ព័ត៌មាន
Strikes break out in wake of wage policy
Two strikes have broken out at large processing companies in the past week as employers respond to the government’s minimum wage policy with what workers say are cutbacks in conditions. Almost all the 800 Cambodian workers who staged industrial action at a seafood company in Songkhla ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/288647/strikes-break-out-in-wake-of-wage-policy
Cambodia Takes Aim at the Dominant Dollar
PHNOM PENH—In its home country, the Cambodian riel has long played second fiddle to the U.S. dollar—but a new stock exchange and government de-dollarization policies could bolster it in coming years, policy makers and experts say. Dollars change hands with greater frequency than riel in the ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303772904577336784184598356.html
New Year’s price hikes kick in
As many flock to their hometowns today to celebrate Khmer New Year, complaints of price hikes and border bribes have started pouring in like clockwork. Passengers arranging transport to the provinces told the Post yesterday that bus companies and taxies had raised their prices despite a ...
Concessions Not for Logging, Hun Sen Says
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday told senior officials to stop investors from using land concessions as a pretext for logging and to discuss the possibility of reducing the amount of time such concessions can last. The government placed a moratorium on logging concessions in 2002 to ...
Bank Forecasts Drop in GDP Growth to 6.5%
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday revised its prediction for economic growth in Cambodia down to 6.5 percent as it warned that weakening demand from markets in the US and Europe could affect exports leaving the country. The ADB’s biannual outlook report for 2012 also said ...
Flights from Manila ready for take-off
The Philippines’ Cebu-Pacific Airlines will launch direct flights to Siem Reap from Manila on April 19, according to a Cambodian civil aviation official. The Philippine airline sought to take advantage of Siem Reap’s status as a big tourist destination, Soy Sokhan said. ...
Hun Sen Orders Crackdown On Illegal Fishing in Lake
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blasted local officials for not working hard enough to curb illegal fishing in and around the Tonle Sap lake, where fisheries crimes are still rampant despite 90,000 hectares of protected areas. “Don’t do illegal fishing, use illegal equipment to fish, or ...
Nike seeks investigation of mass fainting incidents
Global sportswear giant Nike has asked the International Labour Organisation’s industry monitoring body to investigate the two mass fainting incidents at its supplier Sabrina (Cambodia) Manufacturing last week and report its finding to it, Nike said yesterday. “Nike has requested ILO Better [Factories] Cambodia, the industry ...
Efforts to Stop Killings of Loggers in Thailand Crawl Forward
Thai and Cambodian foreign affairs officials have pledged to step up their efforts to stem the fatal shooting of Cambodians who illegally cross the border into Thailand to cut down rosewood trees, which fetch thousands of dollars per cubic meter on the black market. At a ...
Strings attached to Thai firm’s offer
Cambodia migrant workers seeking to leave allegedly exploitative conditions at the Phatthana Seafood factory in southern Thailand said yesterday that they were still being forced to pay to get their passports back. The factory, which exports fish to buyers across the world including Walmart, has come ...
A migrant state of mind
A lone Cambodian woman was found sitting outside Phnom Penh International Airport late on Tuesday night by patrolling police. Smiling to herself, with a vacant expression, she was unable to explain where she came from or what she was doing, but a Malaysian stamp was found ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012041255582/National-news/a-migrant-state-of-mind.html
Villagers in Pursat Ask Spirits To Curse Pheapimex Company
About 70 villagers in Pursat province’s Krakor district held a daylong prayer ceremony yesterday to request help from spirits to curse the powerful Pheapimex company for destroying their farmland, villagers said. Pheapimex, owned by the wife of CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin, has maintained a 316,000-hectare ...
Rubber Gives New Bounce to Economy
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen announced plans Thursday to encourage rubber smallholdings in a bid to expand production as the country promotes the cash crop as the number two commodity after rice. Hun Sen said the government will support not only large-scale rubber plantations but also ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/rubber-04122012174332.html
Migrant workers protest
Recent protests by thousands of migrant workers in Songkla and Kanchanaburi has exposed further evidence of how Thai exporters to giant American, European and Australian food chains have gone unaudited. Thousands of Cambodian and Burmese workers claimed during strikes early this month at Pattana Seafood factory ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/288603/migrant-workers-protest
Couple’s arrest ‘no mistake’
No mistake was made when former Anco Brothers executive Heng Chheang and his wife, Tep Kolap, were arrested last year, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. Pin Vannak, a defence lawyer for the couple, had argued they had been arrested illegally because the Phnom Penh municipal court ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012041255585/National-news/couples-arrest-no-mistake.html
Passports in hand, strikers eye return
More than half of the 800 Cambodian workers who accused police of threatening them with guns and firing into the air during a protest at Phatthana Seafood Co in Thailand on Monday were preparing to return home yesterday, a strike representative said. Sok Sorng said employees ...
Residents From Borei Keila Push Back Police
About 40 former Borei Keila residents yesterday pushed back roughly 100 police and military police who threatened to demolish temporary shelters belonging to 16 families still clinging to their land, residents and rights groups said. Prampi Makara district police armed with riot shields, military police and ...
Telecom Cambodia Revenues Drop by $1 Million in 2011
Telecom Cambodia, one of three state-owned enterprises with plans to list on Cambodia’s stock exchange, saw revenues decline by 3 percent to $31 million last year, an official at the company said yesterday. Lao Saroeun, director general of Telecom Cambodia, said that revenues at the company ...
Arrivals at Cambodia’s airports up 20 per cent
Arrivals at Cambodia’s two biggest airports increased by about 20 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, according to Cambodia Airports. Industry insiders said economic progress in the region coupled with increased flights added to the passenger count at Phnom Penh International Airport and Siem ...
Nike Representatives Visit Factory, Talk Faintings
Representatives from US sports brand Nike yesterday visited the company’s supplier factory in Kompong Speu province to investigate the cause of last week’s mass faintings, officials from the Ministry of Labor said. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational safety for the Labor Ministry’s health department, said ...
Kingdom rubber exports dip
Cambodian rubber exports declined 3 per cent year-on-year during the first two months of 2012, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce. The value of the exports fell by nearly a third. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012041155546/Business/kingdom-rubber-exports-dip.html
Buses, Taxis Ignore Appeals to Maintain Fees
As Khmer New Year approaches, Phnom Penh Municipality has once again made its annual appeal to bus companies and taxi drivers not to raise fees during the holiday. But as usual, drivers and companies say they will be ignoring the request. Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema said ...
Small victory for villagers
The Kampong Chhnang provincial court yesterday ordered the KDC company to produce proof of ownership for 105 land titles in the Kampong Tralach district, the subject of a land dispute that dates back to 2007. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012041155557/National-news/small-victory-for-villagers.html
Storms lash Prey Veng
At least 105 houses were damaged by a violent rainstorm on Monday night in Prey Veng province’s Komchey Mear district. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012041155553/National-news/storms-lash-prey-veng.html