ODC English Site
Mfone’s Licence Revoked; Staff Terminated
The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has revoked the operating licence of bankrupt phone operator Mfone, which went out of business two months ago, while more than 1,000 employees had their jobs officially terminated yesterday. The revocation of the licence and the mass dismissal of the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mfones-license-revoked-staff-terminated-16474/
EdC Appeals For Public to Unplug In Power Crisis
Cambodia’s national electricity provider yesterday appealed to the public to unplug from the national energy supply in an effort to alleviate chronic seasonal power shortages that are causing blackouts across Phnom Penh and the rest of the country. Eletricite du Cambodge (EdC) published an announcement asking ...
Kratie cut to shreds
‘I heard a f—ing crazy dog say that we can’t dock in Kampong Saom, but we definitely can do that,” a crackling voice declares boisterously. The speaker, captured in video obtained by the Post, is part of an illegal timber syndicate. The identity of the speaker ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032964752/National/kratie-cut-to-shreds.html
Cambodia Posts 29 pct Rise In Large-Scale Factories Last Year
The number of large-scale factories in Cambodia has increased by 29 percent to 907 in 2012, Minister of Industry, Mine and Energy Suy Sen said Thursday. Those large-scale enterprises employed 559,600 employees last year, a 38 percent increase from 403,560 a year earlier, he said ...
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2013-03/28/c_132269109.htm
Initial Mapping For Communal Titles Underway in Mondolkiri
Initial mapping of three ethnic minority Banong communities in Mondolkiri province got underway yesterday, a critical step in their plans to gain much coveted communal titles to their ancestral land. Established by the 2001 Land Law, communal land titles were designed specifically to protect the ancestral ...
European Lawmakers Press for Probe of Land Concessions
Lawmakers from the European Union (E.U) are again urging the block’s trade commissioner to investigate Cambodia’s Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) over a raft of alleged rights abuses and consider revoking the duty free access their owners currently enjoy to member states. Going mostly to industrial ...
Cambodian Land Rights Activist's Bail Plea Rejected
The Cambodian Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a jailed land rights activist’s appeal to be released on bail, drawing criticism from rights groups who said the whole case smacked of political interference and should be thrown out. “I am having heart, respiratory, and stomach ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-03272013191716.html
ADB praises Cambodia for public debt management
Eric Sidgwick, Country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to Cambodia applauded Cambodia for managing it’s, sometimes problematic, public debts. During the Wednesday meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, Sok An, Eric Sidgwick said, good management led to the positive changes of donations and ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NDQ1NmJhNTk1M2V
Illegal rosewood seized at border
Police have cracked down on illegal large-scale rosewood smuggling at the Cambodia-Thai border in the district of Malai. In the sting operation Tuesday night, led by Banteay Meanchey prosecutor, Phan Pirom, the authorities have seized around three tons of rosewood, hidden in the truck bed used ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=M2M4YzlhNzA2NmY
Organic vegetable demand growing
On a farm in Kampong Speu province, Erm Rim is talking to a small crowd of consumers and journalists, explaining the process of growing vegetables using only natural resources. Rim talks on the sidelines of a consumer field trip organised by the Cambodian Center for ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032764708/Inside-Business/organic-vegetable-demand-growing.html
Boeung Kak activist to seek bail
A bail hearing for imprisoned Boeung Kak lake land activist Yorm Bopha, 29, will be held this morning at the Supreme Court, her husband, Lous Sakhorn, said yesterday. Bopha was arrested on September 4 last year and charged with intentional violence over the assault ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032764717/National/boeung-kak-activist-to-seek-bail.html
អ្នកភូមិ៖ កម្មសិទ្ធិដីធ្លីថ្មីមិនត្រូវបានទទួលស្គាល់
ដប់គ្រួសារដែលជាប់ក្នុងជម្លោះដីធ្លីដ៏យូរអង្វែងមួយជាមួយនឹង ក្រុមហ៊ុន Pheapimex Group ក្នុងស្រុកក្រគរខេត្តពោធិសាត់បានឱ្យដឹងថា កាលពីម្សិលមិញ ក្រុមហ៊ុននេះបានបដិសេធមិនទទួលស្គាលកម្មសិទ្ធិដីធ្លីថ្មីនេះដែល បានផ្តល់ទៅឱ្យពួកគេនិងបានរារាំងពួកគេ ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032764723/National/new-land-titles-not-recognised-villagers.html
Forestry Administration Fights Logging with Wedding Gardens
As the remains of the county’s forests fall to rapacious illegal loggers and to make way for the government-awarded economic land concessions, officials tasked with forestry protection are hoping newlywed couples can build a last line of defense. “Wedding gardens”- green spaces where newly-married couples are ...
Kuch Naren, P.20
http://www.cambodiadaily.com
Illegal migration ticking up
llegall migration is on the rise, but human trafficking cases appear to be declining, according to the government’s annual labor migration report, released yesterday. Speaking at the start of a three-day workshop held at the Ministry of Interior that involving embassies, NGOs and government officials, Chou ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032764724/National/illegal-migration-ticking-up.html
Blackouts tell tale of two cities
It is barely dawn in the quiet suburb of Phnom Penh Thmey, but already the silence has been pierced by the cacophony of generators. On some streets, nearly every household has one of the machines burning through diesel in a bid to fill their basic electricity ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032764725/National/blackouts-tell-tale-of-two-cities.html
Construction begins at bloody eviction site
More than four years after the violent forced eviction of about 800 families from Dey Krahorm in the capital’s high-rent Tonle Bassac commune, small-scale construction is finally beginning on the site. In the past month, the skeletons of a future barbecue restaurant and a beer garden ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032764726/National/construction-begins-at-bloody-eviction-site.html
Strongman's hand in BHP deal
A BHP Billiton mining deal being investigated for alleged corruption was personally overseen by Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, diplomatic cables reveal. The miner’s aborted attempt to establish a bauxite mine in Cambodia, and its hospitality program for Chinese officials at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, are at ...
http://www.smh.com.au/national/strongmans-hand-in-bhp-deal-20130325-2gqae.html
Grasslands present dilemma
A week after British researchers released a study warning that the nation’s grasslands would soon be lost if drastic action was not taken to protect them, some agricultural experts have called for moderation, noting that the intensive rice cultivation blamed for the grasslands’ destruction is ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032664676/National/grasslands-present-dilemma.html
British Man Faces Lengthy Jail Term After Phnom Penh Arrest
The British chairman of a Biofuel firm is facing up to 15 years in jail after he was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) in Phnom Penh on Saturday and charged with forgery, a court official said yesterday. Gregg Fryett’s company, Sustainable Agro Energy, has been ...
Ministry pushes for safer use of industrial chemicals
The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME) and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) yesterday discussed means of safely stocking industrial chemicals, with the hope of reducing environmental pollution in the region. At a conference on sustainable manufacturing practices, Sok Narin, the head of UNIDO ...
Rubber firm is felling state forest: villagers
Villagers who confiscated land-clearing equipment during a forest patrol yesterday in Khsuem commune in Kratie province’s Snuol district are claiming the equipment belongs to a rubber concessionaire attempting to expand into state land, an allegation local authorities denied. Villager representative Mom Sokkin said the Binh ...
Evictees back on land
Dozens of families at Borei Keila have moved back on to land they were evicted from last year, despite intimidation and threats of arrest by security forces employed by developer Phan Imex. Earlier this month, security guards tore down the shelters of 12 families who had ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032664678/National/evictees-back-on-land.html
Largesse and threats ahead of election
Prime Minister Hun Sen warned thousands of villagers yesterday that his most popular initiatives, including his far-reaching land-titling scheme, will simply disappear if he is not re-elected in July’s national election – amid suggestions his campaigning has unofficially begun. In a marked shift from his apparent ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032664688/National/largesse-and-threats-ahead-of-election.html
Ethnic Jarai villagers defend claim at court
Jarai ethnic minority villagers appeared at Ratanakkiri provincial court yesterday, demanding compensation from a Vietnamese company they say illegally cleared 30 hectares of community land in November last year. Chea Chanrith was granted a licence from the Ministry of Agriculture last year to clear land ...