ភ្នំពេញប៉ុស្តិ៍
Workers ditch factories for fields
At some point during the planting season this year, Pheap Srey Ngoun will leave her garment factory floor for a rice paddy in Cambodia’s Prey Veng province. Like many fellow garment workers she will leave her position, with permission from the factory, to lend a hand ...
Supporters pray for Sonando
While Mam Sonando lay in a cramped Prey Sar prison cell yesterday, sweating out a fever, some 100 members of the Association of Democrats burned incense and kneeled in prayer at the Preah Ang Dang Keu shrine, calling for the outspoken Beehive Radio director’s release. With ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072457577/National-news/supporters-pray-for-sonando.html
Property rights threatened, NGOs claim
A draft agricultural land law threatens to eliminate property rights and effectively remove all limitations on the size of economic land concessions, a coalition of civil society groups said in a statement released. The draft of The Law on the Management and Use of Agricultural Land, ...
David Boyle and May Titthara, P. 1
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072457586/National-news/property-rights-threatened-ngos-claim.html
Workplace injury rate rises
A spike in factory faintings contributed to a 65 per cent increase in the number of workplace injuries reported in 2011, a Ministry of Labour official said yesterday. Leng Tong, director of the occupational health and safety department, said the ministry plans to introduce specialist safety ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072457581/National-news/workplace-injury-rate-rises.html
New border crossing to open at Preah Vihear
Cambodia and Thailand will open another permanent border crossing between Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province on Wednesday An Ses, the new permanent border crossing, is primarily used for the trade of agricultural products. Cambodian people usually import products from Thailand through the crossing, ...
More confess to Kratie ‘secession’
Ministry of Interior officials announced yesterday that three more villagers accused of involvement in a “secessionist plot” in Kratie province turned themselves in and confessed their guilt on Saturday, taking advantage of the prime minister’s offer of immunity for those who agree to act as ...
Cassava plantings decrease
Cassava plantings in Battambang province dropped more than 18 per cent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2011, according to agriculture officials. The decease is a result of that previous year’s yield fetching a low price and farmers ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072357551/Business/cassava-plantings-decrease.html
Garment strikers set sights for capital again
Strikers from Kandal province’s Tai Yang and Camwell factories, which supply Levi’s and Gap, will converge on the capital again today to keep pressing for seniority bonuses, Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said. The 150 workers who remain on strikewill deliver a petition to ...
Questions over Laos dam
A decision on whether to build the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos is a life and death one that will affect Cambodians downstream, according to Foreign Minister Hor Namhong. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Namhong said the controversial 1,260-megawatt hydropower dam has ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072357562/National-news/questions-over-laos-dam.html
Land concession cancelled by PM
The Cambodian government has cancelled a 14,981-hectare concession in the Cardamom mountains granted to an Australian firm for a banana plantation, the conservation group Wildlife Alliance has reported. Wildlife Alliance has long lobbied against the concession in Koh Kong province’s southern cardamom forest on which Indochina ...
Cambodia's export growth falls
Increased labour strife in the garment sector and slumping Western economies contributed to a slow-down in Cambodia’s exports during the first six months of the year, with total growth dropping by about 74 per cent year on year. Exports rose, to US$2.5 billion, up 12 per ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072357550/Business/export-growth-falls.html
Ford takes 20 per cent of new car market
Before the big dinner with Hillary Clinton, Prime Minister Hun Sen and the leaders of Thailand and Myanmar on July 13 in Siem Reap, Tom Whitcraft of RMA Group, which owns the Ford dealership in Cambodia, sat down for an interview. Whitcraft said Ford has about ...
Thai media targets Kingdom
RSiam, the country-music business unit of RS Public Company Limited, a Thai entertainment company, is seeking partners in Cambodia and Laos, said RS executive vice president Soopachai Nillawan. RS owns a record label, produces programming for television, makes films, publishes magazines and promotes concerts. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072357548/Business/thai-media-targets-kingdom.html
Cambodian fishermen returned from Africa
Two Cambodian fishermen, trafficked into slave labour in South Africa in mid-2011, returned safely to Phnom Penh on Friday after being rescued by legal resource group the Community Legal Education Center. ...
Cambodia mulls over atomic energy power
Cambodia is mulling over a nuclear power option to feed its anemic energy sector, although private sector pundits called the rough plan a dream – a dangerous one at that. The government plans to use atomic energy in the future as oil, coal and biomass power ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057525/Business/cambodia-mulls-atomic-power.html
Local microfinance institute invests in new ATM network
Hattha Kaksekar Ltd, a local microfinance institution, has invested almost US$2 million in a new ATM network, the company announced yesterday. Hattha Kaksekar now has around $32 million in deposits and will become the first financial institution to use SmartVista, an automated ATM process which also ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057524/Business/mfi-to-invest-in-new-atm-network.html
Locked-up villagers set off protests
More than 100 villagers protested in front of Banan district hall in Battambang province yesterday, demanding the release of six villagers who were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly accepting money to illegally divide state land. The six suspects have been accused of advertising land and then ...
Villagers fight for forest despite warning
Villagers from Svay Rieng province’s Krasaing commune have vowed to continue their protests to preserve a patch of community forest earmarked for clearing, despite receiving an official warning yesterday. Residents said it would affect over 2,700 people. ...
World Bank raps dam study firm
The World Bank has blacklisted an arm of the company that carried out a much-criticised study into the Xayaburi hydro dam project, it has confirmed. According to the bank’s website, Pöyry Management Consulting Oy Finland has been banned from conducting business with the bank for three ...
Factory workers hold out for more
Little more than a week after garment workers were granted a US$10 monthly increase in allowances and bonuses, thousands of workers at a number of factories joined strikes with a clear message yesterday: they need more. Workers rallied outside factory gates and some marched to the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057529/National-news/workers-hold-out-for-more.html
Police seize luxury wood in house raid
About 2,000 kilograms of Kran-houng luxury timber worth tens of thousands of dollars and a Toyota Camry car were seized by authorities in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district on Wednesday, military police said yesterday. ...
PM looks to counter OPEC, push rice-exporting power
Cambodia will push to finalise a rice-exporting bloc with four other regional countries by the end of the year in a bid to become the world’s “food basket”, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The group of countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar – ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071957506/Business/pm-looks-to-counter-opec.html
Phnom Penh's new apartments soar on high rents
Real estate developments covered in green tarp have sprung up across the capital’s Boeung Kang Kong commune, and housing units are filling before the projects are finished, insiders said. The value of construction approvals in Phnom Penh jumped by 557.5 per cent in March to US$150.5 ...
Japanese companies face domestic employee shortage
Japanese companies are facing a shortage of skilled workers which is hindering progress in Japanese-owned electronic factories, the Japanese Business Association of Cambodia (JBAC) said. The statement comes after the Asian Development Bank said in April that a shortage of skilled workers would continue to hinder ...