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Conference Highlights the Country's Math Deficiency
Education experts and professors from around the world gathered over the weekend in Phnom Penh to discuss ways to strengthen mathematics in Cambodia and other developing countries. the problem is not a lack of student capability, said Lin Mongkolsery, a mathematics teacher at the Institute ...
Minorities Seek Land Dispute March Approval
Local human rights group Adhoc has requested provincial approval to stage a large-scale march later this month involving hundreds of indigenous minorities embroiled in a land dispute in Ratanakiri province. The demonstration is being organized to bring attention to what minority villagers claim is judicial ...
$100m fund to target Kingdom’s growth
Vietnam-based Dragon Capital is raising up to US$100 million for a new Indochina fund, some of which the private equity firm would invest in Cambodian agriculture and infra-structure, Dragon’s chief information officer Bill Stoops said yesterday. Dragon Capital has a 20 per cent stake ...
Bavet governor implicated
Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith is the man who gunned down three unarmed women at a protest last week, Interior Minister Sar Kheng alleged yesterday, saying an official complaint had been filed against him. Outside an unrelated conference, the minister told reporters the governor would ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030254828/National-news/bavet-governor-implicated.html
Certification Quandry Stunts Sugar Exports
In April 2010, Kampot Pepper and Kompong Speu palm sugar both gained a geographical indication (GI) from the Ministry of Commerce that recognized their unique qualities and protected their name. But while Kampot pepper producers export almost all of their 17-ton annual production at high ...
Authorities Fire Weapons During Seziure of Rosewood
Forestry officials and police in Siem Reap province’s Banteay Srei district seized a car transporting more than 100 pieces of illegally logged rosewood on Wednesday night, the 10th haul of the luxury wood in the province since January, according to a court official. Despite the efforts ...
World Bank Still Searching for Country Manager
The World Bank said yesterday that it is continuing to search for a new country manager following the departure of Quimiao Fann last month for a new role in the former Soviet Union. A Chinese national and economist by training, Mr. Fan has been ...
Cambodia-Linked Investors Sentenced in Seoul
The chief executives of the firms behind two large-scale real-estate projects in Cambodia have been sentenced to jail in Seoul for obtaining illegal loans and using the money to finance fictitious companies abroad, according to a South Korean court official. The two executives were among a ...
Indigenous land exploited
The Royal Government of Cambodia and private land developers were exploiting indigenous communities in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces by signing concession deals for the communities’ land without prior consultation, advocates said yesterday. “We urge the government as well as the private sector to respect [indigenous peoples’] ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030254821/National-news/indigenous-land-exploited.html
Relocation fears for Siem Reap families
About 90 Siem Reap families have rejected what they say is a preliminary move by the provincial authority to have them moved off land declared part of Kulen Mountain National Park in 2002. The families, in Banteay Srei district’s Tbeng commune, said yesterday they had rejected ...
ILO program pushes dialogue
In the wake of several violent garment-factory protests last week, the International Labour Office yesterday launched a five-year, US$5 million Decent Work Country Program in Cambodia to focus on improving industrial relations. “[This] marks the beginning of a new body of work for the ILO in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030254818/National-news/ilo-program-pushes-dialogue.html
Doubt lingers despite Kratie dispute accord
About 160 villagers from Kratie province’s Meanchey village cancelled plans to block National Road 7 yesterday after provincial authorities and a Vietnamese rubber company agreed to their requests regarding an ongoing land dispute, but some expressed skepticism that the agreement would last. Village representative Saren ...
Governor Arrested as Shooting Suspect
The governor of a city in southeastern Cambodia was arrested Friday in connection with a shooting that left three workers hospitalized as they took part in protests for better labor conditions at a sportswear factory that supplies goods to German sportswear giant PUMA. Moeun Tola, head ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/shooting-03022012172935.html
Kandal villagers seek resolution to dispute
More than 200 villagers from Kandal’s Kien Svay district gathered in protest yesterday to urge the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution to resolve their long-standing dispute with a CPP official. The protesters assembled in the Samrong Thom commune brandishing photos of the prime minister and ...
Villagers Appeal to Halt Stung Treng Dam
Eleven village representatives from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces traveled to Phnom Penh yesterday to meet with National Assembly lawmakers and appeal for an end to the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam. The hydropower project, funded by Vietnam Electricity, will flood tens ...
Border Officials Ask Thailand To Stop Shooting at Loggers
Cambodian border officials urged their Thai counterparts not to shoot Cambodians who cross into Thailand illegally during a special meeting in Siem Reap city yesterday to cement border relations. The request comes as Thai soldiers have already fatally shot 11 Cambodians this year who illegally ...
Police Hear Borei Keila Evictees' Apartment Claims
Ten representatives from the Borei Keila community met with Phnom Penh police chief Touch Naruth yesterday to discuss whether their housing documents could qualify them for an apartment, a representative said yesterday. Chhum Ngan said Mr. Naruth asked representatives to furnish housing documents from 106 ...
Kingdom’s arable land all but gone
If the government continues to grant economic land and mining concessions at the current rate, there will be no more arable land left in the country to give away within one year, a researcher from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights said yesterday. Pointing to the ...
River Dolphin Conservation Gets Go-Ahead
A government committee yesterday approved a draft sub-decree aimed at protecting the endangered Mekong River dolphin and will send it to the Council of Ministers within a few weeks. Among the provisions contained in the sub-decree is the creation of a 180-km-long conservation area stretching ...
A refuge for river dolphins
The government yesterday moved to protect endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River, announcing plans for a 180-kilometre-long conservation area that would stretch from the Lao border through Stung Treng province to Kratie town. Touch Seang Tana, chairman of the Commission for Conservation and Development of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030154794/National-news/a-refuge-for-river-dolphins.html
Villagers take case to capital
Representatives from five communes in Koh Kong province engaged in a long-running land dispute with a private Chinese firm urged the government to issue them proper land titles during a press conference in the capital yesterday. Representative Chhai Beng Hout asked the government to instruct the ...
Gov't Opens Rivers to Sand Dredging
Nine companies have put in bids for the rights to dredge the lengths of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and sell the sand for export, Water Resources Ministry officials said yesterday, noting that the dredging would be beneficial in terms of deepening the waterways. ...
Hun Sen bans industry fishing at Tonle Sap lake permanently
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday extended indefinitely a ban on commercial fishing in Tonle Sap lake, citing ongoing illegal fishing to the detriment of local villagers. The premier had first imposed the ban on 35 fishing lots in the lake in August, as a result of ...
Battambang families seek land-dispute aid
Representatives of more than 300 families in Battambang province’s Bavel district yesterday urged government officials to intervene in a land dispute with provincial authorities and a businessman. Representative Thuy Ry said the 305 families had lived on the 3,638 hectares of land in Ampil Pram Doeum ...