ថាមពល
Britain’s Fraud Office Probes Biofuel Scheme
A biofuel company is currently under investigation for fraud in the U.K. after millions of dollars of investors’ money was spent on a jatropha plantation in Banteay Meanchey province that never produced even a single drop of biodiesel. The company, London-based Sustainable Agro Energy PLC, had ...
Bearing Gifts, Chinese Heads Visit Hun Sen
A delegation of Chinese officials yesterday donated two airplanes and signed an agreement to provide Cambodia with loans for a new hydropower dam in Battambang and the renovation of two national roads. The deals were made during a meeting in Phnom Penh between He Guoqiang, a ...
Rice industry calls for help
Milled-rice exporters have called on the government to continue its efforts in reducing electricity and transportation costs, two of the main obstacles facing the government’s goal of exporting 1 million tonnes of milled rice by 2015. At a working group on rice exports on Friday, 40 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061156715/Business/rice-industry-calls-for-help.html
Union out of loop in MoU negotiations
The garment industry could be close to renewing an industrial relations memorandum of understanding, but an independent union believes it is being edged out of negotiations because it opposes the use of short-term and fixed-duration contracts. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation, said yesterday ...
Officials say Cambodia's price rises manageable
Cambodia’s inflation rose by 5.49 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, due to increases in food and fuel prices, according to the monthly data from the National Institute of Statistics compiled by the Post. However, economists and government officials said they were ...
Cardamom solution remains an option
Dr. Tim Killeen, author of The Cardamom Conundrum, Reconciling Development and Conservation in the Kingdom of Cambodia, discusses his recently released book, which argues that Cambodia is well positioned to reap the benefits of ‘green development’. Why did you select the Cardamom Mountains as the area ...
Samdech PM Appeals Aligning Oil Price to Food Price
Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed to the world to harmonize energy prices to food prices as food production shouldn’t outstrip the consumption of volatile fuels while food price remains stable, at the 4th workshop on food security and nutrition. Calling it “The Phnom Penh Initiative,” Prime Minister Hun Sen requested that the issue be ...
Cambodia’s largest MFI boosts green farming loans
Cambodian microfinance institution PRASAC says it is bolstering its green credentials by increasing loans for eco-friendly farming methods in the kingdom. President and CEO of PRASAC, said the institution is “committed to providing and developing more green financing to the rural people for their livelihood ...
Wait Out Elections, Firm in Land Dispute Told
Despite facing criminal charges, 70 villagers from Kompong Chhnang province embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the KDC Development Company have moved back onto the contested land, court officials and villagers said yesterday. KDC, which is owned by Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy ...
Cardamom Mountains Need Green Economy And Development
In a ceremony of launching new book highlighted solutions to Cambodia’s cardamom conundrum, Author and scientist Timothy Killen explains the potential for Cambodia to become a world leader by pursuing an innovative, low carbon, green development pathway that will foster economic growth and create opportunities for its people, while conserving the natural environment. “Cambodia is ...
Book Outlines Best of Both Worlds for Cardamom Mountains
The protectionist bent of conservation groups and the development agenda of the government can come together in Cambodia to create a green economy. That is the message of a new book Conservation International (C.I.) launched yesterday in Phnom Penh, outlining practical options for saving the environment ...
PM announces oil-food equation hurting poor
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blamed soaring food prices on fuel prices set by oil cartels like OPEC, appealing to oil-producing countries to pay attention to the connection between food security and energy. Cambodia imports 100 per cent of its oil, and the majority of agriculture ...
Gold Mines Blamed for Cattle Deaths Shut Down
Authorities in Battambang province’s Phnom Proek district shut down eight unlicensed gold mines Saturday and Sunday after a study revealed they were producing toxic runoff blamed for the deaths of three cattle last week, officials said. Deputy governor Pech Choun said four mines in the area ...
Oil factory fire causes significant damage
A worker was slightly injured and more than US$100,000 in property destroyed yesterday in a fire at an oil factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district, police said. Thach Phalla, Ang Snuol district deputy police chief, said the fire started at noon when some oil overflowed ...
Xayaburi study questioned
A study the Lao government has used to claim the Xayaburi dam would be harmless if redesigned has been criticised for not addressing concerns about the project’s effect on fish in the Lower Mekong river. Lao Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Viraponh Viravong was reported ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052156277/National-news/xayaburi-study-questioned.html
To Phnom Penh Relief, Dam Starts Operating
The Kirirom III Hydropower Station in Kompong Speu province started operating last month, providing 18 megawatts of electricity to both Kompong Speu and Phnom Penh, an official at state-owned Electricite du Cambodge said yesterday. The additional power from the $47 million dam will help alleviate Phnom ...
Workers Pledge to Continue Strike Action in Phnom Penh
Garment factory workers on Saturday blocked Street 371 in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district for the second day and said they will continue their strike today unless factory managers give in to their demands. During Saturday’s strike action, more than 3,000 workers from the S.L. Garment Factory ...
Cambodian Rice Exports Fall Short of Government Hopes
Cambodia’s rice exports in 2012 may fall significantly compared to last year, due to high fuel prices, soaring logistics costs and high prices. According to local sources, Cambodian rice shipments to Europe this month are at a $200 markup per container over those from Thailand and ...
Rising oil prices fueling inflation
Rising oil prices fuelled a month-to-month inflationary increase of 5.4 per cent through February and March, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. Factors such as sanctions on Iranian oil, as well as floods that depleted Cambodian crops last year accounted for the rise ...
Blackout protest nixed by authorities
Kampong Thom provincial authorities blocked Sam Rainsy Party officials’ plans to hold a non-violent demonstration today to call attention to frequent power outages, according to an official letter from deputy governor Sorm Sophath obtained by the Post. ...
Opposition Protest of Power Outages Delayed by Officials
Kompong Thom provincial authorities have denied a request by the SRP to hold a peaceful demonstration to draw attention to severe power outages that have plagued the province for almost two months. Men Sothavarin, SRP senator for Kompong Thom province, said that his party had received ...
Laos Says Xayaburi Not Environmental Threat
The Laos government has said that all the necessary environmental assessments for the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River have been completed and that no damage will be inflicted on the fisheries in countries further downstream when built, an official at the Cambodia National Mekong Committee said yesterday. Watt Botkosal, ...
Water minister urges Laos to halt Xayaburi
Cambodia has urged Laos to halt construction of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in the country’s north, a letter obtained by the Post yesterday reveals. “Preliminary construction on Xayaburi dam has continued despite the lack of regional agreement,” Minister of Water Resources and Cambodia National Mekong Committeechairman Lim ...
Xayaburi opposition escalates in Thailand
Criticism of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in northern Laos is mounting in Thailand – the country set to enjoy most of the electricity if the project is completed. Representatives from 130 Thai civil-society organisations yesterday published a statement backing a report that outlines an ...