News
Battambang farmers desperate for local river water
With barely a drop of rain falling on their parched fields, Battambang farmers are pleading with a construction company to stop blockading the local river so their recently planted crops don’t dry out. The Asian Development Bank-funded bridge connecting Battambang and Banteay Meanchey has blocked the ...
Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/battambang-farmers-desperate-local-river-water
Cambodia aiming for road connectivity in 2015
Cambodia says it hopes to have road connectivity to Vietnam and Thailand by 2015. The connection would be part of Asean integration, a process where Cambodia lags behind its neighbors. Six countries of the Mekong River delta have worked toward linking by road since 1998, in an ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodia-aiming-for-road-connectivity-in-2015/1924443.html
ADB lends 75 mln USD to Cambodian bank to support small firms
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday signed a 75 million U.S. dollars loan with Cambodia’s largest bank, Acleda Bank, to address the rising financing requirements of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) in the country. The agreement was inked between Christine Engstrom, director in ADB’s ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2014-05/28/c_133368436.htm
Foreign currency deposits see strong growth
Foreign currency deposits grew briskly during the first four months of the year, a sign that public confidence in Cambodia’s financial institutions is high despite the uncertainty after last year’s disputed national election, bankers said this week. Cheam Teang, executive vice president of Acleda Bank Plc., ...
Kang Sothear
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/foreign-currency-deposits-see-strong-growth-59815/
ADB plan falls short: families
Families forced to leave their homes to make way for a railway rehabilitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank and the Australian government have told the bank that a draft compensation plan it has drawn up to remedy their situation is inadequate. On Monday, Inclusive ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adb-plan-falls-short-families
Aus called out on railway
Rights groups are calling out the Australian government for being “curiously absent” from discussions about further compensation for thousands of families affected by a railway rehabilitation project that it co-funded with the Asian Development Bank. The bank has borne the brunt of criticism over botched resettlement ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/aus-called-out-railway
ADB says aid plan for railway evictees still under negotiation
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday insisted that the Cambodian government has not turned down any of its recommendations for helping thousands of families hurt by a bank-funded project, claiming that talks over how to compensate and support the families were still underway. Last week, ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-says-aid-plan-for-railway-evictees-still-under-negotiation-57859/
Acleda takes on tax collection role
Taxpayers are now able to pay their dues at Acleda Bank as the government seeks to outsource its tax revenue collection to the private sector, the head of Cambodia’s largest bank said yesterday. In Channy, president and CEO of Acleda bank, told the Post that the ...
Hor Kimsay and Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/acleda-takes-tax-collection-role
Government agrees to review of railway evictees
The government has agreed to review its resettlement agreement with families relocated from railways as part of an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded rehabilitation project, but has refused a recommendation to set up a debt-relief scheme for the evictees, according to an action plan released by ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-agrees-to-review-of-railway-evictees-57745/
ADB report finds gov’t shirking duty
The government is refusing to compensate up to 1,000 families forced to wait for income restoration measures after being relocated from their homes for an Asian Development Bank-funded railway rehabilitation project, a previously unreleased action plan from the ADB reveals. The ADB Management Action Plan, released ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adb-report-finds-gov%E2%80%99t-shirking-duty
How can ASEAN realize its economic integration by 2015?
The Association of the Southeast Asian Nations, known as ASEAN, has chosen 2015 as the year to realize its economic integration as the ASEAN Economic Community. Yet, there are only several months left, ASEAN doesn’t seem to be ready. How can ASEAN realize this goal? Although ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=MTZhZWQ0N2FhZjI
Riel trust needed for stability
As much as $320 million is being lost annually as a result of Cambodia’s reliance on the US dollar, while a longstanding mistrust in the riel means there is less of the local currency in circulation, restricting the national bank’s ability to respond in times ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/riel-trust-needed-stability
Tax dept can’t do job, report says
Cambodia’s tax department is under-resourced and understaffed, thereby hindering its ability to generate revenue, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) analysis released earlier this month. The analysis, which took into account survey results from 22 tax revenue bodies across Asia between 2012 and 2013, paints ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tax-dept-can%E2%80%99t-do-job-report-says
Economist Says Asean Likely To Miss Key Deadlines for Integration
Southeast Asian countries are likely to miss a deadline for the economic integration of Asean in 2015, a leading economist says. Jayat Menon, an economist for the Asian Development Bank, told reporters in Phnom Penh Wednesday that Asean countries are behind on key targets for integration ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/economist-says-asean-likely-to-miss-key-deadlines-for-integration-/1899474.html
ADB provides Cambodia more than $80 mil. for flood relief
The Asian Development Bank announced Wednesday that it will provide $81.7 million, including a $6.7 million grant from Australia, in additional financing to help Cambodia recover from catastrophic floods in late 2013. The flooding affected 1.7 million people and caused an estimated $356 million in damage. ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/140423/adb-provides-cambodia-more-80-mil-flood-relief
Forum focuses on realizing development triangle’s potential
Building partnerships to realize the potential of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle was the theme of a forum in Buon Ma Thuot City, the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on April 21. The event, co-hosted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Asian Development ...
Saigon GP Daily News Staff
http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/Business/Economy/2014/4/108858/
ADB urged to consult rail project evictees
More than two dozen NGOs have written to the head of the Asian Development Bank demanding the immediate release of a draft plan the ADB has drawn up to help Cambodian families evicted to make way for a bank-funded railway rehabilitation project. They also want ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-urged-to-consult-rail-project-evictees-56514/
Rail evictees threaten protests against ADB
Families evicted for a rail project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) threatened to demonstrate if the bank does not show them its plan to improve their living conditions within one week. About 1,000 families who built homes over the country’s long-neglected train tracks were ...
Zsombor Peter and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rail-evictees-threaten-protests-against-adb-56290/
Evicted railway families await ADB’s help
In 2011, Oeun Phirun took out a $450 loan from the Asian Development Bank, using half to buy a used motorbike and spending the rest on a small flock of ducks and chickens he hoped to raise. His family and about 1,000 others have been evicted ...
Zsombor Peter and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evicted-railway-families-await-adbs-help-56128/
Railway audit finds poor maintenance of tracks
Toll Royal Railway, the private operator of Cambodia’s train service, has no system in place to regularly inspect the state of its tracks, and lacks qualified inspectors to check either tracks or bridges, according to a recent safety audit of the firm’s Phnom Penh operations. The ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/railway-audit-finds-poor-maintenance-of-tracks-55756/
ADB predicts slower growth for 2014
The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday said it expects Cambodia’s economic growth to slow slightly in 2014. In its annual “Asian Development Outlook,” the bank said it expects to see a drop in the rate from about 7.2 percent last year to 7 percent this year ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/adb-predicts-slower-growth-for-2014/1883732.html
Compensation plan agreed to, says ADB
Following a scathing report from its internal watchdog about the resettlement of thousands of Cambodian families affected by a national railway rehabilitation project that it is funding, the Asian Development Bank has agreed with the government on an action plan for further compensation, it said ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/compensation-plan-agreed-says-adb
Latrine numbers up
The number of Cambodian rural households with access to latrines increased from 23 to 33 per cent in 2013, a Ministry of Rural Development report released yesterday says. Chreay Pom, director of the ministry’s rural health care department, said that last year, the ministry constructed about ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/latrine-numbers
Railway leaves area in limbo
In 2009, a railway project official arrived at 45-year-old Ry Preng’s home in Por Sen Chey district and spray-painted “1.042” in red on the side of his house. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but was told that at some point he would need to ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/railway-leaves-area-limbo