News
Despite Maid Abuses, Cambodia Retains Trafficking Ranking
Cambodia held on to its Tier 2 ranking for the third straight year in the U.S. State Depart- ments latest global Trafficking in Persons Report, which praised the country for a rise in prosecutions, but criticized the country over a new sub-decree on migrant labor. In ...
Water plant means eviction for families in Sihanouk
Despite authorities turning a blind eye to their villages for more than 15 years, about 2,000 families living near Preah Sihanouk province’s Kbal Chhay waterfall face imminent eviction to make way for a clean-water processing plant, officials said yesterday. Prime Minister Hun Sen’s recent bold move ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062156930/National-news/water-plant-means-eviction.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
Government Distributes Land For Landless And Poor People
Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen on June 14 ordered line ministries to distribute land to landless and real poor people to contribute to strengthening social equity system in the kingdom. “Landless and real poor people will get a plot of land with land titles according to the obvious situation,” Premier said in the launching ceremony ...
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 ...
Report Shows Rise in Garment Labor Disputes
Increasing discrimination by factories against unions and continued poor wages in Cambodia’s garment sector have resulted in a rise in the number of worker protests, according to a report released yesterday by the International Labor Organization (ILO). According to its periodic synthesis report on working ...
Global death toll of environmental activists rising, report says
In April, Chut Wutty was shot to death in the Cambodian forests he was so outspoken in defending, a slaying that outraged human rights activists suspicious of the conflicting explanations given by police. His death appears to be part of a chilling trend. Growing numbers of activists ...
City Defends Boeng Kak Project, Attacks Critics
The filling of Boeng Kak lake and the eviction of thousands of residents was necessary to root out the “prostitutes and terrorists” that were drawn to the area’s once-popular tourist zone, the Phnom Penh Municipality said in a statement yesterday. In a statement posted to its ...
NGOs Criticize Flouted Land Grant Ban
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has given approval to grant state-owned land to three private companies despite issuing a temporary ban on land concessions, drawing criticism from local NGOs concerned about increasingly frequent land disputes in the country. Copies of three subdecrees obtained by RFA showed ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-concessions-06202012182023.html
Industry Sector
The real growth rate of the industry sector has been revised downwardly by half a percentage point against the previous estimate to 8.8 percent year-on-year in 2012. A scaling down of the growth estimate of the textile and garment sub sector, as a result of persistently weaker demand in the European and US ...
Revenue from Post office and Telecommunication
Income from post office activity increased to 3.77 million US dollars in 2011 from 2.164 million in 2010 and that money is small in size but it showed that Cambodian people still need the post ways for sending their goods and other materials. At the same time, revenue from mobile phone companies and desk ...
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 ...
Developer Plans Housing On Former Airport Site
The Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC) is planning to develop a 400-unit apartment complex on the former site of the Ratanakkiri provincial airport, an official with knowledge of the project said yesterday. Ly Teang, Banlung City branch manager for Canadia Bank, whore investors are the ...
Hun Sen calls for reform of global financial architecture
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told the Group of 20 summit in Mexico that international financial architecture could not be sustained without reforms, sources said. Speaking in his capacity as Asean chairman, Hun Sen said the association supported any measures to reinforce financial stability ...
Trade, Tourism To Get Boost Along Phnom Penh-Bangkok Route
Cambodia and Thailand are poised for a boost in trade and tourism following a new agreement taking effect today that simplifies procedures at a key border crossing between the two nations. “The ability to move people, goods, and vehicles across borders efficiently and responsibly is at the heart of regional economic integration,” said Craig Steffensen, ...
Cambodian Foreign Minister Meets With Senator Jim Webb
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong met with Senator Jim Webb, of Virginia, this week, to discuss how Cambodia might be forgiven war-era debt to the US or find a better way to pay it off. Cambodia owes nearly $450 million on pre-Khmer Rouge borrowing. ...
Railway Evictees Tussle With High Debt Levels
Adding to a growing body of research into the flaws of Cambodia’s $142 million railway rehabilitation project, a report published yesterday said soaring debt levels are crippling families forcibly relocated by the project. In the report by land rights organization Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), researchers tracked ...
Garment Workers Strike, Demand Higher Wages
About 4,000 workers at the M&V Textile factory in Kompong Chhnang province, which supplies well-known brands such as H&M and Gap, went on strike yesterday morning to demand a pay raise, a union representative said. Meas Sokhen, a representative of the Free Trade Union, said ...
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 ...
Two Years In, Kampot Casino Downsizes
The Ha Tien Vegas Entertainment Resort and casino in Kampot Province along the Vietnamese border announced yesterday that it has sacked 500 employees and shut down its 130-room resort less than two years after it became the first casino to open in the province. The company said ...
After Demolition, Colonial Building Site to Lie Dormant
The owner of a site in Phnom Penh where a 19th century French colonial building was demolished last week said yesterday she does not have enough money to follow through on plans to build a replica in its place. Kang Gheck Nai said it had always ...