News
IFC seeks more Australian partnerships in emerging markets
INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the Washington-based World Bank, has invested $US805 million ($770m) in Australian projects around the world These projects are in 24 countries and in sectors ranging from financial services to infrastructure. IFC is an investor in three Macquarie Group-sponsored infrastructure ...
Families Told to Prepare to Vacate Land Needed for Railway Station
Government officials met with more than 200 Phnom Penh families on Friday to lay out the state’s case for ownership of their land and the compensation they can expect when they are evicted from their homes situated along the city’s railway tracks. The $142 million project ...
ANZ may sell Asia bank stakes due to stringent capital rules
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX) would consider selling some of its stakes in Asian banks if Australia does not ease stringent capital requirements, chief executive Mike Smith said on Wednesday. The plan raises questions about how Australia’s smallest ‘Big Four’ bank will meet the ...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/us-anz-asia-idUKBRE87E04L20120815
Growth to be focus of ASEAN Economic Summit
Prime Minister Hun Sen will be opening the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and related meetings will kick off August 27 in Siem Reap, the centre of Khmer culture and civilization in Cambodia, and will run to September 1, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The meeting ...
ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Focuses On Mutual Benefits
The ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) 10 + 1 Session with 10 ASEAN’s Dialogue Partners, namely, Australia, Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America were held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 11 July 2012. They focused on cooperation ...
Mobile phones could replace credit cards
Mobile money transfer service WING is preparing to launch a mobile wallet service later this year, and ACLEDA Unity is preparing to expand its own mobile services, enabling people to quickly pay for things just by touching their phone to a point-of-sale terminal. Near-field communications (NFC) ...
Inspiring tech entrepreneurship
The arrival of Startup Weekend in Cambodia marked a new beginning for high-tech entrepreneurship as more than 80 people worked on all kinds of new business ideas all weekend at Yellow Tower across the Tonle Sap from The Riverside. Chief Marketing Officer Joey Pomerenke of Startup ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062556987/Business/tech-entrepreneurship.html
Relocation Woes Persist: Australia
The Australian Embassy conceded that problems have plagued the relocation process of about 160 families moved to Trapeang Anhchanh on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last September. The families were moved for a railway rehabilitation project partially funded by the Australian government’s AusAID. “We agree on the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062156934/National-news/relocation-woes-australia.html
Railway Evictees Tussle With High Debt Levels
Adding to a growing body of research into the flaws of Cambodia’s $142 million railway rehabilitation project, a report published yesterday said soaring debt levels are crippling families forcibly relocated by the project. In the report by land rights organization Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), researchers tracked ...
OZ Minerals Completes Sale of Cambodian Assets
Australian mining firm OZ Minerals announced yesterday that it has successfully sold its Cambodian mining assets to Renaissance Minerals Limited for AU$17.8 million, or $19.2 million, after years of disappointing gold exploration results here. According to the statement, Renaissance now controls the 1,100-square-km core of the ...
Mu Sochua calls out Aussie mining firms
Opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua has taken aim at Australian mining companies eyeing the Kingdom’s resources, travelling to their home soil to lobby the halls of power. Mu Sochua cited fears that Australian companies awarded exploration concessions in Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri provinces will treat ethnic minorities there ...
Donors Face Mounting Pressure Over Rail Project
A group of NGOs on Friday called on Australia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to suspend work and funding for a government-led project to rehabilitate the country’s railway system should authorities in Poipet City follow through on an eviction notice delivered to 22 families ...
Hun Sen’s Nephew Hits Back at Allegations
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nephew Hun To hit back strongly yesterday at allegations published in a leading Australian newspaper, The Age, which linked him to an international drug smuggling and money laundering ring, demanding that the publisher print a retraction. Mr. To sent a letter to ...
A ‘good neighbour’ policy
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr chose Cambodia as his first official overseas trip since his March 2 appointment to the top foreign policy job. The Australian Labor Party politician, former journalist and longtime premier of New South Wales sat down on Monday evening with the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032855289/National-news/a-good-neighbour-policy.html
Drug connection denied
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nephew Hun To has emphatically denied all allegations published by Australian newspaper The Age about his involvement in a heroin-trafficking and money-laundering syndicate targeting Australia. Hun To, whose wife and children reside in Melbourne, Australia, told the Post yesterday that he plans ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032755268/National-news/drug-connection-denied.html
Australian FM hails Cambodia for rapid growth, political stability
Visiting Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Monday praised Cambodia for its rapid economic growth in recent years and political stability. Bob Carr said that Australian Development Assistance Program has allocated 77 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia in 2011-2012, focusing on agriculture development, health, services, infrastructure ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-03/26/c_131490522.htm
Drugs: our man in Cambodia
The inquiry that targeted Hun To, dubbed Operation Illipango, investigated the shipment of heroin into Australia from Cambodia in loads of timber. Hun To, a nephew of Prime Minister Hun Sen, is a powerful and feared figure in Cambodia. He was once considered a close business ...
http://www.theage.com.au/national/investigations/drugs-our-man-in-cambodia-20120325-1vsiz.html
No Investigation of OZ Minerals Deal, Police Say
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have decided not to investigate the Australian mining company OZ Minerals, saying information that the firm paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to family members of officials in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (Mime) when buying out its ...
Firms, gov't discuss $50m banana farm plan
Plans for a 5,000-hectare banana farming project in Koh Kong province, proposed last year by an Australian and a Japanese company, look set to go ahead, with state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) yesterday reporting that the project would cost $50 million. Last Friday, the ...
Direct flights to Australia in sight, officials confirms
Cambodia and Australia are one step closer to getting daily direct flights between the two countries, an aviation official confirmed yesterday. State Secretariat of Civil Aviation deputy cabinet director Long Chheng said his department had passed the proposal submitted by a “state-owned” Australian airline and sent ...
Australian airline will launch direct flights to Kingdom
An Australian national airline would launch daily direct flights between Cambodia and Australia early next year, the Secretariat of State of Civil Aviation said yesterday. The airline had conducted a feasibility study and a market survey in co-operation with a Cambodian technical team, Long Chheng, deputy ...
Foreign donors slow on giving flood aid
As tens of thousands of families continue to struggle with ongoing flooding, delays are still hampering the provision of overseas aid, with some donors holding back on distributing funds. China flew in two planes, laden with supplies worth $8 million, over the weekend and the South ...
Mine concession sale planned in Ratanakkiri
Astra Resources, parent company of Australia’s Astra Mining, will finalise within two months the acquisition of a 222-square-kilometre gold concession in Cambodia’s Ratanakkiri province, the company announced yesterday. Astra, which listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange September 30, is aiming for large and speedy gold production ...
More NGOs Scrutinised
International NGO Bridges Across Borders and umbrella group NGO Forum met yesterday morning with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who accused both of making “false” and “unfair” claims to the Asian Development Bank about the death of two children relocated by a railway ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011081951151/National-news/more-ngos-scrutinised.html