ព័ត៌មាន
Cambodian Rice Exports Fall Short of Government Hopes
Cambodia’s rice exports in 2012 may fall significantly compared to last year, due to high fuel prices, soaring logistics costs and high prices. According to local sources, Cambodian rice shipments to Europe this month are at a $200 markup per container over those from Thailand and ...
Slow outlook for 2012 rice exports
Rapidly increasing logistics costs and low regional rice prices would hinder Cambodia’s rice-export target this year, with one expert saying that milled-rice exports could fall to half of last year’s shipments. The cost of shipping rice to Europe climbed by more than 50 per cent between ...
Charity Calls on UK Gov’t to Act for Cambodian Workers
A report by a U.K.-based charity has highlighted the low pay of Cambodian garment workers and called on the British government to intervene in disputes involving Southeast Asian factories supplying British retailers. Restricting Rights, a report published Tuesday by anti-poverty charity War on Want, looks at ...
Agreement reached at Thai seafood factory
A conclusive settlement has been reached in the long-running dispute between a Thai seafood factory and its Cambodian employees, Cambodian ambassador to Thailand You Ay said yesterday. Rights groups and workers at the Phatthana Seafood factory in Thailand’s Songkhla province, which employs 1,050 Cambodians, have accused ...
Q1 exports to Thailand soar
Cambodia’s exports to Thailand jumped 55 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2012 on what experts and officials said was a smoother political relationship between the countries, as well as an easing of Thai border regulations. The Kingdom shipped US$85.4 million in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051656176/Business/q1-exports-to-thailand-soar.html
Thailand moves on double tax treaty with Cambodia
Thailand is moving forward to strike a double tax treaty with Cambodia, to cope with increasing cross-border trade. Sathit Rungkasiri, director general of the Revenue Department, said it is a priority to expand the double tax treaty with all countries in Asean to prepare for the ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Double-tax-treaty-with-Cambodia-eyed-30182041.html
Hundreds Stopped in Attempt to Curb Illegal Logging on Border
Hundreds of would-be illegal loggers have been stopped this year by provincial authorities in Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey and Banteay Meanchey who have stopped them from crossing the border into Thailand, where Thai soldiers have killed 17 Cambodians so far this year. In Preah Vihear alone, ...
Walmart Denies Link to Factory Tied to Abuse of Cambodians
Mega U.S. retailer Walmart has denied allegations that it buys food products from a Thai seafood factory accused of trafficking and mistreating Cambodian workers. In a report released on Tuesday, the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC), which has sent staff to investigate the Phatthana Seafood Co. ...
Passport fee latest wrinkle in factory workers’ Thai plight
A rights group has raised concerns that up to 100 Cambodian migrant workers at a Thai seafood processing factory will be stranded abroad in less than a week without any income because they cannot afford to pay a passport fee demanded by their employer. Of the ...
Cambodians Face Abuse at Seafood Factory
A Thai seafood factory supplying retail giant Walmart is continuing to violate its labor arrangements with hundreds of Cambodian workers there and could leave up to 100 of them stranded and jobless by next week, the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) said in a new ...
Thailand's allure is strong in Srei Snam
Dry, parched ground – evidence of severe dry season drought – stretches for miles in Siem Reap’s Srei Snam district. In a couple of months, the rains will flood these fields. Both conditions make it equally impossible to produce a good harvest. Srei Snam was a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051056096/National-news/looking-for-a-better-life.html
Thai jobs serve as siren song
Every day they come in the thousands and crowd under a blazing sun for hours, awaiting a moment that costs them more than two full months’ salary – a passport. And where are they going? “Thailand,” 21-year-old Sem Pheaktra said, squinting under a harsh mid-morning sun. He, and ...
Country’s First Life Insurance Firm Enters Market
The first company to offer Cambodians life insurance will launch on May 21, an official at the company said yesterday, though experts said the firm could struggle to make good profits in a market where fraudulent claims and limited customers could become a stumbling block. Cambodia ...
Laos Says Xayaburi Not Environmental Threat
The Laos government has said that all the necessary environmental assessments for the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River have been completed and that no damage will be inflicted on the fisheries in countries further downstream when built, an official at the Cambodia National Mekong Committee said yesterday. Watt Botkosal, ...
Thailand Asked to Help Stop Labor Smuggling
Cambodian officials asked their Thai counterparts during a meeting Friday to crack down on human smugglers on their side of the border who bring Cambodians in to work in Thailand. Banteay Meanchey provincial government spokesman Ouk Keoratanak said a delegation led by provincial Deputy Governor Try ...
Cambodia 'must admit to logging'
At a meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had admitted Cambodians were conducting illegal logging and that Thai authorities were right to attempt to defend their territory. On Saturday, 20 natural resource protection officials from Si Sa Ket province which borders ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/292142/cambodia-must-admit-to-logging
Trade with Vietnam climbs
Export to Vietnam climbed more than 57 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2012 as farmers looked for alternative destinations for products that went to Thailand last year. The primarily agricultural exports to Cambodia’s eastern neighbour were worth US$201.5 million, up from ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050355944/Business/trade-with-vietnam-climbs.html
Xayaburi opposition escalates in Thailand
Criticism of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in northern Laos is mounting in Thailand – the country set to enjoy most of the electricity if the project is completed. Representatives from 130 Thai civil-society organisations yesterday published a statement backing a report that outlines an ...
Thai protesters rally against Xayaburi dam construction
Protests over construction of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in northern Laos could spread from Thailand to Cambodia as communities along the Mekong River begin to feel its negative effects, an International Rivers programme director said yesterday. About 70 Thai villagers who rely on the ...
Walmart intervention sought at Thai factory
A large North American union has called on US retail giant Walmart to take immediate action against one of its seafood suppliers in Thailand accused of holding Cambodian workers in debt bondage while barely providing them with enough money to eat. The United Food and Commercial Workers ...
Thai ban weighs on Cambodia's corn crop
A Thai ban on Cambodian corn and other agricultural products led to a 65 per cent year-on-year drop in the Kingdom’s corn exports during the first two months of the year, officials claimed yesterday. January and February exports fell to 2,333 tonnes from 6,694 a year ...
Microfinance Firms Look to Retail Lending
While shopping for a brand-new television, 27-year-old Loek Bunhai recently bought a Sony flat-screen at the Sunsimexco retail outlet on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard for $345. But with a monthly salary of $300 from his job as a microfinance officer in Phnom Penh, Mr. Bunhai was ...
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 ...