News
Honda Factory Workers Strike To Reinstate Union Officials
About 300 workers from a Phnom Penh factory that assembles Honda motorcycles went on strike yesterday to rally for the reinstatement of their union representatives, in accordance with an order by the Arbitration Council, union representatives said yesterday. Yoeurng Sopheara, a legal officer at Cambodia Labor ...
China OKs Kingdom rice
After more than a year of speculation on Cambodian rice exports to China, a rice exporter this week said China has granted the Kingdom permission to ship milled rice northward. Despite a growing stack of quasi-agreements for exports, regulatory issues have plagued the prospects of tapping ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052456355/Business/china-oks-kingdom-rice.html
Book Outlines Best of Both Worlds for Cardamom Mountains
The protectionist bent of conservation groups and the development agenda of the government can come together in Cambodia to create a green economy. That is the message of a new book Conservation International (C.I.) launched yesterday in Phnom Penh, outlining practical options for saving the environment ...
Corruption remains problem, but democracy just fine: poll
Eighty-two per cent of 1,200 people surveyed feel that Cambodia’s democracy works, despite 50 per cent calling corruption a major issue in the national government, according to figures released by the Center for Advanced Study yesterday. The CAS, a non-partisan research NGO, disseminated the results of ...
Arrested Villagers Questioned in Kratie Secessionist Case
The Kratie Provincial Court wrapped up initial questioning yesterday of eight villagers charged in connection with what officials have claimed was a secessionist movement, court officials said. The eight were questioned on Tuesday and yesterday, and face between one and eight counts each of insurrection against ...
Clash erupts at SL factory
Security guards clashed yesterday with workers from two SL Garment factories that supply Levi’s, Gap and H&M, as the number of employees protesting exceeded 5,500 – or more than 90 per cent of the staff. Protester Kim Voeun, 32, said security guards, in the presence of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052456366/National-news/clash-erupts-at-sl-factory.html
Factory Workers Continue to Strike for Higher Wages
About 4,000 garment workers from factories that produce clothing for international brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss continued protesting yesterday in Phnom Penh for higher wages, union representatives said. Singaporean-owned SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. parked three large trucks in front of their Meanchey district factories ...
Police destroy 50 homes in Mondulkiri
With a looming deadline to move still two days away, police yesterday stormed tiny Rayum commune in Mondulkiri province, dismantling and burning at least 50 homes belonging to villagers embroiled in a land dispute with a Vietnamese rubber company. Seng Channy, a villager representative who escaped ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052456373/National-news/villagers-time-runs-out.html
Discussions Over South China Sea Document Continue
In its role as Asean chair, Cambodia hopes that a draft of a long-awaited legal document to govern how disputes are settled in the contentious South China Sea will be completed and adopted this year, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. ...
Thai-Cambodia agricultural zones set for establishment
Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to set up specialised agricultural export zones along the border inside Cambodia in a bid to curb any suspension of cross-border trade from Thailand, as well as to achieve a 30 per cent increase in bilateral trade year-on-year, commerce official ...
Police Begin Dismantling Mondolkiri Village Involved in Dispute
As the eviction deadline looms for residents of a Mondolkiri village embroiled in a land dispute with a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation, police have begun to dismantle vacant homes in the village, an official and a villager said yesterday. Sin Seng, 43, a resident of the remote ...
Australian Gov’t Ordered Railway Investigation
The Australian government yesterday said it has been aware of poor working conditions and inappropriate surveying methods used on Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project since February and had ordered that the project’s partners investigate the matters. “The Australian Government was alerted to possible concerns about workplace health ...
Boeung Kak 13 held without charge
Thirteen women hauled into police vehicles during a demonstration at Boeung Kak lake on Tuesday were being held without charge at Phnom Penh police headquarters last night. About 70 Boeung Kak villagers rallied outside Phnom Penh municipal court yesterday in support of the arrested women, who ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052456371/National-news/b-kak-13-held-without-charge.html
World Bank Raises GDP Outlook for 2012
The World Bank yesterday raised Cambodia’s gross domestic product outlook for 2012 by 0.1 percent to 6.6 percent, saying that last year’s flooding and the global economic slowdown did not affect Cambodia’s economy as much as first expected. According to the World Bank’s East Asia and ...
Trade with Malaysia up as exporters look East
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and ASEAN member state Malaysia rose by 34 per cent year on year in 2011 to US$319.5 million compared to the year before, according to data from the Embassy of Malaysia in Phnom Penh released yesterday. Experts noted the nearly 100 per ...
International interest in Cambodian sugar
Sweet news for Cambodian palm-sugar farmers: 10 international companies are keen to import their produce, one of the Kingdom’s signature products. Sam Saroeun, president of the Kampong Speu Palm Sugar Promotion Association, said that after an exhibition in South Korea earlier this month, several international importers ...
Levi's, Gap garment workers on strike in Cambodia
Workers at a large Cambodian garment factory that makes clothes for Levi’s, Gap and other well-known international brands are striking for more pay and better working conditions. More than 5,000 workers from the Singaporean-owned SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. failed to reach an agreement with their ...
Police Surround Homes in Search of Alleged Secessionists
Dozens of police in search of two Kratie province “secessionist ringleaders” surrounded the homes of two of their relatives in Kompong Cham province for nearly 12 hours yesterday while threatening those inside, a relative of the two men said. The alleged secessionist movement has been used ...
Arrests greet symbolic Boeung Kak gesture
Thirteen Boeung Kak women, including a 67-year-old, were arrested and forced into police vans and trucks yesterday as about 200 Phnom Penh municipal police and security officers cracked down on a 100-strong demonstration at the site. The group, which included Boeung Kak lake residents, evictees and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052356334/National-news/bringing-down-the-house.html
Construction Woes Plague Railway Project
The rehabilitation of Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network has encountered delays due to poor construction work and inappropriate surveying methods when making plans to lay down tracks, according to a draft review of the ongoing $140 million project conducted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and ...
No deal in SL Garment factory face-off
A long day of negotiations failed to resolve a factory dispute yesterday at a company that supplies to major international brands Gap, Levi’s and H&M. After more than 1,500 workers from SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) factories in the capital’s Meanchey district marched to the Ministry of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052356325/National-news/no-deal-in-factory-face-off.html
Police Buildup Continues as Families Face Eviction in Mondolkiri
An additional 200 armed police officers have moved into a village in Mondolkiri province where families locked in a land dispute with a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation have been given until Friday to clear out, police and villagers said yesterday. Police had already moved about 100 officers ...
Police raid home of ‘secessionist’s’ mum
Scores of security forces yesterday stormed the house of alleged secessionist leader Bun Ratha’s mother in Kampong Cham province yesterday, confiscating mobile phones and memory cards, his relatives told the Post. Bun Ratha, the alleged leader of Democratic Association, has been on the run since security ...
Mondulkiri villagers face eviction deadline
Authorities set a May 25 deadline yesterday for residents of Mondulkiri province’s Rayum commune in Koh Nhek district to leave their homes, prompting the deployment of additional provincial forces to the area. Villager Seng Channy, 52, said that the coalition of about 300 police, soldiers and ...