ODC English Site
Hundreds Order Video of Hun Sen's Land Speech
Hundreds of people have ordered video compact discs (VCDs) of Thursday’s speech on land rights given by Prime Minister Hun Sen after an official at CTN offered on-air yesterday to send a copy to anyone who requested it Orders of the speech have been pouring in ...
Demonstrators Take On Local Power Suppliers
Hundreds of Kompong Cham villagers protested yesterday and Sunday against high electricity prices in another example of energy-price demonstrations that are becoming increasingly frequent across the country. In Kompong Cham province’s Batheay district, more than 500 villagers yesterday continued a protest over electricity prices that began ...
China to back Kampot power plant
An unnamed Chinese investor will put nearly US$400 million into a 300-megawatt coal-powered plant in Kampot province, officials said yesterday. The plant, slated for a November groundbreaking, will provide power for the Kampot Special Economic Zone, the nearby Prey Nob oil refinery in Preah Sihanouk province ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061956867/Business/china-to-back-kampot-plant.html
Women slow to climb Cambodia's market
Women’s economic roles in Cambodia have made slower progress than in many other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, World Bank economists said yesterday. The region as a whole has seen tremendous gains in the way of gender equality during the past 20 years, but increasing wages ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061956865/Business/women-not-on-top-in-market.html
Land Claim by Commune Chief's Nephew is Disputed
More than 100 villagers from Svay Rieng province’s Romeas Hek district protested yesterday on land they say was stolen from them in 2007 and recently cleared by a former community representative, whose uncle is a local commune chief Villagers said lang Hai, who acted as ...
Chinese Iron Ore Firm Paid for New CPP District Office
A Chinese mining firm has donated about $200,000 toward the building of a new district headquarters for the ruling CPP in Preah Vihear province, officials said yesterday. Kong Makara, director of the provincial industry, mines and energy office, said that Chinese company Cambodian Iron Holding and ...
Confined To A Thai Fishing Boat, For Three Years
Cambodian Vannak Prum’s destiny changed in a dirt-road town called Malai. It’s a Cambodian outpost on the border with Thailand that is known for its involvement in the trafficking of human beings. Prum arrived in Malai seven years ago searching for work. His wife was pregnant, ...
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/155045295/confined-to-a-thai-fishing-boat-for-three-years
Prey Long Meeting Gets Grudging Go-Ahead
Commune and village officials in Kratie province yesterday threatened to shut down a community meeting on the protection of Prey Long forest because the organizers had failed to get permission and allegedly invited only opposition party activists. The authorities eventually allowed the meeting to proceed, after ...
Cambodia, China Ink Seven Agreements
Cambodia and China, on June 13th, inked an agreement to strengthen their ties and showed they have become comprehensive strategic partners as ties between the two countries boosts bilateral trade to reach a level of 5 billion US dollars by 2017. Eang Sophallet, an assistant to Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen, told media that ...
Released Protester Urges for Release of the Boeng Kak 13
Sao Saroeun, a Phnom Penh resident arrested last month for demonstrating against CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s Boeng Kak real estate project and released on bail last week, urged the courts to release 13 women still being detained at Prey Sar prison yesterday. The 13 women were ...
Rice Farmers Struggle Despite Production Growth
High production costs and a lack of government assistance is keeping rice farmers near the poverty line despite unprecedented growth in the sector, according to a new study released by local microfinance institution Intean Poalroath Rongroeurng (IPR). The independent study, conducted by two Cambodian researchers ...
Villagers Protest High Electricity Charges
About 200 people from Siem Reap’s Angkor Chum district protested outside the district governor’s office on Friday, calling for private electricity company Duong Narin to lower its prices and asking the state electricity authority to connect to their area, protesters said yesterday. The residents of ...
Boeung Kak duo's release sparks hope
One of the two Boeung Kak lake residents released on bail from Prey Sar prison on Friday is prepared to be a witness in the appeal trial of the 13 women convicted and sent to jail last month – but only if he is invited ...
Cambodia to cede two villages to Vietnam
Cambodia would have to give two villages to Vietnam if it wanted to retain another two deemed the territory of the Kingdom’s eastern neighbour by the former French Indochina colonial administration, a government minister said yesterday. Last year, the Cambodian government announced it was speeding up ...
Cambodia Plans To Be Gem And Jewelry Market Supply In Southeast Asia
Cambodia plans to be gem and jewelry market supply in Southeast Asia region, commerce minister said at the fourth Cambodia gems and jewelry fair 2012 at Koh Pich (Diamond Island Center) on June 14. He adds: Ministry of Commerce is continuing its efforts to monitor and ...
Sweet deal
Stevia Nutra Corporation, a Canadian agro-business company, has announced its decision to grow stevia in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province. The company will grow the plant, whose leaves are used as a sweetener or sugar substitute, on just over 20 hectares of land close to Phnom Penh. Stevia Nutra has incorporated Mighty MekongAgro Industries Co. Ltd, ...
Cambodian rail delays, cost blowouts: leaked report
Australia’s Fairfax media has obtained a leaked official report into a troubled and controversial Cambodian rail project being funded by AusAID and the Asian Development Bank. The report outlines poor construction, botched surveys leading to the evictions of families ...
Boeung Kak 13 Vow To Continue Demonstrations
Thirteen Boeung Kak protesters released from jail Wednesday say they will continue their demonstrations until they obtain more land on a real estate development in the capital. Representatives wasted no time in meeting after their release from prison following a decision by the Appeals Court Wednesday. “The ...
Less Power for Cambodian Women, Report Says
Cambodian women have fewer opportunities than men, and less access to economic and political positions of power, a World Bank report says. Women in Cambodiado have more economic access and business ownership than in some Western countries, but they have less power in family ...
http://www.voanews.com/khmer-english/news/Less-Power-for-Cambodian-Women-Report-Says-159439985.html
Cambodia Nothing To Fear From Openness And Competitions: Trade Minister
Cambodia so far has not feared for creating ASEAN economic community 2015 and deeper ASEAN and East Asia regional integration as the region will have free flow of goods, worker mobilization, finance and investment,” trade minister Cham Prasidh said on June 12. His announcement was made during the workshop of ASEAN economic community 2015. “We ...
Tourism for fourth months of 2012
Report from tourism ministry said: in 2011, it gained 2.8 million tourist arrivals and harvested for 1.9 billion US dollars. For fourth months of 2012, we received over 1, 272,514 foreign tourists, an increase of over 27 percent if comparing the same period of last year. Tourism industry offered direct jobs of 350,000. Ministry urged to ...
Gov't Denies Flouting Ban on Concessions
The government on Friday denied it had violated a moratorium on granting new land concessions when Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on more than 20,000 hectares of land to three rubber companies 11 days after the ban was announced on May 7. According to documents ...
Appeal Court Sets Date as Boeng Kak Hunger Strike Continues
The Court of Appeal on Friday set a date to hear the case of 13 jailed Boeng Kak residents despite the Ministry of Justice calling for a review of their sentencing, and as the health of six of the jailed women, who are on hunger ...
Life After the Lake
Shukaku, a company owned by a CPP Senator was given a 99-year lease to to the area in 2007. Immediately, the company started filling in the lake with sand and began kicking out thousands of families in what is one of the most notorious evictions ...