Government
‘Millions’ to be made off energy efficiency
Against the backdrop of high electricity costs and energy imports, Cambodian businesses could save millions of dollars annually by implementing energy-efficient business practices, insiders said yesterday. “It is clear that energy efficiency has multiple benefits, not only to the tourism sector but also other economic sectors ...
Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/%E2%80%98millions%E2%80%99-be-made-energy-efficiency
Gov’t pledges to cut red tape
In a bid to make Cambodia more business-friendly, the government will cut back on red tape and reduce industry membership costs, Sun Chanthol, the new minister of commerce, said yesterday. Speaking to representatives from the private sector at a conference at the InterContinental Hotel in Phnom ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gov%E2%80%99t-pledges-cut-red-tape
Factory rejects order to rehire 19 workers
Flouting a government order, representatives of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd yesterday refused to rehire 19 union representatives and activists during a meeting with the Ministry of Labour. Rehiring the 19 has been the key sticking point in ending the three-month-old strike, which erupted into violence ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-rejects-order-rehire-19-workers
Campaign Against Gender Violence Launched
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, NGOs and several U.N. agencies Monday launched the 13th annual campaign against gender-based violence, which this year is focused on rape, organizers said Monday. Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign celebrated in countries around the globe ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/campaign-against-gender-violence-launched-47895/
Food-price hike hits workers
The price of food spiked this month, and Cambodia’s low-paid garment workers are feeling the effects. Meat, vegetables, toothbrushes, beauty accessories and even the plastic bags they get packed in have all seen a sharp bump up in price this month, some items by as much ...
Daniel de Carteret and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/food-price-hike-hits-workers
Cambodian oil imports decrease by 2.2 per cent
Cambodia imported 1.31 billion tonnes of oil in the first 10 months of this year, a 2.2 per cent slide compared to 1.34 billion tonnes in the same period last year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. Industry experts said the drop did not ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodian-oil-imports-decrease-22-cent
Helicopters to ‘Protect’ government
As political deadlock continues, Minister of Defence Tea Banh yesterday used the unveiling of 12 Chinese-made military helicopters to announce that the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces stand “ready to protect” the government and constitution, following what he called “free and fair” elections in July. Speaking in ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/helicopters-%E2%80%98protect%E2%80%99-government
Villagers ‘paid to log’ lost land
Local communities that lost their land via economic land concessions to private companies are now being paid by those same firms to illegally fell the trees that once sustained their livelihoods, a group of five advocacy groups contended yesterday. At a press conference, the NGOs singled ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-%E2%80%98paid-log%E2%80%99-lost-land
Villagers fight mining venture
Nearly 70 representatives from 278 families in Preah Vihear’s Rovieng district are seeking intervention after a national mining company began drilling on their farmland last week, locals said yesterday. According to villager Yean Bunchan, 47, representatives from a company based in Kandal province called T P ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-fight-mining-venture
Cambodian NGOs Threaten to Expose More Illegal Logging
A group of Cambodian NGOs threatened on Monday to expose more cases of forestry crime involving businessmen and the police, saying they were unshaken by a defamation suit filed by top tycoon accused of illegal logging and land-grabbing. Representatives of the five organizations told reporters Monday ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/logging-11252013185559.html
Japan’s Premier Criticized After Visiting Cambodia
Japan’s prime minister failed to address major issues, by leaving aside Cambodia’s political deadlock and its poor human rights record on a visit last week, rights activists say. “It was a missed opportunity for the government of Japan, which has a great deal of leverage with ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/japan-premier-criticized-after-visiting-cambodia/1795737.html
More Youth Involvement Needed To Settle Land Disputes, Groups Say
Local NGOs on Friday urged more participation in land dispute resolution by the nation’s youth. Youth participation can mean better laws, better application of those laws and greater respect for citizens, “especially for farmers and the poor,” said Chhit Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/more-youth-involvement-needed-to-settle-land-disputes-groups-say/1795721.html
China delivers Cambodia helicopters
Twelve Chinese-made helicopters that Cambodia purchased from China were delivered Monday to the Cambodian Defence Ministry. At the handover ceremony, Cambodian Defence Minister Gen Tea Banh said the Zhi-9 utility helicopters will be used for military training purposes and for cracking down on crimes in various ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/381633/military-helicopters-delivered-to-cambodia
Human rights trek for monks
Monks will spend days marching hundreds of kilometres to Phnom Penh from five provinces in the lead-up to Human Rights Day on December 10, the head of a dissident monk group said yesterday. Departing in groups of 20 from Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Pursat and ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/human-rights-trek-monks
Sar Kheng Invites CNRP to Talk, Says Preconditions Won’t Be Met
In his closing address at a two-day National Election Committee (NEC) conference in Preah Sihanouk province on Sunday, Interior Minister Sar Kheng told the opposition CNRP to end its boycott of the National Assembly, but emphasized that neither an independent investigation into July’s disputed election ...
Simon Henderson and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sar-kheng-invites-cnrp%E2%80%88to-talk-says-preconditions-wont-be-met-47794/
CNRP to Hold Demonstration in Siem Reap
The opposition CNRP has decided to move a mass demonstration to mark International Human Rights Day on December 10 from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap City, the party’s deputy president Kem Sokha said on Saturday. The CNRP will also hold mass demonstrations every Sunday at Freedom ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-to-hold-demonstration-in-siem-reap-47801/
After prison, Bopha undeterred
Shelving any thoughts that 14 months in prison had deterred her from protesting, Yorm Bopha rushed to the capital’s Borei Keila community yesterday morning to try to stop authorities from forcing evictees from an abandoned building. Bopha was one of about 10 Boeung Kak activists called ...
Phak Seangly, Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/after-prison-bopha-undeterred
Asia’s forests grow, but not in Kingdom: NGO
Forest land in Asia-Pacific countries has grown overall since 2002, according to a study released last week, but Cambodia was one of only three countries surveyed to buck the trend. Out of 14 countries included in the study by the Regional Community Forestry Training Center (RECOFTC), ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/asia%E2%80%99s-forests-grow-not-kingdom-ngo
Factory ordered to clean act
The Ministry of Labour has ordered management at a Kandal province garment factory to clean their workroom and limit employees’ overtime hours, in response to over 100 workers fainting over two days. During a visit to King First Industrial Co, Ltd’s Kandal location yesterday, Seng Sakada, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-ordered-clean-act
H&M pledges living wage for textile workers in Bangladesh and Cambodia
H&M has pledged to pay a living wage to 850,000 textile workers after expressing frustration over a lack of action by governments to address working conditions in Asian factories in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster. The world’s second-biggest clothing retailer said it would support ...
Sean Farrell
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/25/h-m-living-wage-textile-workers-bangladesh-cambodia
ACU’s Denial of Graft Belied by Evidence
A recent claim by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) that a public health officer accused of demanding bribes to manipulate lucrative contracts did nothing wrong contradicts admissions of illegal activity by both the government and the officer himself, according to interviews and email messages reproduced in ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acus-denial-of-graft-belied-by-evidence-47788/
Anti-Graft Unit Says Health Center’s Procurements Were Correct
The government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Friday that it has investigated the public procurements of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD Control (NCHADS) and found they were carried out correctly, despite an exhaustive investigation by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-graft-unit-says-health-centers-procurements-were-correct-47767/
Impunity Reigns as Fatal Shootings Continue to Go Unpunished
Impunity reigns in Cambodia on the back of two consecutive years of fatal shootings by state forces for which perpetrators have evaded justice, local rights group Licadho said Friday in a statement to mark International Day to End Impunity on Saturday. Since the start of 2012, ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/impunity-reigns-as-fatal-shootings-continue-to-go-unpunished-47769/
Ratanakkiri Temple Now in Land Concession
Like most millennium-old structures discovered in the forests of Cambodia, the locals had known all along about this one. Jarai minority villagers in this remote spot in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district not only knew about it, but they revered the red-brick temple, using it as a ...
Kuch Naren and Michelle Vachon
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-temple-now-in-land-concession-47779/