News
Tensions rise as villagers, armed police ready for protests
After several days of grassroots campaigning by local villagers to save Prey Long forest, tension in this part of northern Kompong Thom province is rising. The 300-strong group of campaigners seemed to be heading for a confrontation with provincial authorities, as officials warned yesterday that ...
Floods and crisis sink rubber price
Rubber growers and exporters in Cambodia stalled exports as rubber prices continued a sharp decline that companies attributed to flooding in Thailand and economic turmoil in Europe. Heng Sreng, general director of Long Sreng International Co Ltd and owner of Boeung Keth Rubber Plantation in Kampong ...
Credit bureau plans for early 2012 launch
The Kingdom’s first centralised credit bureau was on track to launch in February, officials said yesterday, although it had originally been slated to start by the end of this year. Credit Bureau Cambodia will collect and provide consumer and institutions’ financial information, which they can use ...
'Brand aid' failing workers
A strike this morning at a garment factory located near the bend of a dirt road in Bonal Sa-ith village in Sen Sok district underscores the need for enhanced enforcement of labour legislation, the president of the Free Trade Union said yesterday. Chea Mony also said ...
Kingdom, WTO call on US to drop tariffs
Both Cambodia and the World Trade Organisation this week called on the United States to follow China’s lead in promising zero-tariff treatment to Least Developed Countries. Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a speech at the G20 summit in Cannes, France, on Friday, announced China would grant ...
Not enough high-quality jobs, group warns
Cambodia does not have enough productive or high-quality jobs available and most employment is informal, which will prevent Cambodians from rising out of poverty, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Monday at a workshop in Phnom Penh. To help solve the issues affecting the labor market, ...
Striving to save the forest, Prey Long villagers launch patrols
For the several hundred villagers who have been camping and patrolling in a remote part of the jungle in northern Kompong Thom for several days as part of their campaign to save Prey Long forest, the strain is starting to show. Human rights workers say that ...
Weak spots seen in Kingdom trade
While the World Trade Organisation yesterday lauded Cambodia’s economic achievements since joining in 2004, officials pointed to the lack of much-needed financing for the Kingdom’s burgeoning trade sector. Cambodia lacks the capacity to finance the manufacturing and agriculture exports that would allow the country’s industries to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011110852601/Business/weak-spots-seen-in-kingdom-trade.html
Rural areas plagued by shortage of toilets
The Ministry of Rural Development yesterday called for increased investment to expand access to sanitation facilities in rural Cambodia as well as more awareness about the link between low rates of access to toilets and high rates of communicable disease. Cambodia ranked at the bottom of ...
Japanese firm awaits approval for oil data collection
Mitsui Oil Exploration Co (Moeco), a Japanese petroleum firm that specializes in natural gas, wants to start conducting seismic operations testing for oil and gas north of the Tonle Sap lake by February 2012 and wrap up the tests by May, according to excerpts of ...
Villagers campaigning to save forest harassed, NGO says
As hundreds of villagers belonging to the Prey Long People’s Network began a week-long campaign to save Prey Long forest, Kompong Thom province military police intervened Sunday and prevented a group of about 80 villagers from joining the campaign, an environmental activist said yesterday. Chut Wutty, ...
Ban on Filipino migrant workers suspended
The Philippine government on October 28 issued a ban on its country’s citizens working in Cambodia only to suspend the ban a week later after Filipinos employed here complained, Philippine Ambassador Noe Wong said yesterday. Cambodia was listed by the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) as ...
UAE considering Kingdom's rice
Cambodia plans to expand its exports of milled rice and other agricultural products to the United Arab Emirates, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said yesterday. The UAE seeks a replacement for the milled rice it would otherwise import from Thailand, where the worst flooding in decades ...
Tourism will drive food service sector growth zzz
Cambodia will require an additional 1,000 restaurants by 2020 to service the Kingdom’s growing tourism sector, Ministry of Tourism officials say. By 2020, seven million international visitors, and as many as 10 million domestic tourists, were expected to visit the country’s tourist destinations each year, Tith ...
Insurers hit with few flood claims
The number of flood-related insurance claims has been fewer than expected despite the Kingdom’s worst flooding in a decade, industry insiders say. Although the floods, which began in late August, had affected large sections of the country, few claims had been made, Infinity Insurance chief executive ...
Ministry suspends verdict
The Ministry of Justice has ordered authorities in Preah Sihanouk province to suspend enforcement of a Supreme Court verdict issued in connection with a land dispute between 70 families and an official from the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port. On October 28, the Supreme Court granted a land ...
Villagers campaign in Kompong Thom to protect Prey Long Forest
Hundreds of villagers living around Prey Long forest have begun a weeklong campaign in the north of Kompong Thom province to protect Prey Long, one of Cambodia’s largest remaining primary forests, the Prey Long People’s Network said yesterday The group of villagers planned to protest later ...
Koh Kong's first garment factory to launch next April
The first garment factory in Koh Kong province is slated to open in April of next year in what insiders say is a harbinger of manufacturing along the Thai border. Thai-owned KKN Apparel had signed a contract with the Koh Kong Special Economic Zone to launch ...
State borrowing may spike
Cambodia’s draft budget law for 2012 will seek to increase concessional borrowing by about 75 per cent compared to 2011, according to a copy of the draft obtained by the Post. A lack of aid commitment may have led to the increase in proposed borrowing, experts ...
Villagers protest at eviction attempt
About 400 villagers in Kampong Cham province’s Stung Trang district began protesting yesterday after workers from a private company attempted to clear their houses with excavators, villagers said yesterday. Residents told the Post that Long Sreng International Co Ltd had not received a government land concession ...
No transparency provisions in draft oil law
After years in the drafting process, a copy of Cambodia’s much-anticipated draft petroleum law obtained this week shows that there are still no provisions governing the public disclosure of payments made to the government by gas and oil companies. Dated February 2010, the draft could still ...
Government officials at odds over debt levels
Government officials are at odds over how much Cambodia’s national debt amounts to. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia’s debt stands at just $2 billion, contradicting information provided by CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap last week that the number is actually $7 billion, or 63 ...
Tourist arrivals grow 15% in first nine months
Visitor arrivals to Cambodia saw a year-on-year increase of 15 percent in the first nine months of 2011, reaching more than 2 million people, according to new figures released by the Tourism Ministry yesterday. The figures showed that, from January to September, arrivals by air increased ...
Three special economic zones gaining steam
Five years after the government established the country’s special economic zones (SEZs), the Phnom Penh SEZ, Sihanoukville II SEZ, and Manhattan SEZ in Svay Rieng province are at last starting to attract more business. According to data from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), ...
Dene-Hern Chen, p.25