ភ្នំពេញប៉ុស្តិ៍
Kingdom's three-year land rush
The government has granted more than 7 million hectares of land to private companies through concessions since 2008, with 222 private companies claiming more than 2 million hectares alone in economic land concessions, rights group Adhoc said yesterday. Ouch Leng, head of Adhoc’s land program, said ...
Milled rice exports climb, prices soar
Cambodia’s milled rice exports increased by more than seven per cent year-on-year during the first 10 months of 2011, while international demand for the grain drove up rice prices by nearly 200 per cent, commerce officials said. The Kingdom exported more than 136,000 tonnes of milled ...
Royal Group linked to new $2.2bn firm
A fertiliser company that has been approved to do billions of dollars’ worth of business in Cambodia, and is presumed to be based in the United Kingdom, is in fact affiliated with domestic conglomerate Royal Group, an insider has confirmed. Nitrogen Chemicals and Fertiliser (Cambodia) Ltd ...
Villagers protest for more flats
More than 100 Borei Keila villagers took to the streets yesterday to demand that Phanimex Company owner Suy Sophan honour a contract signed in 2003 that promised housing for 1,776 families in exchange for land. The protesters, holding banners, statues of the spirit and a pig’s ...
'Huge changes' made to new draft union law
A new draft of the trade-union law included “huge changes” that removed all major controversial aspects of the legislation, including criminal sanctions, a union advocate said yesterday. Dave Welsh, country director for the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, said the Ministry of Labour was to ...
Airport expansion key to Kingdom tourism
The Kingdom needs US$270 million to expand its three airports if the country is to meet its growing demand as a tourist destination, Cambodia Airport CEO Emmanuel Menanteau said yesterday. The total number of visitors passing through the Kingdom’s airports will approximately double every 10 years, ...
Manulife to launch operations in Kingdom
Canadian firm Manulife Financial plans to set up one of Cambodia’s first life-insurance operations, the company said yesterday. The Ministry of Economy and Finance had approved “in principle” the investment, which a spokesperson from the company said would be at least US$7 million ...
Refresh Mobile buys WING
Refresh Mobile yesterday announced the purchase of mobile banking outfit WING from Australia’s ANZ, although the amount of the deal was not released. WING will join Refresh’s stable of electronic payment and cell phone top-up services, in addition to soon offering overseas mobile remittance capabilities, Refresh ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111752801/Business/refresh-mobile-buys-wing.html
Land titles sought in Kompong Thom
The Kampong Thom provincial governor issued a letter on Tuesday to villagers living in Santuk district, ordering them to provide documentation confirming their ownership of land they reportedly “purchased” from brokers after it had already been assigned to relocated families, officials said yesterday. Deputy district governor ...
Ex-railway workers fear pay has left station
Representatives of 503 former railway workers protested outside the Ministry of Transportation in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding the government pay them outstanding salaries ranging from US$2,500 to $5,000 per person. Railway workers from Battambang, Kampot, Pursat and Takeo who were formerly employed by the government, but ...
Kingdom plans flood relief spend
Cambodia plans to spend nearly US$200 million to rebuild after the worst floods in a decade hit the country in September and October. The floods require an immediate response, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said yesterday at a meeting of the Council for the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111652772/Business/kingdom-plans-flood-relief-spend.html
Official says faintings a ‘scar’ on image of nation’s factories
A 10 per cent rise in the number of garment and footwear factories this year showed the government’s commitment to solving labour disputes, and that its mechanisms to do this were working, a senior official at the labour ministry said yesterday, while admitting that a ...
Prey Lang protest puts foursome in firing line
A pair of Sandan district villagers who participated in last week’s Prey Lang forest protest against illegal logging, and two of the NGO workers who monitored them, were facing accusations of incitement and destruction of property in complaints filed against them in the provincial court, ...
Cambodia-South Korea trade jumps 45%
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and South Korea jumped more than 40 per cent year-on-year through September, according to the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency. Total trade between January and September reached $387 million, according to KOTRA, up 45 per cent from $267 million during the year-ago ...
Kingdom okays ICBC
The National Bank of Cambodia yesterday granted Industrial and Commercial Bank of China a financial business licence, according to a report on aastocks, a Chinese stocks news service ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111552747/Business/kingdom-okays-icbc.html
Ministry questions oil assessment
Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment told a Japanese oil company yesterday to better define the location of its initial onshore operations given the potential impact on the local population and environment. The Ministry of Environment has required Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation to specify where ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111552750/Business/ministry-questions-oil-assessment.html
Jarai man gets day in court
A Ratanakkiri Provincial Court prosecutor yesterday summoned an ethnic minority Jarai man in O’Yadav district to explain to the court his allegations that local authorities had threatened to kill him for exposing a land-sale corruption racket. Romas Chhvang, 45, filed a complaint to the court at ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111552760/National-news/jarai-man-gets-day-in-court.html
July sub-decree lists Preah Vihear grants
More than 45,000 hectares of land in Preah Vihear province were granted to five companies for rubber plantations on July 6 after the government reclassified the land from state public to state private land on the same day, according to the five sub-decrees signed by ...
Issues with Kingdom's rice exports
Cambodian rice trader TTY Corporation has said the Kingdom cannot meet a new 200,000-tonne export quota for shipping high-quality rice to China. State-owned Sinograin’s order for three varieties of milled fragrant rice was a deviation from an agreement struck with TTY in August, TTY deputy director-general ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011111552751/Business/issues-with-kingdoms-rice-exports.html
Firm denies dam report bias
A consulting firm commissioned by the Lao government to prepare a report on the controversial US$3.8 billion Xayaburi dam project has rejected claims by environmentalists that their assessment was “biased” due partly to existing ties with a project backer. On Wednesday, conservation group International Rivers claimed ...
Increase in visitors to Preah Vihear
Foreign visitors to the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, on the Cambodian-Thai border, rose almost 78 per cent between January and October compared with the same period last year, despite a deadly border dispute that drew international attention in February. About 2,140 foreign nationals visited the 1,000-year-old ...
Australian airline will launch direct flights to Kingdom
An Australian national airline would launch daily direct flights between Cambodia and Australia early next year, the Secretariat of State of Civil Aviation said yesterday. The airline had conducted a feasibility study and a market survey in co-operation with a Cambodian technical team, Long Chheng, deputy ...
Cambodia-Thai trade still on track
Thailand’s worst floods in decades have not slowed trade with Cambodia, a Thai official in Phnom Penh said yesterday, claiming many products sought by Cambodia came from areas free of flooding. Bilateral trade between the two countries rose nine per cent year-on-year in the first nine ...
Garment staff get pay, push for labour rights
Garment workers who went on strike over delayed payment of wages and other alleged violations of labour law on Tuesday morning were paid on Wednesday by management at the Chea Ieng garment factory in the capital’s Sen Sok district. Factory employee Sun Sopheak said yesterday that ...