ODC English Site

Since last year, up to a half of nearly 8,000 hectares of community forest has been encroached upon and cleared in Oddar Meanchey province’s Banteay Ampil district by soldiers, community representatives said yesterday. Din Heng, chief of Ang Dong Bor community, said the army has cleared ...

Romam Gvin could be described as a counterintuitive voter. Intuition might lead you to believe that Mr. Gvin blames the government for the loss of his land to the Vietnamese rubber company that now owns everything for as far as the eye can see here in ...

Cambodia-based SOMA Energy will construct two bio-mass power-generating plants that convert rice husks into electricity to supply Cambodian farmers working in the provinces. SOMA energy, a subsidiary of SOMA group, has invested nearly $3 million in the construction of the plants, one of which is located ...

A 3-year-old boy from Prey Veng province’s Kompong Trabek district has contracted avian influenza, a deadly disease that has killed seven children and two men so far this year in the largest outbreak the country has seen, the Ministry of Health said in a statement ...

Cambodia’s rice harvest is forecast to reach 9.1 million tonnes this year, down from an estimated 9.3 million tonnes last year but up from 8.8 million tonnes in 2011, the Food and Agricultural Organization said Thursday. The estimates were contained in the UN agency’s quarterly Crop ...

Sales of Cambodia’s World Trade Organization-certified palm sugar from Kampong Speu province dipped to 12 tonnes at the end of the harvest season this year, about a 30 per cent decline from 2012. Two districts with palm trees in Kampong Speu province were granted geographical indication ...

According to defence lawyer Kao Ty, the court decided to uphold the decision of the provincial court in a closed-door hearing last Friday. “They said if those eight members and workers were released on bail, they would cause a problem again,” he said, adding that ...

Executives at some of the telecommunication firms indebted to bankrupt mobile operator Mfone said Thursday they owe much less than claimed by the company, and will negotiate with Mfone’s administrator to find a resolution before a complaint is filed in court. “We do owe Mfone money, ...

The total weight of goods transported through the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in the first six months of the year was up 15 percent compared with the same period last year, according to figures released Thursday. Some 1.51 million tons of goods passed through the port in ...

On July 10, ODC’s governing board was installed in a reception and meeting held at the EWMI’s office. The board, comprising seven members with a vast range of knowledge and experiences in Cambodia’s development, particularly in IT field, signed on to adopt the ODC’s by-laws. ...

Bankrupt mobile phone operator Mfone is planning to file a com­plaint with the Phnom Penh Muni­cipal Court against six tele­com­muni­ca­tions firms it says have failed to pay back more than $1 million in outstanding debt to the firm, the court administrator charged with overseeing Mfone’s ...

Four Preah Vihear villagers filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday, requesting help in gaining permission to farm 93 hectares of land the Provincial Forestry Administration barred them from last year. The four complainants represent 65 families who have farmed the area in Kolen district ...

Cambodia has seen a sharp rise in the exports of milled rice in the first six months of this year thanks to increasing demand on international markets, an official said Wednesday. The figures, from the single window secretariat for facilitating milled rice exports, showed that the ...

Staff at eight factories producing footwear for Japanese sportswear brand ASICS were trained Tuesday in how to make sure they are not employing child laborers, a company representative said. ASICS corporate staff have been in Cambodia this week in a bid to overcome the negative publicity ...

While exports of Cambodian rice have been booming, analysts are predicting that new competition from Myanmar could eventually rain on the parade. Cambodia exported nearly 176,000 tonnes of rice in the first six months of the year, a 125 per cent increase from the same period ...

Production of Cambodian organic rice is rising rapidly as international demand for the product increases, experts said at a forum for growers and other in­dustry members held Tuesday at the Phnom Penh headquarters of agricultural NGO Cedac. “In the first six months of this year we’ve ...

An infestation of large snails is destroying rice fields in Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nop district, raising concerns among farmers that yields from this year’s harvest will be much lower than usual. Eng Samol, Prey Nop district agriculture director, said Tuesday that the snails had already ...

Cambodia observed the Forest Day on Tuesday, urging people to plant trees in order to ensure the sustainability of forest and environment. The celebration was presided over by King Norodom Sihamoni and attended by Prime Minister Hun Sen and senior officials of the government, the parliament, ...

More than 30 families evicted from a former airport site in Preah Vihear province’s Chea Ksan district have filed four complaints with the provincial court since April against district governor Sok Hay. Lor Chan, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said a total of 31 families ...

Despite criticisms over safety, outbreaks of sometimes violent industrial action and a raise in the minimum wage that it was warned would scare off manufacturers, Cambodia’s garment sector is booming, according to government figures. A report on state newswire Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) on Friday said ...

Two days before a land activist’s scheduled sentencing, about 400 people affected by land grabs demonstrated at Pursat Provincial Court in support of the man who frequently protests against the Pheap Imex Company. About 12,000 families are now involved in land disputes around a Pheap ...

This small Southeast Asian country was supposed to become a model for the world apparel industry, with tough factory monitoring and strong worker protections. But a dozen years after the United Nations’ International Labour Organization launched a program to manage Cambodia’s booming garment trade—the first of ...

A controversial land titling program set up by Prime Minister Hun Sen has been suspended ahead of the July 28 elections, but critics say the program should not be restarted. The titling program itself began in December 2012 and is expected to end after elections scheduled ...

The Kirilo No.3 Hydro-power Station, located in the KOH Kong Province of Cambodia, was recently put into operation. The ribbon cutting ceremony of the Project was held on February 23, 2013 in the power station area. The Project was investigated and designed by HYDROCHINA Mid-South ...