News

Nearly two dozen fishermen were re­patriated to the Kingdom yesterday after being trafficked aboard Thai fishing boats where they endured forced labour and rampant abuse. The 11 men bring to 30 the number of fishermen repatriated from Malaysia and Indonesia this year. They were visibly shaken ...

Guangxi Nonferrous Metal Group invested $21.95 million in the construction of a steel processing plant, the data shows. The Chinese company planned to invest as much as $500 million in Preah Vihear province, China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency reported in November. China’s Xing Yuan Kang Yeak ...

The Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh appealed to the Cambodian government Tuesday to help encourage Japanese investment here by providing corporate tax holidays and reducing notoriously high customs tariffs by adopting more transparent and efficient practices. According to a set of requests prepared by the ...

Yesterday a Reuters news story, “Insight: China gambles on Cambodia’s shrinking forests,” which also ran in today’s Phnom Penh Post and Cambodia Daily, mentioned Open Development Cambodia, and suggested that we are partnering with a local advocacy group to track concessions. This is not accurate. Like ...

A tycoon arrested on Tuesday by military police on fraud charges yesterday walked free after striking a deal with the man he defrauded, court officials said. Meas Chanpiseth, deputy prosecutor of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, said that 52-year-old tycoon Peang Kosal, executive director of the ...

The long awaited first security listing on the Cambodian Securities Exchange became a reality on February 23 with the Security Exchange Commission of Cambodia’s “in principle” approval of Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s (PPWSA) “disclosure document for public issuance of equity securities”. This is effectively a ...

The Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) is “extremely concerned” after an investigation following a mass fainting last month at Nanguo garment factory in Preah Sihanouk province last month found that at least one to two workers are fainting daily in eight factories in the province. ...

Days after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a blanket pardon for all suspects and convicts jailed for small-time fisheries crimes, the premier yesterday signed into effect an expected sub-decree canceling fishing lots across the country. Last month, Mr. Hun Sen announced that he would cancel ...

More than two dozen fisheries experts from across the world have sent a letter of concern to the prime minister and Council of Ministers warning that if construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam goes ahead as planned, it would negatively impact hundreds of thousands ...

Bavet city officials ordered a deputy village chief to offer two victims of the Feb. 20 shooting in Svay Rieng province cash or a motorcycle in return for them not filing a court complaint against the man who shot them inside a special economic zone. ...

Cambodia’s tertiary system is not producing enough of the right type of graduates to meet the economy’s demands, says a report launched by the World Bank last week. The 222-page report, titled “Putting Higher Education to Work”, states that “quantity gaps are particularly strong in ...

A steady rise in the value of Cambodia’s riel since the beginning of the year demonstrated increased confidence in the currency often shadowed by predominant usage of the US dollar, officials said yesterday. “The consequent rising value of riel proves there is more confidence in ...

The Appeal Court on Tuesday upheld its own previous guilty verdict against a farmer from Kompong Chhnang province for defaming KDC, the agri-business firm owned by Chea Kheng, the wife of Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem. Pheng Rom is a member of one ...

Leng Sopheap used to wake up before the crack of dawn and walk with crates of vegetables from her farm to the nearby market underneath a blanket so her neighbors wouldn’t know they were buying produce from someone infected with HIV/AIDS. Not long after her ...

Rubber production in early 2012 increased 21 per cent when compared to the end of 2011, according to Mak Kim Hong, president of the Cambodian Rubber Association. He said yesterday that the price of one tonne of good-quality rubber rose to US$3,800 in early 2012, ...

Enforcing a new ban against hanging posters and distributing promotional leaflets in Phnom Penh, police detained three Smart Mobile promoters while they were distributing flyers ahead of a music concert Tuesday, a company representative said. Boeng Trabek commune police chief Nheng Samoeun said that he ...

The Governor of Bavet city Chhouk Bundit, who is suspected of being involved in shooting three garment workers last month, was removed from his position to make way for the court to look into the case. “Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a letter on Monday to ...

Central banks in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plan to set up an “ASEAN bank” system that would make it easier for designated banks to set up subsidiaries and operate throughout the region, according to official sources. The plan to set up ASEAN banks is ...

Protests continued in Prey Veng City yesterday for the second day as more than 1000 residents demonstrated in front of the provincial offices over increases to water prices instituted by a private company that recently took over the city’s water supply, residents said. The Kim ...

Hydropower dams planned for the tributaries of the Mekong River, particularly the Lower Sesan 2, will have a “catastrophic” impact on fish stocks throughout the country, according to new research that calls for several planned dams to be reconsidered. Authored by an international group of ...

One hundred and twenty families evicted from the Borei Keila community filed a criminal lawsuit with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday against Phanimex, the company that ordered the demolition of their homes, seeking a total of $360,000 in damages, residents said. Former resident In ...

The Chinese Information Minister met Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Sunday to discuss introducing more of a Chinese perspective to the media in Cambodia. The two men also agreed to send a delegation from the Council of Ministers Press and Quick Reaction Unit (PQRU) ...

Within days of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s announced amnesty for those detained and jailed for fisheries crimes, the Ministry of Justice responded and has already freed dozens of suspects from provincial prisons around the country, judicial officials said yesterday. Independent analysts, however, said the order ...

Free Trade Union president Chea Mony yesterday rejected a charge in court that he and two other FTU members incited workers to damage property during a mass strike last year at the M&V garment factory. During nearly two hours of questioning at the Kampong Chhnang provincial ...