ODC English Site
Villagers Hit as Pond Dries Up
Hundreds of residents in five villages in southern Cambodia have been deprived of their sole source of water as a massive pond in their area has dried up, villagers said. The affected villagers of Sre Ronnong commune in Takeo Province’s Tram Kork district have been buying ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/water-02012013195339.html
Boeng Kak Families Pitch a New Solution to Land Dispute
A group of Phnom Penh residents locked in a long-running land dispute with a real estate project owned by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin are pitching City Hall a plan they hope will prevent them from being evicted and keep them close to home. “We ...
Cambodia's fuel needs increased in 2012
Cambodia spent more than $1.6 billion importing fuel oil and petrol last year, a figure 14.3 per cent higher than for 2011, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. The money spent on importing 1.6 million tonnes of petrol and fuel oil – 100,000 tonnes more than ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013013161091/Business/cambodia-s-fuel-needs-increased-in-2012.html
NGO Says Clothing Giants Shirked Workers
A local legal aid NGO said yesterday that American retail giant Wal-Mart and Swedish clothing brand H&M have failed to take responsibility for a shuttered supplier factory in Phnom Penh that owes its workers up to $200,000 in unpaid severance payments. The Community Legal Education Center ...
Factory Wants $200,000 From Union Members After Strikes
Representatives of the Golden Gain Shoe factory yesterday demanded in court that six members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU) pay $200,000 in compensation for organizing a week of strikes at the factory. Factory management has accused the leader of the factory’s ...
Phnom Penh’s development not fair for all?
Despite the massive spike in development underway in Phnom Penh, a new report says that the public interest is becoming marginalised in favour of the political and business elite. The report, from NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), says that currently “commercial interests are driving the urban ...
Sen Sok Condo’s second project starts
After the success of its first project, the Shangri-La Garden City, Sen Sok Condo Company is beginning its second project along Road 595, located two kilometres north of the 7 Makara Sky Bridge. Construction on the second project, called Maldives City, has begun, and the company ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013013061083/Real-Estate/sen-sok-condo-s-second-project-starts.html
Foreigners buying Phnom Penh condos
The number of foreigners who bought condos in Cambodia increased by between 30 and 40 per cent in 2012 compared with 2011, a recent study showed, while 997 condo units currently belong to foreigners. Nuon Rithy, general manager of the Bonna Realty Group, said that according ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013013061082/Real-Estate/foreigners-buying-phnom-penh-condos.html
Dam in Northeast Built on Earthquake Site, Study Finds
Experts are recommending that a proposed dam on the Sesan River in northeast Cambodia be equipped with earthquake protection measures, after discovering a quake occurred in the area some 30 years ago. The proposed Lower Sesan II dam would be situated on a site in Stung ...
MPs Urge Child Labor Action
A group of opposition lawmakers have written to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urging action against a sugar factory owned by a ruling party official accused of exploiting child labor and grabbing land from villagers. Six Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) parliamentarians sent a letter dated Jan. ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/children-01292013174957.html
As China Builds, Cambodia's Forests Fall
China’s demand for natural resources is being felt in a big way in Cambodia. Illegal logging and economic land concessions are threatening Cambodia’s dwindling forests, which now echo the sound of chainsaws. Prey Lang forest — an eight-hour journey north and east of the capital, Phnom Penh ...
http://capeandislands.org/post/china-builds-cambodias-forests-fall
Land laws not properly implimented
Laws protecting ethnic minorities’ communal land rights are good, but their implementation has a long way to go, said participants in a forum of minorities from Mondulkiri and Kratie provinces yesterday. After July’s parliamentary elections, legislators should take the opportunity of a newly constituted government to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013013061073/National/land-laws-not-properly-implimented.html
Chinese Sugar Firms Accused of Land Grabbing
More than 100 villagers in Preah Vihear province have accused a group of Chinese-owned sugar plantations of encroaching on their farms and community forests since mid-2012 and say they are still waiting for a resolution. Sen Som, a rice farmer in Chheb district, said Heng Rui ...
Committee Formed to Create Plan for Land Use Nationwide
Senior official from across the government have started drafting a master plan that aims to map out the future locations of everything from roads to cities and development zones across the country. Land Management Minister Im Chhun Lim chaired the first meeting of a 20-member National ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/committee-formed-to-create-plan-for-land-use-nationwide-8658/
Bunong Say They Don't Want Private Land Titles
Ethnic Bunong villagers living in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district have sent a petition to the Ministry of Land Management, urging the government to refrain from issuing them private land titles, local officials said yesterday. This way they may instead to eligible for a communal title ...
Mfone $65 million in debt
Failed Cambodian telco Mfone owes at least $65 million to multiple creditors that sources say include the government. A court injunction to freeze Mfone‘s assets, obtained by the Post yesterday, shows Mfone owes Chinese telco provider Huawei Technologies more than $65 million. Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013013061068/Business/mfone-65-million-in-debt.html
Ministry Lists Fees to Help Firms Avoid Graft Claims
The government has publicly issued lists showing the costs of fees that businesses must pay to authorities for various services, in an effort to help companies avoid making informal payments made illegal by the anticorruption law. The lists were drafted during the past year after Cambodia ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-lists-fees-to-help-firms-avoid-graft-claims-8434/
Jarai Accuse Firm of Planning to Drain Lake
Ethnic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s Borkeo district have accused a Vietnamese rubber company of digging a channel to drain a lake the indigenous villagers use for fishing and irrigation, a local official and rights worker said yesterday. Rochom Vin, Yeak Som village chief, said ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/jarai-accuse-firm-of-planning-to-drain-lake-8470/
Opposition Questions Shortcoming in Government Revenue
The National Assembly on Friday passed a law approving the government’s revenue and spending in 2011, drawing criticism from the opposition, which claimed the amount taken in by the government during the period was too low. All 77 CPP lawmakers present voted in favor of the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/opposition-questions-shortcomings-in-government-revenue-8468/
Huge rosewood haul seized in Preah Vihear province
Senior members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) yesterday seized about a tonne of luxury rosewood near the house of a two-star general in the Choam Ksan district of Preah Vihear province after a night hunting for illegal smuggling. General Ngeth Chanthon, deputy general of ...
Capital ideas for developers
Peering out over the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh from a sixteenth-storey private balcony at the new Bellevue Apartments, one could watch for hours as cranes swing back in forth over all the new developments on the west side of the water. “Phnom ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/332995/capital-ideas-for-developers
Hun Sen completes land titling mission in Koh Kong
Prime Minister Hun Sen presented land titles Monday to 513 families in Thmorbang district, an official said. The land titles cover 1,504 hectares in Tropang Cheurtrav and Korki villages in Russey Chrum commune. The official said Monday’s ceremony marked the completion of a land-titling mission launched ...
Fish exports performed swimmingly in 2012
Exports of Cambodian fish and shellfish products reached 1,618 tonnes last year, worth $3.5 million, a 16 per cent increase from 1,391 tonnes in 2011, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce. “A major share of the total exports last year was from saltwater fish ...
Imported Delays Cap Pharma Growth
Although the Ministry of Heath estimates that 40 to 50 percent of Cambodians use traditional medicine, the Kingdoms Pharmaceutical industry is growing rapidly. In 2012, according to the latest forecast from Business Monitor International (BMI) people in Cambodia spent $263 million on pharmaceuticals, compared with $217 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013012861016/Business/import-delays-cap-pharma-growth.html