Speculators pounce on rice market as prices rise
Speculators have been selling rice to Thailand via Cambodia for over a month despite domestic prices rising VND1,000/kg. At the meeting of Vietnam Food Association (VFA) on September 7 in HCM City, Director of An Giang Export Company Nguyen Van Tien said the amount of rice ...
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/43907/business-in-brief-12-9.html
Central Bank OKs SBC bid
The Taiwanese bank Cathay United, a subsidiary of Cathay Financial Holding and a listed company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, has purchased a 70 per cent stake in the Cambodia-based Singapore Banking Corporation Ltd (SBC), a central bank official said yesterday. The National Bank of Cambodia ...
Hun Sen Says Shootings, Traffic Accidents Threaten Tourism
Gun violence and fatal traffic accidents are hurting the government’s efforts to boost tourism, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, urging local authorities to take action-even against the powerful. Mr. Hun Sen also said the government has earmarked sites for two new international airports to cater to ...
Southeast Asian scientists look to reinvent the flush toilet
Scientists in Bangkok are about to start work on a new flush toilet especially designed for the urban poor in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Their aim is to create a toilet that will process wastewater in family homes and convert it into gas or electricity, ...
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/southeast-asian-scientists-look-to-reinvent-the-flush-toilet
Aviation Chief Urges Compensation for Victims of PMT Crash
Fielding questions from opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly yesterday, the chief of the State Secretary of Civil Aviation (SSCA) addressed a host of issues that have drawn recent criticism of the government body. SSCA Secretary of State Mao Havanall began by saying that the secretariat ...
Sihanoukville eviction on hold
The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court delayed the destruction of the homes and subsequent eviction of 14 families embroiled in a land dispute with a company owned by tycoon Kong Treav in Village 4 of Sihanoukville’s Commune 4, local authorities said yesterday. Though many of the families ...
PM’s Logging Decree ‘Too Late’
Activists are welcoming Prime Minister Hun Sen’s public vow to prevent logging and rosewood trafficking, but they also say it’s too little too late to have any serious impact on protecting Cambodia’s already decimated forests. In a speech on Friday at the Ministry of Interior, Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561589/National/pm-s-logging-decree-too-late.html
Prey Lang villagers on forest watch
Nearly 100 Prey Lang villagers in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district will today embark on a three-day “forest watch” mission to monitor what community representatives say are increased illegal logging activities in the jungle. This is the fourth time the community has conducted monitoring in the ...
Disgraced ambassador’s property is a hard sell
The seized property of fugitive former ambassador Nan Sy has so far failed to fetch bidders, denying state coffers some $400,000 embezzled by the disgraced official. The undeveloped 10 by 20 meter plot in Tuol Kork district was put up for auction last week in an effort to ...
Thai factory accused of abuses
Cambodian migrant workers at a tuna processing company in Thailand have had their passports confiscated by their employers and are effectively trapped in substandard work conditions, research released yesterday revealed. Non-profit research organisation Finnwatch said it had found a number of “problems” with working conditions at ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013012260908/National/thai-factory-accused-of-abuses.html
EZECOM and Thai partner interconnect
Thai telecommunications network provider United Information Highway (UIH) and Cambodian internet service provider EZECOM said they established an interconnect agreement last month to offer improved service to customers conducting business with neighbouring countries. “We have UIH as a partner for our connection to Thailand; the connection ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021261303/Business/ezecom-and-thai-partner-interconnect.html
Thai Representative Meets With Koh Kong ‘Blood Sugar’ Families
Some 200 Koh Kong farmers locked in a long-running land dispute with two sugar plantations met Tuesday with a representative of the Thailand-based owners for the first time since the land dispute began in 2006. Khamrom Phochai, a Thai national and representative of Thailand’s Khon Kaen ...
Mfone Employees Demand Unpaid Salaries
More than 100 former employees of the bankrupt mobile telephone company Mfone protested outside the firm’s shuttered offices in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding that they receive salaries for working the month of February despite the company having already gone out of business. Mar Samoeun, 64, ...
Vietnam and Cambodia set ambitious US$5-billion trade target
Vietnam and Cambodia have set a target of US$5 billion in bilateral trade by 2015 as the countries’ economic relationship deepens. However, some wonder if such an ambitious goal is realistic, especially given the government’s desire to realize US$5 billion in annual trade with China by 2017. The goal was announced at a June 24 ...
Officials Halt Clearance of Community Forest
Forestry administration officials in Battambang province have stepped in to stop the destruction of a community forest area by military and police, officials said yesterday. Over two past months, soldiers, police and military police have destroyed part of the 1,335-hectare Prey Tralach forest in Rokha Kiri district, which ...
Land Issues Are Dominating Talks Between Citizens, Lawmakers
Land conflicts, discrimination, corruption and inequality dominated discussions between citizens and lawmakers at forums across the country this year, according to the U.S.-based organization the National Democratic Institute (NDI). In its annual report, obtained yesterday, the NDI noted “significant consistencies in the concerns facing Cambodians across ...
Report Shows Advanced Illegal Timber Trade
Cambodia is among the tropical countries whose forests are being cleared using increasingly advanced methods to feed a growing global trade in illegal timber worth at least $30 billion a year, according to a new report. The report, Green carbon, black trade, a joint effort by ...
Fertilizer factory won’t hire non-CPP members, workers claim
Workers applying for jobs at a fertilizer factory in Kandal province claim they were passed over in favour of applicants who were members of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). Prey Treng II village chief Hang Suon and two job applicants told the Post yesterday that Five ...
Environmental activist Chut Wutty shot dead
Cambodia’s most outspoken activist against illegal logging was shot dead today while escorting journalists near a protected forest in Koh Kong province, where he has repeatedly attempted to expose illegal logging rackets that include military officials. Chut Wutty, the director of Natural Resource Protection Group, was ...
Rosewood Seized From Hotel Truck
Forestry Administration officials have confiscated 15 cubic meters of luxury-grade wood from a truck belonging to hotel and casino magnate Try Pheap in Kompong Thom province. Soth Mary, a division director for the Forestry Administration in the province, said yesterday that his staff stopped a truck ...