Cambodian forest campaigners fight rampant logging
KOH KONG, Cambodia – Frustrated by government inaction, Cambodian citizen patrollers are risking their lives to take on the country’s illegal loggers in a bid to save their shrinking forests. The shooting of a prominent environmentalist by a military policeman last month after he refused to ...
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20120527-348666.html
Rice Farmers Struggle Despite Production Growth
High production costs and a lack of government assistance is keeping rice farmers near the poverty line despite unprecedented growth in the sector, according to a new study released by local microfinance institution Intean Poalroath Rongroeurng (IPR). The independent study, conducted by two Cambodian researchers ...
Cambodia's gems and jewelry sector set to shine
Inside a nondescript villa in central Phnom Penh, men and women in white lab coats peer through lenses, carefully studying the magnified objects in front of them. But these aren’t biologists researching cell division or bacteria; these are gem testers concerned with inclusions and refractive indices on rubies, sapphires and other precious stones. They are working ...
Cambodia: Is Adidas exploiting workers?
Am Phalla sits outside the factory gates of apparel maker Shen Zhou (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., sharing a lunch of rice, vegetables and fried fish with coworkers. She has been sewing clothes at Shen Zhou for a little less than a year, but is unaware that the ...
Beijing 'Coordinated' With Cambodia to Influence Asean Meeting
A Chinese academic with close ties to China’s state security apparatus has claimed that Beijing coordinated with the Cambodian government to influence the outcome of the Asean meeting in Phnom Penh, according to the Financial Times. In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, Chen ...
Last link in Wutty case freed
The only man convicted in relation to a murder case that made global headlines, the killing of environmentalist Chut Wutty and military police officer, In Rattana, walked free on Friday, less than two weeks after his sentencing, rights group Licadho said. Ran Boroth, who was ...
Cambodia passes fire prevention draft law
The Government of Cambodia on Friday passed a draft law on fire prevention in order to contribute to maintaining security, social safety, public order, and life and property protection, according to a media statement released after the weekly Cabinet meeting. In the meeting, Hun Sen ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/14/c_132041591.htm
Ministry Lists Fees to Help Firms Avoid Graft Claims
The government has publicly issued lists showing the costs of fees that businesses must pay to authorities for various services, in an effort to help companies avoid making informal payments made illegal by the anticorruption law. The lists were drafted during the past year after Cambodia ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-lists-fees-to-help-firms-avoid-graft-claims-8434/
Mondolkiri, Kompong Thom Face Climate Threat
Mondolkiri and Kompong Thom provinces could suffer some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Lower Mekong Basin region, such as a high incidence of flash floods and droughts by 2050, according to a new study. Analyzing temperature and rainfall from 84 provinces ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mondolkiri-kompong-thom-face-climate-threat-17224/
Tiffany to polish diamonds
Luxury jewellery brand Tiffany & Co is building a diamond-polishing factory in Phnom Penh, as the company, which has enjoyed increasing sales, seeks to ensure it can continue supplying the diamonds it needs. Construction began last month on the 1.2-hectare factory, along with a training centre, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013041064983/Business/tiffany-to-polish-diamonds.html
Illegal checkpoints, logging tools netted
Activists in Kratie province’s Snuol district seized seven chainsaws over the weekend and collected evidence that four police checkpoints were used to solicit bribes from illegal loggers, representatives of the network said yesterday. After scouring thousands of hectares of protected forest from Friday through yesterday, the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031962013/National/illegal-checkpoints-logging-tools-netted.html
Thailand and Cambodia to forge closer trade talks
After the fourth Joint Trade Commission (JTC) recently, Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom said that Thailand and Cambodia had the potential to drive two-way trade up by 30 per cent, due to strong growth in 2012. Last year, bilateral trade grew by 40.5 per cent year on ...
Firms’ Timber Trade Decried
Two firms holding concessions in rapidly disappearing northern forests are amassing stockpiles of tens of thousands of luxury logs cut both within and outside their leases and trucking them on to Vietnam, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights has alleged. CCHR investigators that tracked logging operations ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052865880/National/firms-timber-trade-decried.html
Japan provides 36 mln USD grant aid to Cambodia for clean water, education
The government of Japan on Wednesday signed to provide a grant aid of 36 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for a clean water project and a human resource development project. According to a press statement, the amount of 33.4 million U.S. dollars goes for the ...
Xinhuanet Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-06/05/c_132432490.htm
Opposition vows mass protest over Cambodian election deadlock
The result remains hotly disputed, but Cambodia’s recent general election has put long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen on a collision course with a resurgent opposition and revealed widespread unhappiness with his iron-fisted rule. While analysts aren’t writing off the chances of the politically ruthless Hun Sen ...
http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/06/cambodia-election-idINDEE97503K20130806
Father Suing Rubber Firm for Beating His Three Children
The father of three children attacked with wooden sticks and steel poles by employees of well-connected DM Group in Ratanakkiri province has filed a lawsuit against the firm, and is asking for tens of thousands of dollars in compensation. .. The provincial court has charged the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/father-suing-rubber-firm-for-beating-his-three-children-22805/
Cambodia-Japan trade volume up 14% in 3 months
Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and Japan had amounted to 180 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year, up 14 percent compared with the 158 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, a report of the Japan External Trade ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-05/14/c_132381154.htm
Try Pheap given OK to harvest yellow vine
Logging baron Try Pheap’s MDS Import Export Co, Ltd has been granted a licence to collect and process the controversial plant known as yellow vine around the Stung Atay hydropower dam in the Cardamom Mountains, according to documents received by the Post yesterday. The vine has ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060466045/National/try-pheap-given-ok-to-harvest-yellow-vine.html
Commune officials to solve factory disputes
In response to a growing number of strikes in the country’s highly profitable garment sector, the government trained 15 handpicked commune officials yesterday to mediate and resolve factory disputes. The training was designed to teach commune councillors to defuse and resolve conflict, Buth Ji, director of ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/commune-officials-solve-factory-disputes
Limited Trafficking, Rampant Abuse in Thai Fishing Industry
Only one of the 241 Cambodians questioned for the largest survey of the notoriously abusive Thai fishing industry’s workforce to date said he was forced into the job, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Though some of the findings are in ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/limited-trafficking-rampant-abuse-in-thai-fishing-industry-41643/