ADB Won’t Pay to Finish Rail Project
Having already spent millions of dollars, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will not foot the additional $70 to $90 million in funds still needed to complete more than half of Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project, an official from the ADB said yesterday. Toll Royal Railways, a joint venture ...
Rail Project In Need of More Funds
The rehabilitation of Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network is nearly six months behind schedule, and with more than a year’s worth of work to do, the project is running out of money, a consultant for the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said yesterday. Paul Power, a ...
Gov’t Reveals Chinese, Korean Railway Plans
The Chinese and South Korean governments have been granted permission to build 565 km of new railroad in Cambodia and have already conducted feasibility studies, according to a government report released yesterday. In its annual report, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said that plans ...
Toll trains said to stop March 31
Toll Group has informed the Cambodian government that it will suspend all railway operations and lay off half of its Cambodian staff at the end of the month, according to a source familiar with the situation. The Australian logistics firm, which in partnership with Royal Group ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032055123/Business/toll-trains-said-to-stop-march-31.html
Toll Yet to Issue Statement On Railway Project Status
Several days after a report that Australian transportation company Toll Holdings would abandon its stake in a joint venture to operate Cambodia’s railway system, the company remained silent Friday on its future plans here. “Let’s wait for the truth rather than make assumptions,” he added. ...
Toll Group Mum on Possible Rail Project Exit
Australian transportation solutions provider Toll Holdings remained silent yesterday on whether it would be pulling out of its 30-year contract to operate Cambodia’s railway system. In a report published on Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald cited “reliable sources in Cambodia” as saying that the company would ...
Royal Group Denies Toll’s Exit From Local Railway Project
Royal Group chairman Kith Meng yesterday denied reports that Australian company Toll Holdings would be pulling out of a $140 million joint venture project to rehabilitate Cambodia’s railway system. Toll Holdings, in a joint venture with Royal Group, signed a 30-year contract with the government in ...
Toll Group alleged to be leaving rail project
Australian logistics company Toll Group is allegedly pulling out of its 30-year concession to operate the Kingdom’s national railway, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Citing “reliable sources”, an SMH report said Toll would leave its US$145 million Toll Royal Railway joint venture with Cambodia’s Royal ...
Cambodia Potential
The potential for investment in Cambodia certainly appears to be there, as the country’s location in Indochina affords much opportunity for cross-border trade with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, says Mark Mobius. Mr Mobius, who oversees more than US $40 billion worth of investments as executive chairman ...
Cambodia's Developers Again Aim at Stars
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia’s low-rise capital city is reaching for the sky—again. Long known as one of the last major Asian cities without a skyline, Phnom Penh embarked on a high-rise building boom in the middle of the last decade, only to see it derailed ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203315804577207352952177994.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Kingdom nears ASEAN needs
Cambodia has met 70 per cent of the basic requirements needed to join the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, referring to a recently updated report issued by the economic block. The Kingdom ranked third in preparedness among the 10 ASEAN member ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012021754563/Business/kingdom-nears-asean-needs.html
Firms may invest in light rail, traffic lights
Japanese technology companies Toshiba Corp and Kyosan Electric have met with Phnom Penh Municipality to discuss investing in a light rail system and new traffic light network. According to an announcement on the municipality’s website yesterday, Kazutoshi Fukuda, managing director of Kyosan Electric, and Yasuyoshi Mugiya, ...
Thai rail link back on track
Representatives from Cambodia and Thailand yesterday agreed to a 2013 completion date for a railway link from Phnom Penh across the Cambodia-Thailand border crossing at Poipet. Outdated agreements had delayed the project, Thai officials said. Insiders have also said disagreements over cross-border trade have kept the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011121353318/Business/thai-rail-link-back-on-track.html
Railway impact reports nowhere to be seen
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has not made public the last two quarterly reports on the impact of resettling families who are being evicted for a $142 million railway rehabilitation project. The reports, which are required under an ADM loan agreement with the government, haven’t been ...
Rail line discussed for north Cambodia
A Chinese railway company may conduct a feasibility study on a 700-kilometre rail line in northern Cambodia, officials and local media reported yesterday. Officials from Nanning Survey and Design Institute Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China Railway Siyuan Group, discussed the study with the Ministry of ...
Australian grant to assist railway families
The Australian government is committing $1 million to help families being forced out of their homes to make way for a railway rehabilitation project it is co-funding with the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Australian Embassy said in a statement Friday. The embassy ...
Ex-railway workers fear pay has left station
Representatives of 503 former railway workers protested outside the Ministry of Transportation in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the government pay them outstanding salaries ranging from US$2,500 to $5,000 per person. Railway workers from Battambang, Kampot, Pursat and Takeo who were formerly employed by the government, but ...
Bank and AusAid criticized for treatment of railway evictees
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia yesterday accused the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAid) of white-washing conditions at relocation sites for families being evicted by a $142 million railway rehabilitation project being funded largely with their money ...
Regional bank meets with evicted railway families
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) met yesterday with the representatives of families evicted or facing eviction to make way for an ADB-funded railway project, and defended itself against complaints that the project was pushing some of them deeper into poverty. The ADB has billed the $142 ...
Railway families to petition Asian Development Bank for help
Families evicted or still facing eviction to make way for an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded project to rehabilitate the country’s railway system plan to petition the ADB today for help securing better compensation from the government. The ADB is putting up more than half the money ...
French company begins tram feasibility study
French engineering firm Systra is underway with a feasibility study to build a tramway from Phnom Penh International Airport to the Royal Railway Station, Governor Kep Chuktema said on Friday. The agreement to study a tramway was first made between Systra and City Hall in July ...
ADB meets wall of silence
Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon has failed to respond to a request made almost two months ago about the authenticity of a letter in which he allegedly urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to ban foreign NGOs from doing advocacy work in Cambodia, the Asian Development ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011093051889/National-news/adb-meets-wall-of-silence.html
ADB can't confirm authenticity of letter
The Asian Development Bank yesterday said it had never authenticated a June 17 letter from Finance Minister Keat Chhon that claimed an ADB consultant urged the government to target advocacy groups critical of an ADB-funded railway project. In a copy of the letter obtained earlier this ...
Officials mum on 'advocacy' NGO missive
Top government officials yesterday either declined to comment or said they had no knowledge of a letter from Finance Minister Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen proposing to bar all foreign NGOs from “advocacy” work in the country, as well as stopping foreigners from ...