ព័ត៌មាន
S&P reaffirms rating despite political worry
Cambodia has retained its B credit rating despite ratings company Standard & Poor’s citing the country’s ongoing political standoff as a “major” constraint. S&P affirmed Cambodia’s B/B credit rating last week, labeling the country as having a strong and stable long-term and short-term outlook. Engagement of international ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/sp-reaffirms-rating-despite-political-worry
US Congressman Says Hun Sen Must Resign
The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to stand down during an event attended by CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha in California on Saturday night. Speaking at a CNRP fundraising event, Ed Royce, a Republican ...
Alex Willemyns and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/us-congressman-says-hun-sen-must-resign-48243/
Fears for tourism during rally
The opposition’s planned demonstration in Siem Reap next month could affect the tourism industry in Cambodia’s most important visitor destination, the government and industry representatives said yesterday. Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon told the Post that the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s (CNRP) December 10 rally could ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/fears-tourism-during-rally
Cambodian NGOs Threaten to Expose More Illegal Logging
A group of Cambodian NGOs threatened on Monday to expose more cases of forestry crime involving businessmen and the police, saying they were unshaken by a defamation suit filed by top tycoon accused of illegal logging and land-grabbing. Representatives of the five organizations told reporters Monday ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/logging-11252013185559.html
Japan’s Premier Criticized After Visiting Cambodia
Japan’s prime minister failed to address major issues, by leaving aside Cambodia’s political deadlock and its poor human rights record on a visit last week, rights activists say. “It was a missed opportunity for the government of Japan, which has a great deal of leverage with ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/japan-premier-criticized-after-visiting-cambodia/1795737.html
Finance Ministry Defends Ambiguity in 2014 Budget Bill
The Finance Ministry on Wednesday defended itself against recent reports that some 45 percent of the government’s $3.4 billion draft budget for 2014 remains unallocated, issuing a statement explaining that the money will pay for loans, subsidies and other vital expenses. According to the statement, ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/finance-ministry-defends-ambiguity-in-2014-budget-bill-47530/
Government Expects 14.5 Percent Rise in State Revenue
The government plans to raise $3.51 billion in state revenue in 2014 in order to finance a $3.4 billion draft budget, an increase of about 14.5 percent compared to the previous year, when the government raised $2.98 billion in revenue, according to a draft of ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-expects-14-5-percent-rise-in-state-revenue-46807/
Withdrawals top hundreds of millions
More than $600 million flooded out of Cambodia’s entire banking system during the third quarter of this year, as fears of post-election chaos set off panic and mass withdrawals, new figures from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) reveal. The figures, obtained yesterday, were the first ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/withdrawals-top-hundreds-millions
Debtors need mercy: CNRP
The opposition party has called on microfinance institutions to renegotiate payment terms with flood-affected loan holders. This year’s floods have affected 20 provinces and more than 1.7 million people, with 31,314 households evacuated, according to the Humanitarian Response Forum. The Cambodia National Rescue Party has asked that ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/debtors-need-mercy-cnrp
National Assembly’s Finance Committee Approves 2014 Budget
The National Assembly’s CPP-run finance committee approved the country’s $3.54 billion draft budget for 2014 Wednesday, its last hurdle before debate and a possible vote can be held by the full Assembly, where the opposition is still refusing to take nearly half the seats. “After the ...
Kuch Naren and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/national-assemblys-finance-committee-approves-2014-budget-46714/
Rise of the bureaucrats
When the ruling Cambodian People’s Party promised civil servants a pay rise earlier this year, some suggested it was also trying to give them a reason to vote for it in July’s national election. The 20 per cent increase came amid the opposition Cambodia National Rescue ...
Daniel Pye and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rise-bureaucrats
Hun Sen Makes More Cuts to Sok An’s Portfolio
Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on a directive last week to transfer 11 government bodies, previously overseen by Cabinet Minister Sok An, to relevant ministries and institutions, further cutting the expansive portfolio of the deputy prime minister in the wake of July’s national election. ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-makes-more-cuts-to-sok-ans-portfolio-46512/
2014 Draft Budget Reaches Assembly, Still Under Wraps
The National Assembly’s 12-member permanent committee will take its first look at the country’s $3.54 billion draft budget for 2014 on Monday, though officials are still refusing to offer a breakdown of how the money will be spent. The draft, which allocates more than $400 million ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/2014-draft-budget-reaches-assembly-still-under-wraps-46514/
Neutrality of Red Cross in Question After Bun Rany’s Speech
It was the bloodiest battle since Waterloo. Yet the carnage wrought 150 years ago by the Italian and French troops, fighting under Napoleon III, and the forces of the Austrian Hungarian Empire, was overshadowed by its aftermath. While 30,000 had died on the battlefield, more than 40,000 ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/neutrality-of-red-cross-in-question-after-bun-ranys-speech-46497/
Family evicted after ‘Death threats’
An ethnic Jarai family has been evicted from their Ratanakirri province village where they say they received death threats over a land dispute. This is the third time the family has abandoned their home after they field a lawsuit against three commune authorities in 2011, alleging ...
Phak Seangly, P.6
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
NGOs Say Women Could Help End the Political Impasse
More women should be part of any future high-level negotiations between the ruling CPP and opposition CNRP to resolve the current political deadlock, a coalition of women’s rights NGOs said Tuesday in a statement. In a joint statement by more than 20 organizations, the groups criticized ...
Kuch Naren and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngos-say-women-could-help-end-the-political-impasse-46267/
Cambodia’s Opposition Calls for Halt to Foreign Investment, Loans
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government as the two sides remained stalled in talks in a deadlock over disputed national elections. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said in a public statement that it could not guarantee that any agreements made with Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/investment-10292013173412.html
Hun Sen’s Cabinet Approves $3.5B Draft Budget
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new Cabinet on Friday approved a 2014 draft budget of $3.5 billion, a 13 percent increase over this year’s budget, but gave no details as to how the money would be spent. The CPP also said it will go ahead with a ...
Hul Reaksmey and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-cabinet-approves-3-5b-draft-budget-45985/
Park's own Cleveland clinic
As two volunteers guided a man unsteady on his feet into a medical tent on the second day of a three-day pro-opposition demonstration at Freedom Park yesterday, Chan Bun Han instructed another to get the patient a bottle of water after they laid him on ...
Sean Teehan, P.6
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Sabrina workers out after months in jail
Eight unionists locked in prison in Kampong Speu province since violent clashes at the Sabrina Garment factory in May and June were released on bail yesterday, court and union officials said. Cheum Rithy, a provincial judge, said he had decided to release the eight Free Trade ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sabrina-workers-out-after-months-jail
Cambodian trade unions urge garment workers not to join opposition’s mass protest next week
A Cambodian trade unions leader on Saturday called on garment workers not to participate in the opposition party-planned mass demonstration next week against the results of July’s election that handed victory to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party. “I would like to appeal to all workers ...
Nzweek News Staff
http://www.nzweek.com/world/cambodian-trade-unions-urge-garment-workers-not-to-join-oppositions-mass-protest-next-week-90198/
Committee Approves $25 Million Budget for National Assembly
The CPP-controlled Permanent Committee of the new National Assembly has approved a $25-million budget to cover the Assembly’s costs for the coming year, despite the continued absence of nearly half the 123-member body’s elected lawmakers. The opposition CNRP’s 55 lawmakers-elect have been boycotting the Assembly since ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/committee-approves-25-million-budget-for-national-assembly-45434/
People’s Assembly Will Rally at Freedom Park on Monday
About 1,000 members of the Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly—a network of communities throughout the country that includes farmers as well as land and labor activists—will rally at Freedom Park on Monday to demand an end to the current political impasse. The ruling CPP and opposition CNRP ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/peoples-assembly-will-rally-at-freedom-park-on-monday-45440/
A raft of complications
Riun Pau ran out of food last week. For the 13-year-old and her family, that moment was the culmination of weeks of distress caused by flooding that had already ravaged their Battambang home and farmland. Pau’s neighbours are experiencing similar problems. In Battambang, 67.3 per cent ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/raft-complications