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UN Envoy Paints Bleak Picture of Economic Land Concessions
Economic land concessions (ELCs) benefit only a minority, the human rights consequences of the concessions are stark, and Cambodia’s sustainable economic development is threatened by the practice. U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi told the Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday. Mr. Subedi cited uneven access to ...
Government Hopes for Chevron Offshore Oil Deal This Year
The Cambodian government expects U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. CVX +0.77% to begin developing the country’s first offshore oil field early next year, and hopes the nation will become a regional hot spot for oil and gas investment, a government official said Wednesday. Cambodia has vast untapped oil and gas resources ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443507204578020023711640726.html
US Says Army Truck in Crash Not a Donation
An American-made army truck that was allegedly used to smuggle illegal timber through SIem Reap province, and which crashed and killed a family of three on Friday, was not a U.S. government donation, the embassy confirmed yesterday. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said an inspection ...
NGOs Discuss Reforms Ahead of Donor Meeting
At a meeting in Phnom enh to prepare for today’s high-level donor Government-Development Partner Coordinating Committee (GDCC) forum, dozens of mostly local NGOs agreed on their own list of broad reform suggestions for the government. But land disputes took center stage. Today’s GDCC meeting, which the ...
Villagers facing re-eviction
Villagers evicted from the former Sambok Chab community in the capital’s Dangkor district in 2006 face eviction for the second time – this time without any compensation, evictees told the Post yesterday. According to villager Heng Pheng Chun, 26, authorities in Por Sen Chey district have ...
Land abuses 'threaten stability'
Cambodia’s economic land concession (ELC) policies are hindering development far more than helping it and beginning to erode the country’s hard-won stability, Cambodia’s special rapporteur warned yesterday. “As I have noted in relation to other sectors in Cambodia, the existence of the legal framework on paper ...
Gov't Says No Plans to Send Maids to Singapore
The governemnt yesterday denied a recent news report that discussions were under way to have Cambodian domestic workers sent to Singapore. An Bunhak, chairman of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA), said he did not know of any immediate plans to send maids to ...
The Bottom Line
Clashes between garment workers and the local manufacturing industry came to a head in February when three women were shot while protesting for increased bonuses outside their workplace. It was almost five more months before manufacturers and governing bodies agreed to raise the earning potential ...
Cambodia: Kampot Port Development Hits Hurdle
A local investor revealed yesterday that the construction of the US$100 million Kampot sea port had been further delayed by rain. Vinh Huor, president of the Kampot Special Economic Zone, (KSEZ) said: “We are preparing to be better, and that may take some time. I am ...
Dredging Today Staff
http://www.dredgingtoday.com/2012/09/25/cambodia-kampot-port-development-hits-hurdle/
Mirach Energy Aims for Green Light to Start Drilling Cambodia Offshore D
The energy exploration and production company said in a statement on Tuesday that its associate company CPHL (Cambodia) has signed a drilling environmental impact assessment (EIA) contract with two environmental consulting firms The firms, the International Environmental Management Company Limited and SAWAC Consultants For Development Company ...
Cambodia's flash floods kill 5, affect 15,510 families in NW province
At least five people were killed and some 15,510 families have been affected by flash floods that have been hitting the country’s Banteay Meanchey province since earlier this month, the latest report of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) showed Tuesday Some 14,300 houses have ...
Southeast Asian scientists look to reinvent the flush toilet
Scientists in Bangkok are about to start work on a new flush toilet especially designed for the urban poor in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Their aim is to create a toilet that will process wastewater in family homes and convert it into gas or electricity, ...
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/southeast-asian-scientists-look-to-reinvent-the-flush-toilet
Biomass is more than energy
Rural Cambodian communities are seeing economic benefits as a result of a biomass and farming resilience project run by GERES, a French NGO. As part of the AREA project, 200 households in Kampong Chhnang province are growing 22 varieties of trees to negate the effects of deforestation, ...
Erika Mudie, P. 10
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/biomass-benefit-rural-cambodia
Companies aim to be socially minded
Four companies in Cambodia — EZECOM, Manulife Cambodia, Angkor Gold and Unilever — have demonstrated their commitment to corporate social responsibility this month by giving support to schools, a hospital and sustainable living. CSR Asia, the leading provider of information, training, research and consultancy services on ...
More B' Meanchey Homes Evacuated After Floods
Serei Saophan City has become the latest area in Banteay Meanchey province to be hit by floods, with more than 300 families evacuated to higher ground yesterday, according to provincial officials. Banteay Meanchey provincial prison has also been affected by the flooding, with some parts ...
Borei Keila, Boeung Kak march on embassies
More than 60 people yesterday rallied at the National Assembly, the UN Human Rights Office, the Danish Embassy and the German Embassy as part of a petition campaign to seek the release of two jailed women from the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila communities. Villagers and ...
Firm Owned by Ministry's Wife Files Suit Against Four Villagers
The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has summoned four villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute over charges of alleged incitement and violence involving a company owned by the wife of government minister, a court official said yesterday. Two summoned vllagers, from Kompong Tralach district’s Ta Ches commune, faced similar ...
After bust, cosmetics shops under scrutiny
Less than a week after the arrest of alleged beauty parlour madam Chan Sreynuch, military police say they are taking a closer look at a number of hair salons and beauty shops in Phnom Penh suspected of being involved in human trafficking and prostitution. According to ...
Police Say RCAF Trying to Bury Fatal Crash With Cash
Military officials are attempting to squelch a potential lawsuit from relatives of three people killed Friday when Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers smuggling wood through Siem Reap province drove a military truck, donated by the U.S. government, into the family’s motorbike, police officials said. ...
Land Disputes Focus Ire on Chinese Investors
Among thousands of residents in the Boeung Kak Lake district of the capital whose land has been targeted for redevelopment by a Chinese-financed real estate company, Tep Vanny carried a letter explaining the “sadness and suffering” caused by the project — which has turned Phnom ...
Lone Firm Takes 23,000 Hectares for Plantations in Preah Vihear
A Malaysian company has been granted three tracts of land totaling more than 23,000 hectares for oil palm and rubber plantations in Preah Vihear province, according to documents submitted to the Malaysian stock exchange. The acquisition flout the legal maximum of concession land that a single ...
As Tensions Grow, Residents Pitted Against Authorities, ‘Not Companies’
Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers embroiled in longstanding land disputes with two private companies in Phnom Penh say the authorities are protecting business interests over the public, as thousands of families lose their homes under forced evictions. This has turned the protesters and government officials ...
Floodwaters Recede in Banteay Meanchey
Floodwaters appeared to be receding in Banteay Meanchey province yesterday, after almost a week of heavy rains saw several communes inundated and over 4,000 families evacuated, provincial authorities said. “The situation is now under control,” said Ngor Mengchroun, governor of Poipet City-one of the worst hit ...
Cambodian king visits Vietnam to cement bilateral ties
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni began a 3-day state visit to Vietnam starting on Monday at the invitation of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, local media reported. The visit, the fourth made by Cambodian king since he came to the throne in 2004, will likely elevate further ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-09/24/c_131869525.htm