News
Phnom Penh's Historic Quarter to go to Pedestrian
A new tourist promenade is to open in the heart of Phnom Penh’s old French quarter. Scheduled for a February opening, the tourist walk zone will provide an outdoor leisure area on street 13 that will be closed to cars and motorbikes on weekends from ...
Workers Supplying Wal-Mart Continue Protests
About 80 workers from a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district – which supplies women’s underwear to U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart – protested yesterday, demanding that the factory owner settle their severance payments, workers and union representatives said. Workers at the Kingsland Garment Cambodia factory ...
Families say eviction forced
Hundreds of families in Ratanakkiri province have asked rights group Adhoc to intervene, saying local authorities in Bakeo district’s Laminh commune are illegally forcing them from their homes. Village representative, Ek Orm, 52, said that authorities were forcing villagers to relocate to make way for a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011460762/National/families-say-eviction-forced.html
Investigation Wraps In Journo Death
For the second time, an investigating judge at Ratanakirri Provincial Court has closed the investigation into the murder of Virakchun Khmer newspaper journalist Hang Serei Oudom. Odom was found dead in the trunk of his car. The murder happened only days after an article about ...
Firm to File Criminal Complaint Against Mfone
Norwegian energy firm Eltek Valere will file a criminal complaint today against mobile phone operator Mfone over an agreement that was signed last week to shift Mfone’s existing subscribers to MobiTel, according to a lawyer representing Eltek. The decision by the Thai-owned mobile operator Mfone to ...
Energy security linked to firm borders
Energy supplies will be more secure once territorial disputes between Thailand and Cambodia are resolved, Department of Mineral Fuels director-general Songpob Polchan said on Friday. Mr Songpob said that the sooner Thailand and Cambodia are able to work out their differences, the sooner they can exploit ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/330370/end-to-border-row-to-help-energy-sector
Cambodia gains 3.5 million tourist arrivals in 2012
Cambodia in 2012 received 3.5 million foreign visitors, an increase of 25 per cent if comparing to 2011 and earned 2 billion US dollars for national income this year, tourism minister said on January 10. He also said: for 2011, there were 8 million of ...
Border tension with Cambodia escalates
BANGKOK, 9 January 2013 The cross-border tension between Thailand and Cambodia escalates as both countries prepare to make legal submissions to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the disputed area around the Preah Vihear temple in 3 months. In Surin province, security has tightened ...
http://www.pattayamail.com/news/border-tension-with-cambodia-escalates-20435
Thaicom's Mfone files for insolvency
Cambodia-based telecommunication operator Mfone, part of the Thaicom group, on Wednesday petitioned for insolvency proceedings in Phnom Penh after facing difficulties in an intensely competitive market and after failing to complete the sale of its shares to INT Management Service Company. “Mfone has been through a ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Thaicoms-Mfone-files-for-insolvency-30197687.html
Cambodia to hold River Festival to attract tourists
THE [sic] Ministry of Tourism plans to organize an annual River Festival along the Mekong and Tonle Sap in a move to attract tourists, officials said. Additionally, it wants to raise awareness for environmental protection with a “Clean City Day” on February 27. The Minister of ...
Labor Dispute Cases Rise in Garment, Footwear Industry
The Arbitration Council heard about 230 collective labor disputes in the garment and footwear industry involving approximately 98,000 workers in 2012, a 38 percent increase from 2011, which saw 161 cases handled, according to the council. Y Samphy, training and communications manager for the council’s Arbitration ...
Cambodia lacks skilled workforce
Against the backdrop of the slight recovery by world economies, especially the US and Europe, two traditional markets for Cambodia, Asian Development Bank (ADB) deputy country director Peter Brimble sat down with the Post’s group business editor, May Kunmakara, to talk about Cambodia’s economic performance, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011160733/CEO-Talk/cambodia-lacks-skilled-workforce.html
Socially-Responsible Factory to give better deals to workers
Construction is due to start shortly on a socially responsible sun-glass case and cleaning cloth factory in Siem Reap. Pactics produces 40 per cent of cases and cloths for the larget sun-glass factory in the world, Luxottica, which has brands including Ray Ban, Oakley and ...
Embattled villagers fight on
First, agricultural company DM group displaced them, now a recently arrived commercial farmer has threatened their lives and chased them off their new land, said representatives of 12 families engaged in a long-standing land dispute in Ratanakkiri province. On Wednesday, the 12 Tampuon ethnic minority families ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011160746/National/embattled-villagers-fight-on.html
Anti-corruption bonus yet to be seen
Customs and Excise Department officials are complaining that a promised salary bonus meant to serve as an incentive to avoid corruption has yet to be doled out, even though the program began last June. The initiative, managed by the Ministry of Economics and Finance, was supposed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011160738/National/anti-corruption-bonus-yet-to-be-seen.html
Firm Compensates Jarai After Ruining Graves
A Vietnamese rubber company in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district yesterday agreed to pay $4,000 in compensation to an ethnic Jarai community whose traditional graveyard was bulldozed by the firm last week, local officials said. During a meeting at the Paknhai commune police station, representatives of the ...
Rights Committee Investigates Land Dispute
The government’s Human Rights Committee has visited villagers in a long-running land dispute in Battambang province to find out whether members of their community have been unfairly imprisoned in recent years for land encroachment, local authorities and villagers said yesterday. Officials from committee, which is headed ...
Vietnam, Cambodia strengthen cross border trade
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), in conjunction with the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, held the 5th Conference on Vietnam-Cambodia Border Trade Development Cooperation in southern Binh Phuoc province on January 9. According to Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang, bilateral economic ...
Scrap short-term contracts: CCU
Fixed-duration contracts (FDCs) are in the sights of Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun, who yesterday urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to outlaw their use in the garment and footwear industries. Chhun said the cancellation of such contracts would provide better conditions and job security ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/scrap-short-term-contracts-ccu.html
NGOs call for discussion of Xayaburi dam at meet
A coalition of NGOs has called on Cambodia’s National Mekong Committee (CNMC) to push for the Xayaburi dam to be added to the agenda of a regional Mekong River meeting next week. Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum on Cambodia, said it was disappointing ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/ngos-call-for-discussion-of-xayaburi-dam-at-meet.html
Local ISP claims licence overlap is causing losses
At least one internet service provider in Cambodia still claims to have overlapping frequencies, which means losses for the affected company MekongNet. The company’s chief executive, Sok Channda, reported that the internet service provider can’t use the frequencies that were supposed to cover the WiMAX service, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/Business/local-isp-claims-licence-overlap-is-causing-losses.html
Sick of courts, villagers curse
In a sign that they no longer have faith in the court system, more than 100 villagers in Kampong Chhnang province placed their fates in the hands of a higher power yesterday, and prayed for misfortune to rain down on a company with whom they’ve ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/sick-of-courts-villagers-curse.html
Cambodia faces risks from a credit boom, the IMF warns
The International Monetary Fund has warned that a credit boom in Cambodia poses a threat to economic growth. Banks have been cutting interest rates to win customers and private sector credit has increased by almost a third in the past 12 months, the fund said. This ...
Angkor Gold cashes in on Cambodia
It has been just over a year since Vancouver-based Angkor Gold (ANK-V) went public with its stable of Cambodian exploration projects, and it is looking like the company’s early mover strategy in the developing Southeast Asian nation might be poised to pay off. To kick ...
http://www.northernminer.com/news/angkor-gold-cashes-in-on-cambodia/1001981285/?type=HotSectors