The Phnom Penh Post

Child labour was draining the Kingdom’s brainpower and adversely affecting 750,000 of its children, officials at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said yesterday. Speaking at a three-day conference on child agricultural labour, Kaing Khim, deputy director-general of fisheries administration at the MAFF, said ...

The Arbitration Council yesterday ordered protesting workers in Kampong Cham province to return to their factory today, as a union official reported that their numbers had swelled to nearly 3,000 outside the provincial hall in their third demonstration this week over an ongoing labour dispute. Free ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia has approved in principle the listing of Phnom Penh Water Supply on the Cambodian Securities Exchange, according to the SECC’s website. The announcement fell a step short from listing approval for PPWS, with the SECC requiring additional paperwork, including ...

A Chinese company is aiming to invest in cement production in Cambodia, according to officials at the Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy (MIME). The China Triumph International Engineering Company (CTIEC) would become one of Cambodia’s biggest cement producers and would invest in the Kingdom, said ...

Investment in Cambodian rubber plantations increased by 255 per cent in 2011 on rising global demand for the commodity. There were 20 new projects worth US$675 million in the Kingdom last year, according to data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia. There were nine ...

The curse of Cambodia’s 2011 floods continues for those most affected, as they fall deeper into debt from unsustainable cyclical debt practices, a consortium of international NGOs said yesterday. The consortium of Care, Oxfam, Pact and Catholic Relief Services released the results of their January survey ...

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) launched its Cambodian chapter on Friday in the hope of further promoting the country’s second-largest sector by revenues. The sparsity of air routes to Cambodia was one of the main obstacles to the Kingdom’s tourism growth, PATA Cambodia chapter president ...

Japan’s second-largest bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, officially opened a representative office in Phnom Penh on Friday. The office would serve as an information centre for potential investors and hoped to attract more Japanese companies, Masato Miyachi, general manager of the bank’s Asia and China division, ...

Cambodia has met 70 per cent of the basic requirements needed to join the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, referring to a recently updated report issued by the economic block. The Kingdom ranked third in preparedness among the 10 ASEAN member ...

The foreign owner of a luxury Siem Reap hotel has sued four workers he sacked last year, alleging they damaged his property during protests in which they accused him of firing them for unionising. In total, 67 workers were sacked last year by Ankor Village Hotel ...

Cambodia may fall short on the domestic demand for purified rice seedlings, which could dampen rice exports, government officials have said. Ouk Makara, director of the Cambodian Agricultural Research & Development Institute (CARDI), said that businesses have been increasingly eager to purchase purified seeds from the ...

About 60 Cambodian-made products have received the official Cambodian Standards (CS) stamp, officials said yesterday. Ping Sivlay, director general of the Institute of Standards of Cambodia, which designates the stamps, said most of the products were foodstuffs and that 40 additional products were still awaiting approval. ...

A Thai energy firm has completed a study for a 1,800-megawatt coal power plant in Koh Kong province, and had asked for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s support in furthering the project, government officials confirmed yesterday. The plant would be the largest power generator in the energy-starved ...

Cambodia’s exports to South Korea rose by more than 100 per cent last year, according to officials at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Agricultural and garment exports largely accounted for the surge. KOTRA data shows total exports were worth US$87.3 million in 2011, compared ...

Health officials and workers are concerned about budget shortages for the treatment of tuberculosis in the Kingdom as new data reveals that prevalence of the disease has declined 37 percent from 2002, officials said yesterday. Mao Tan Eang, director of the National Centre for Tuberculosis and ...

Panellists at the first “Permanent People’s Tribunal” on wages and conditions for Cambodian garment workers yesterday released their findings, declaring that a living wage for workers should be considered a “human right”. The hearing included two days of testimony by workers, labour experts and brand-name buyers. While ...

Gasoline prices in Cambodia hit an all-time high on Friday, stoking fears of limited fuel reserves and increasing production costs at some of the Kingdom’s businesses. Premium gasoline sold for $1.40 per litre last week, surpassing the $1.38-per-litre price during the global economic slump at the ...

The Kingdom’s much-hyped deadline of tapping its first oil reserves by December 12 2012, or 12-12-12, will not be met, a government spokesman said yesterday. Chevron Overseas Petroleum (Cambodia) Ltd, which is now exploring the Kingdom’s offshore Block A in the Gulf of Thailand, has notified ...

Almost 120,000 Cambodians who illegally crossed into neighbouring countries in search of work were repatriated during 2011, new figures from the Ministry of Interior have revealed, prompting a senior ministry official to call for a re-evaluation of how Cambodian workers are treated abroad. Chou Bun Eng, ...

Cambodia’s gross domestic product grew 6.9 per cent year-on-year in 2011, and is set to increase to 6.5 per cent this year, according to preliminary projections from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Agriculture, which was hit hard by floods last year, climbed 3.3 per cent, ...

Dry-season rice farmers in some areas west of the Tonle Sap River and in eastern provinces are appealing to the government for help as the reservoirs they rely on for irrigation are drying up faster than usual, farmers and officials said yesterday. Officials at the ministries ...

More than 300 villagers from two districts in Kampong Speu province joined forces yesterday to protest in front of the provincial court over two land disputes, vowing to continue until authorities resolved them and released a mother of seven jailed last month after she had ...

The floodwaters may have receded, but their effects are far from over, with the government, NGOs and international donors saying yesterday they are still assessing the damage as they shift to long-term rehabilitation. Last November, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said the government would ...

Despite a 67 per cent drop in food imports to Cambodia in 2011, inflation in exporting countries drove an 18 per cent rise in the total value of the imports. Food imports fell from 769,993 tonnes in 2010 to 254,080 in 2011, while the total value ...