ខេមបូឌា ដេលី
15 foreign investments were approved in October
Fifteen foreign investments worth $344 million were approved by the government’s investment board in October, most of which were in the garment industry, according to data obtained this week ...
Malaysian body opens first file on Cambodian deaths
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia has for the first time agreed to open an inquiry into the death of a Cambodian maid, opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua said yesterday, calling the investigation “a positive sign.” Ms Sochua said that while she had in the past sent ...
Decision on first Mekong dam delayed
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) agreed yesterday to delay a decision on Laos’ proposal to build the first hydropower dam on the Lower Mekong River in order to allow Japan to conduct further environmental impact studies on the dam project. Although Cambodian officials welcomed the outcome, ...
IMF cuts 2011 growth outlook to below 6%
Damage to Cambodia’s rice crop from widespread flooding earlier this year will likely cause economic growth to fall below 6 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which yesterday offered the lowest gross domestic product (GDP) prediction so far In a statement, the IMF chose ...
Asian Development Bank keeps growth outlook at 6.8%
New policies in agriculture, real estate and finance led the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday to keep its outlook on Cambodia’s economic growth this year at an estimated 6.8 percent. The announcement comes even as the World Bank and the government have reduced their expectations, projecting ...
Nation's largest hydropower dam to open
Prime Minister Hun Sen will officially open the Chinese-made Kamchay dam in Kampot province today, the largest hydropower dam to date to operate in Cambodia and capable of supplying an extra 193.2 megawatts of energy. Environmental and human rights groups yesterday criticized the dam’s builder and ...
Villagers block national road in call for land
More than 250 villagers blocked National Road 48 yesterday in Koh Kong province while protesting against their eviction from their Kiri Sakor district homes, slowing traffic for more than eight hours, officials said Prom Sann, a representative for the villagers, said the protesters represented 250 families ...
Nations convene to consider first Mekong dam
The water and environment ministers of the four Mekong River Commission (MRC) countries are scheduled to meet in Siem Reap today and tomorrow to reach a key decision on the future – some say the survival – of the Mekong River. The ministers – from Cambodia, ...
Officials mum on proposed oil refinery
Officials were mum yesterday about the proposed construction of an oil refinery by a Chinese firm in Preah Sihanouk and Kampot provinces, and provincial authorities said the company had not yet been granted any land for the proposed project. Ter Chimnarith, deputy director of Kampot province’s ...
Villagers take land title fight to Santuk District Hall
Villagers accused of illegally occupying state land in Kompong Thom province protested outside Santuk district hall yesterday to ask for land titles, residents and authorities said. Sue Nhaunh, a villager and representative of 160 families in Kraya commune, said that more than 100 residents had gathered ...
Senate ratifies record draft budget law
The Senate yesterday spent just 90 minutes ratifying the record $2.6 billion budget law for 2012, which will allow the government to borrow up to $1.1 billion from foreign lenders, according to a Senate statement ...
Villagers to block roads in protest
Hundreds of people whose land has been swallowed by a giant Chinese tourism project on the coast of Koh Kong province will attempt to demonstrate their grievances today by blocking national roads 4 and 48, villagers and human rights workers said Protesters have been resisting China’s ...
Railway impact reports nowhere to be seen
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has not made public the last two quarterly reports on the impact of resettling families who are being evicted for a $142 million railway rehabilitation project. The reports, which are required under an ADM loan agreement with the government, haven’t been ...
Welfare plan full of goals, short on details
Cash transfers to the poor and public works programs for the unemployed are spelled out in a new five-year plan the government launched yesterday in a bid to expand the country’s threadbare social welfare programs. Though full of ambitious targets and budgets, the ‘National Social Protection ...
Group angered after Thailand says it will not oppose dam
An environmental group yesterday criticized Thailand’s announcement last week that it would not oppose Laos’ proposal to build the first Lower Mekong dam at the upcoming Mekong River Commission (MRC) meeting, as long as Laos addresses the dam’s environmental impacts. Water and environment ministers from Cambodia, ...
Migrants at risk of trafficking, Human Rights Watch says
At least 20 Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have had their passports confiscated by a Thai recruitment agency, while another 10 have gone missing after they fled the same agency fearing they would be trafficked to work on Thai fishing vessels, Human Rights Watch and ...
Fraud, forgery charges over rosewood logging
Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged a businessman with fraud and forgery stemming from a complaint made by the director of Win World Trading Co. Ltd. over a deal involving the selling of rosewood logged in Laos to Vietnam. The provincial military police detained Sann Dichham ...
First 10 months of year's exports up 32.9 percent
Exports from Cambodia increased 32.9 percent to $3.7 billion during the first ten months of this year compared to the same period in 2010, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce yesterday. Milled rice exports saw the biggest increase with a 161.5 percent jump ...
Vietnamese equity fund to open in Cambodia
Dragon Capital, a Vietnam-based private equity firm, has announced that it is planning to launch a fund in Cambodia next year, the second such fund to be announced by a Vietnamese company this year. The firm’s CEO, Dominic Scriven, said that the initial fund would close ...
Forestry department confiscated rosewood in Ratanakiri
The Ratanakiri provincial forestry department over the past week in Andong Meas district confiscated more than 600 pieces of the luxury rosewood species of timber, a forestry official said. Vong Sok Serie, Ratanakiri provincial administration chief, said his officers collected a total of 610 pieces of ...
In a call to find justice, Boeng Kak Lake villagers draw blood
Rounding off a week that included two violent clashes with police and the charging and release of four protesters, Boeng Kak lake villagers yesterday daubed paper sheets with their blood in a symbolic call to end what they consider judicial intimidation. About 50 villagers gathered at ...
Hun Sen extends Tonle Sap fishing lot closure
While crediting his efforts to quash illegal fishing with a surge in this year’s fish stocks, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he would extend the closure of 35 large Tonle Sap lake fishing lots until 2014. Speaking at a road paving project inauguration in ...
Chinese bank launches branch in Phnom Penh
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) launched its first branch in Cambodia yesterday, bringing the total number of commercial banks in the country to 30. Speaking at the inauguration of the branch in Phnom Penh, Finance Minister Keat Chhon made an appeal to ICBC ...
Another logger shot dead along Thai border
Thailand has repatriated the body of an Oddar Meanchey man fatally shot Tuesday while illegally logging for rosewood in Thailand, border officials said yesterday. Torn Kimsann, 22, was among a group of four men from Samraong City’s O’Smach commune who had ventured about 1km into Thailand ...