ODC English Site
Logger Reported Dead as Rosewood Trade Directive Announced
Amid reports that a second Cambodian has been killed this year by Thai armed forces while illegally logging in Thai border territory, officials had little detail yesterday on a government directive that is aimed at ending the international demand for rosewood from Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun ...
Cambodian poor pushed out of their homes by developers
A mother of four, with the youngest on her hip, said she was not impressed by the palatial government buildings where Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Council of Ministers have their offices. Her own home is a wood-and-tin shack now partially buried under the ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Cambodian-poor-pushed-out-of-their-homes-by-develo-30200729.html
PM Hun Sen ushers in new dam
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday inaugurated the third in a string of six Chinese-funded hydropower dam projects, offering lavish praise for the superpower as he officially opened the $47 million Kirirom 3 dam in Koh Kong. “I am really pleased for the new ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561590/National/pm-hun-sen-ushers-in-new-dam.html
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
Fracking a problem for SE Asia
Impoverished countries hoping to strike it rich by developing their limited oil and gas reserves are being urged to move quickly or risk having their expectations clipped by fracking, which is depressing market prices while adding life to fields once thought exhausted. The ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561573/Business/fracking-a-problem-for-se-asia.html
Hun Sen says Hydropower Is the Key to Stable Electricity Prices
Cambodia’s focus on hydropower will reduce its independence on oil and ensure nationwide access to electricity at a stable price, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech Saturday during the inauguration of a $47.1 million hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. However environmental groups ...
Hun Sen Says Chinese Companies Not Favored, Just Served
Prime Minister Hun Sen yeserday lauded his government’s strong ties with China but said Cambodia does not give Chinese any preferential treatment. Mr. Hun Sen was speaking at the inauguration of the $47.1 million Kirirom III hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel District- constructed ...
Villagers summonsed in illegal logging case
Some 300 villagers from the Andong Trabaek community in Svay Rieng province’s Romeas Hek district will accompany two representatives who have been summonsed to the provincial court Tuesday to clarify allegations of illegal logging that villagers say were fabricated by Forestry Administration officials in order ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022561580/National/community-reps-summonsed.html
Government Has 13 Payment Guarantees for Energy Projects
A CPP lawmaker said yesterday the government has signed 13 payment guarantees to companies constructing coal-fired power plants and hydropower dams in the country, a move that an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official reiterated was risky for the country’s fiscal future. CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-has-13-payment-guarantees-for-energy-projects-11377/
Senate Oks Sesan Dam Payment Deal
After a 60- minute debate, the Senate on Friday voted in favour of a payment guarantee for the private companies constructing the controversial Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province. At the Senate session, 43 out of 48 senators voted to approve the deal which ...
Million-dollar rosewood bust
Five men allegedly caught with 10 cubic meters of illegal rosewood worth more than $1 million on Wednesday were being questioned in Stung Treng provincial court yesterday, officials said. Chroeung Khmao, the provincial prosecutor, said the men – four Chinese citizens and one Cambodian – were ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022261563/National/million-dollar-rosewood-bust.html
Serbian FM to visit Cambodia to boost bilateral ties
Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivan Mrkic will pay a two-day visit to Cambodia next Monday to promote bilateral relations, according to a press release from Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday. ...
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.asp?id=126862
As Liquidation of Mfone Begins, Victims and Lawsuits Abound
As insolvency proceedings against bankrupt telecommunications firm Mfone begin, yet another company, Smart Mobile, has filed a court complaint to collect unpaid costs from the mobile operator, and the list of parties to have suffered from the firm’s collapse continue to grow. The Phnom Penh Municipal ...
Cambodia launches $200 mln irrigation project in eastern provinces
The government launched Thursday a $200 million project to divert water from the Mekong River to irrigate 300,000 hectares of rice fields in Prey Veng, Svay Rieng and Kampong Cham provinces. Under the first phase, estimated to cost $100 million, canals will be restored between ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MzIxZTMyNDAzMjV
Hun Sen says all villages to have electricity by 2020
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that all Cambodian villages would have electricity by 2020 while 70 percent of households would have power by 2030. Hun Sen said average per capita consumption of electricity rose at an annual rate of seven percent over the past ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZjIwMmU0N2I1NTF
Hun Sen Shares Vision of Rubber Plantation Boom
Reporting that the country had achieved better than expected economic growth last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday targeted a rapid expansion of the country’s rubber industry and predicted that almost 1 in 10 Cambodians would soon be working in rubber. “Agriculture continues to play ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-shares-vision-of-rubber-plantation-boom-11253/
Most land disputes in Cambodia unsettled
Less than 30 per cent of complaints filed to the government’s National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution (NALDR) throughout 2012 were resolved, according to its annual report released yesterday. According to the document, distributed yesterday at the NALDR annual convention, the government body, which comprises representatives ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022161535/National/most-land-disputes-in-cambodia-unsettled.html
Regional Bank, IMF Note Risks to Government's Dam Guarantee
The government’s guaranteed bailout of major infrastructure projects, such as the future 400-megawatt hydropower dam in Stung Treng province, requires a thorough assessment of forecasted risks – a capacity which the government currently does not possess, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said yesterday. Speaking on ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/regional-bank-imf-note-risks-to-governments-dam-guarantee-11269/
Bangkok-Cambodia buses launched
The first buses directly connecting Thailand and Cambodia left Bangkok on Thursday, headed for Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, with the launch of a regular service to bolster tourism and economic ties between the two countries. The first airconditioned bus from Bangkok to Phnom Penh left Mor ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/337029/bus-service-to-cambodia-launched
Unions set double wage as minimum target
Trade unions agreed yesterday to lobby the government to double the minimum wage in the garment sector, representatives said, following two days of meetings. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said union delegates had agreed on the $120 per month figure ahead of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022161534/National/unions-set-double-wage-as-minimum-target.html
Hun Sen Orders Workers Compensated
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised to compensate thousands of garment workers demanding back pay they say they are owed since their factory owner fled the country to escape mounting debt, according to officials. Kandal provincial labor department director Thol Neang told RFA’s ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/workers-02192013184511.html
Cambodia's listed water supplier records revenue up 25 pct last year
The listed Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) earned total revenues of 36.9 million U.S. dollars in 2012, up 25 percent year-on-year, according to the firm’s unaudited financial statement on Wednesday. The report said that the firm’s net income after tax was 8.56 million U.S. dollars ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-02/20/c_132181099.htm
Better Factories Cambodia Slammed by Stanford Researchers
The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) must employ more transparency in their monitoring of Cambodia’s factories in order to effectively bring change to the country’s working and wage conditions, a report launched yesterday says. According to “Monitoring in the Dark” a ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/better-factories-cambodia-slammed-by-stanford-researchers-11011/
Move to lift energy efficiency in Cambodia
A national energy efficiency policy is currently in development, officials told the Post last week. Experts at the Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy (MIME) and the multi-donor fund EU Energy Initiative Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF) are in discussions about details of the policy, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022061465/Business/move-to-lift-energy-efficiency-in-cambodia.html