent to Prey Sar prison yesterday, where he will be detained until his trial on formal criminal charges including insurrection, a conviction that alone could result in up to 15 years behind bars. After two and ...

The Laos government will continue to allow what it has dubbed “preparatory work” on the controversial Xayaburi dam, including the resettlement of villagers, despite promising to suspend the project at last week’s ASEAN Regional Forum, according to a media report in Laos. ...

Garment worker Ba Chhorvorn stands in the sweltering heat inside the small concrete brick room she calls home in Kandal province. Across the road is her workplace, a supplier to Levi’s and Gap, which her boss describes as the “five-star hotel of garment factories”. Worlds apart but ...

More than 100 Free Trade Union of Cambodia supporters gathered in front of the union’s office to express their discontent with a deal struck between the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union and their employer, Puma supplier Thai Pore Garment Manufacturing, FTU officials said ...

The Cambodian Broadcasting Service launched the Kingdom’s first 24-hour news channel, Cambodian News Channel, to great fanfare last night at its new studios. During the launch, Kith Meng, chairman of both Royal Group and the new channel, said this news channel would further the development of ...

A “public morality” clause in the draft ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights threatens the most basic rights of women and sexual minorities and should be scrapped, a coalition of women’s groups said in a statement released yesterday. Civil society groups met with foreign ministers at the ...

One of Malaysia’s biggest investment banks, RHB Capital, announced it will acquire OSK Indochina Bank, via the transfer of 100 per cent of OSK Investment Bank shares from parent OSK Holdings, giving OSK Holdings a 10 per cent stake in the larger Malaysian RHB Capital ...

The number of businesses registered with the Ministry of Commerce climbed by more than 10 per cent year on year during the first half of 2012, ministry data showed. Officials credited the government’s piecemeal efforts to institute a transparent investment policy and gross domestic product growth, ...

Unions will urge the Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) to crack down on employers using fixed-term contracts to threaten workers, they said yesterday. ...