ព័ត៌មាន
Illegal logging ‘rampant’ in sanctuary
Provincial military police confiscated three tractors transporting three metres of luxury wood and two circular saws travelling out of Kampong Speu’s protected Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday. Chea Hean, director of Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organisation (NRWPO), arrived to investigate illegal logging in the sanctuary ...
Phak Seangly and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/illegal-logging-%E2%80%98rampant%E2%80%99-sanctuary
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/
US embassy surveillance site: report
The United States embassy in Phnom Penh contains an intelligence-gathering operation that amasses information about Cambodia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday, citing a map first published in Germany’s Der Spiegel. The Herald article referenced some 90 international surveillance sites, including ones housed in embassies in neighbouring Jakarta, Yangon, Bangkok and ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/us-embassy-surveillance-site-report
Education to Receive 20% Boost in 2014 Budget
The Education Ministry on Monday said it was in line for a near 20 percent hike from the government’s $3.52 billion draft budget for 2014, approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet on Friday, though other details of how money was to be allocated remained ...
Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/education-to-receive-20-boost-in-2014-budget-46127/
Power line investment approved
The Cambodian government has entered into a public-private partnership with a little-known company named ALEX Corporation Co Ltd to develop power lines from plants in Preah Sihanouk province to Phnom Penh, according to the Council of Ministers. The private firm will invest $119.1 million in a ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/power-line-investment-approved
Gov’t rights report to be sent to UN
The government will today submit its second report to the UN Human Rights Council as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process that takes stock of human rights progress in each UN member state. Governments are required to report to the council every four and ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-rights-report-be-sent-un
Cambodia to Submit Human Rights Report to UN
Cambodia will submit a human rights report to the U.N. today for a universal periodic review (UPR), the second time it is participating in the process, according to the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit. Under the UPR process established in 2006, the Human ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-to-submit-human-rights-report-to-un-46006/
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/
Government Suspends Logging in Stung Treng Dam Concession
The government has ordered Ang & Associates Lawyer Co. Ltd., a company headed by well-known businessman Kith Meng, to cease logging in an area of Stung Treng province where a hydropower dam will be built. Sesan district governor Yeang Srey Sary said Thursday that a delegation ...
Kuch Naren and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-suspends-logging-in-stung-treng-dam-concession-45878/
Construction Set to Resume at CamKo City
Construction on Phnom Penh’s CamKo City project will resume after a year’s suspension following a fraud scandal that left its original financial backer bankrupt, an official at the Ministry of Land Management said Wednesday. CamKo City, located in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district, was halted ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/construction-set-to-resume-at-camko-city-45747/
Weak enforcement for strong acid
Kneeling outside a motodop and car battery store on Monivong Boulevard in the capital, a 15-year-old boy spends his days piping acid into batteries with his bare hands. His employer says she has no idea that Cambodia, as well as having an Acid Control Law – ...
Amelia Woodside and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/weak-enforcement-strong-acid
National Radio Site Swapped With Land Developer
The Ministry of Information has swapped an 11-hectare plot of land in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, which was previously the site of National Radio AM 918, with a property development firm in exchange for the construction of a new radio tower and transmitter on a ...
Kuch Naren and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/national-radio-site-swapped-with-land-developer-45419/
Labour Ministry told to keep SL talks alive
In a letter sent to the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training last week, the Council of Ministers encourages the ministry to facilitate talks between garment factory management and the union representing thousands of workers on strike for nearly two months. The letter, written by Council ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/labour-ministry-told-keep-sl-talks-alive
Cambodia to establish first civil aviation school
Cambodia planned to set up the first ever Civil Aviation Training Center with South Korean assistance in order to boost development of air transport industry and tourism, a spokesman said Saturday. “South Korea agreed to provide 10.1 million U.S. dollars in grant aid to Cambodia for ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-10/12/c_132793377.htm
CPP Readies for One-Party Vote On Assembly Committees
Senior CPP members selected nominees for the National Assembly’s nine permanent committees behind closed doors on Tuesday, while the opposition CNRP, which has continued to boycott the Assembly over July’s disputed election, urged some of Cambodia’s foreign donors to immediately sever ties with the government ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/cpp-readies-for-one-party-vote-on-assembly-committees-44695/
After CPP Reshuffle, Sok An’s Fiefdom Trimmed
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An has a stunning portfolio of positions within the CPP government. On Monday, CPP lawmakers once again appointed Mr. An as the Cabinet Minister for Prime Minister Hun Sen. He is also the chairman of the state-controlled Cambodian National Petroleum Authority and ...
Kuch Naren and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/after-cpp-reshuffle-sok-ans-fiefdom-trimmed-43665/
Ministers Told to Prepare for Public Scrutiny
During an epic speech on Wednesday that lasted for more than six-and-a-half hours, Prime Minister Hun Sen told his newly approved Cabinet that they would be subject to increased public scrutiny as part of a series of reforms to be undertaken by the CPP over ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/ministers-told-to-prepare-for-public-scrutiny-43405/
With Just One Party Present, King Convenes New Parliament
King Norodom Sihamoni presided over a nearly half-empty opening session of the National Assembly on Monday as all 55 elected lawmakers of the opposition CNRP followed through with their threat to boycott parliament to protest disputed results of July’s national election. Analysts and election monitors ...
Zsombor Peter and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/with-just-one-party-present-king-convenes-new-parliament-43033/
Gov’t warns citizens to respect King online
The government yesterday warned citizens to respect King Norodom Sihamoni in social media commentary. The warning then backpedals, acknowledging the government recognises the rights of expression and freedom of the press outlined in the constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ...
Meas Sokchea and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-warns-citizens-respect-king-online
Hun Sen Offers ‘Back Pay’ to Ousted Opposition Lawmakers
Prime Minister Hun Sen has offered to pay back the lost salaries of opposition lawmakers who were stripped of their parliamentary posts in June by the then CPP-led National Assembly, a CNRP official said. The offer to back-pay the 27 lawmakers from the Sam Rainsy Party ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/hun-sen-offers-back-pay-to-ousted-opposition-lawmakers-42679/
Reform talk from CPP
The Cambodian People’s Party is prepared to make sweeping changes during its fifth government mandate, including improving the often-criticised judiciary and prioritising social justice, a government spokesman said. This “period of reform” would see deep-seated changes across a number of ministries in response to grievances expressed ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/reform-talk-cpp
Cambodia Still Undecided About Signing Cluster Munitions Treaty
Despite being one of the earliest proponents of the U.N.-sponsored Convention on Cluster Munitions, Cambodia was still not ready to sign on, an official said on the eve of the fourth annual meeting of state parties to the treaty in Zambia. Heng Ratana, director-general of the ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-still-undecided-about-signing-cluster-munitions-treaty-41918/
Contractor Says Senior Official Approved Siem Reap Land Swap
The head of a construction firm that was involved in a massive land swap with Siem Reap’s provincial government in 2010 defended the deal on Friday saying orders for the move of government offices and civil servants—which is now being reversed—came directly from the national ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/contractor-says-senior-official-approved-siem-reap-land-swap-41909/