Hedging China risks, Japan firms turn to booming SE Asia
Hiroshi Uematsu had a tough start in Cambodia, where he heads an economic zone that aims to attract business from his native Japan. He arrived just before the global financial crisis sent the Asian Economic Minnow’s exports into a tailspin and dried up investment interest. Now, ...
32 Land Concessions Approved Since Moratorium
Despite a moratorium on the granting of new economic land concessions (ELCs), the government has approved at least 32 ELCs since Prime Minister Hun Sen announced their suspension in May. According to sub-decrees dated from May onward and provided by local human rights group Adhoc, Mr. ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/32-land-concessions-approved-since-moratorium-5725/
Grassroots Forum Issues Demands Ahead of Asean
The Asean Grassroots People’s Assembly (AGPA) agreed yesterday on a list of demands it intends to present to the Cambodian and regional governments. A crowd of more than 2,000 people-including garment factory workers, victims of evictions, and sex workers, as well as undercover police-gathered at Phnom ...
Cambodia battles to save rare Mekong dolphins
KRATIE (Cambodia): The sight of two dolphins twisting playfully in the murky waters of the Mekong river elicits barely-stifled squeals of delight from a boatload of eco-tourists. But a short distance upstream, river guard Pech Sokhan sighs as he holds up two large, tangled gill nets ...
http://www.nst.com.my/latest/cambodia-battles-to-save-rare-mekong-dolphins-1.193943
Taiwan-Cambodia flight delay affects hundreds
Cambodia’s Tonlesap Airlines said Saturday that one of its scheduled flights from Taiwan to the Cambodian city of Siem Reap that day would be further delayed due to an engine failure, further enraging 167 already angry passengers who had been waiting for hours for their ...
B Kak 15 Petition Sent to Japanese Embassy
Boeng Kak protesters continued their fight for the release of 14 women and one man imprisoned since May 24, delivering a petition to the Senate and the Japanese Embassy on Friday that they hope will spur new intervention in the long-running land dispute. More than 100 ...
Adidas Denies Allegations of Low Wages for Factory Workers
German sports brand Adidas yesterday denied allegations that its Cambodian factory, which produces Olympic merchandise, was not paying workers a sustainable living wage. The London Organizing Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games (Locog) said on Sunday it would investigate claims that Adidas has violated its agreement ...
Government Forms Commission to Evict Families Near Airport
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An yesterday approved the creation of a joint commission which will undertake the role of evicting hundreds of families living near the Phnom Penh international Airport before the Asean and East Asia summits commence next month. Mr. Sath [Choam Chao commune ...
Job fair attracts a big crowd
Officials confirmed there were more than 20,000 participants at the job fair on Saturday organised by the National Employment Agency of the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, which was held in an effort to educate job seekers about current opportunities. Sokkhon David, acting director of information ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110559560/Business/job-fair-attracts-a-big-crowd.html
Union files assault court complaint
The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) filed legal complaints yesterday, following allegations on Wednesday that police had assaulted seven garment workers, including a pregnant woman. Sa’ang district police chief Chea Socheat yesterday again denied officers had been violent during a strike ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861260/National/union-files-assault-court-complaint.html
Graduates lacking skills: report
EVEN though about 50 per cent of Cambodian university students studied business management, the banking sector has been hesitant to recruit them, insiders said yesterday. A 2010 report by the recruitment agency HRinC (Cambodia) projected that the supply of business, marketing, management, banking and finance, economics ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030561746/Business/graduates-lacking-skills-report.html
Milled rice exports gaining traction
The tonnage of the Kingdom’s milled-rice exports jumped nearly 50 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, according to the Ministry of Commerce, with export revenues soaring as much as 82 per cent. Total exports of milled rice for the first three months of 2012 hit ...
SH protesters to keep striking
More than 700 workers at the SH International factory In the capital’s Po Sen Chey district have vowed to keep strikIng, despite the MInistry of Labour sayIng it could not help solve their dispute because their demands were “excessive”. The workers protested agaIn yesterday outside the ...
Long-Running Protest Still Without Resolution
About 2,000 workers at a factory supplying clothes to U.S. brands Levi Strauss, Gap and Old Navy were stopped by security forces yesterday as they attempted to march from Kandal province to the Ministry of Labor to protest for severance payments and additional benefits. Protests at ...
Rights Groups File Lawsuit Over Land Meeting Breakup
Two local human rights groups filed lawsuits yesterday at the Ratanakiri Provincial Court accusing commune and village officials of defamation and intimidation after they disrupted land-rights training session last month. On July 26, a group of armed officials stopped Adhoc and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) ...
Cambodia: Rich-poor gap hinders ASEAN integration
Southeast Asian nations must redouble efforts to bridge development gaps which threaten the region’s efforts to create an EU-style single market, Cambodia’s prime minister said Monday. Building an ASEAN economic community by 2015 is the “top priority”, Hun Sen said as he opened the annual ...
Ratanakiri Court Questions Rights Workers
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday questioned the first of two human rights workers who are suing local officials for allegedly disrupting a July meeting they were hosting for villagers in Lumphat district. Deputy court prosecutor Ros Saram said he questioned Chhim Savuth, program officer for the ...
Communities want to ban gillnet use to protect dolphins
Fishermen representing five Cambodian communities will publicly express their support for a ban on gillnet use in a ceremony highlighting the importance of the Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin. The event organised by the Commission for Dolphin Conservation and Development of the Mekong River Dolphin Eco-tourism Zone, ...
Activist monk detained at Wat Botum
Senor members of the monastic community yesterday detained Buddhist monk Loun Savath, an award-winning human rights activist, after he took photos of protesting Boeung Kak lake villagers outside Phnom Penh municipal court. Monks, police and unidentified men in plain clothes violently forced Loun Savath into a ...
Rice alliance formed
A new partnership looking to export Cambodian rice to world markets formed yesterday afternoon at Sunway Hotel The Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia (ARPEC) elected their first executive committee, which includes office holders Phou Puy, Hann Khieng, Oknha Kong Sang, Sok Cheng, Seng ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052856413/Business/rice-alliance-formed.html