ODC English Site
Fourth missing in dam disaster, say witnesses
Workers who directly witnessed the Stung Atai dam accident more than a week ago have contested government accounts, telling the Post four, not three, men were still missing after an outlet pipe burst. Those working or living near the dam also told the Post investigations pledged ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/fourth-missing-in-dam-disaster-say-witnesses.html
In Garment Sector, a Labor Movement Divided
There was so much noise blasting from the loudspeakers that the occasional rallying cry from striking workers at the demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district last week could hardly be heard. One 2-meter high stack of amplifiers had been set up outside the Nex-T factory and ...
Jarai Accuse Officials of Pressure Over Private Land Titles
More than 250 ethnic Jarai families living in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc yesterday, after local officials demanded that the villagers apply for private land titles to protect their property from two Vietnamese rubber companies currently clearing their land, ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/jarai-accuse-officials-of-pressure-over-private-land-titles-6676/
Phnom Penh court reopens investigation on land case
A verdict in the land encroachment case against a prominent businesswoman was not delivered as expected yesterday, after a judge ordered the case be re-investigated due to a lack of evidence. Phnom Penh Municipal Court tried Chhin Sokountheary, director of Layimex Holdings Group, in absentia on ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/phnom-penh-court-reopens-investigation-on-land-case.html
UN,Cambodia jointly hold workshop on Sustainable Energy for All
The United Nations Development Program and Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday jointly held a workshop on Sustainable Energy for All ( SE4All) in order to discuss the future of sustainable energy in Cambodia. The workshop, opened by Suy Sem, Minister of Industry, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/13/c_132038593.htm
Canadian Aid for Communal Land Titles to End in March
Canadian funding for ethnic minority communities in the process of applying for communal land titles will run out in March, and other donors have not yet signed up to take over the task, officials from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), which currently provides the ...
Companies Urged to Respect Labor Standards
Respecting labor standards in Cambodian factories will benefit the garment manufacturing industry in the long-run as more international brands will be tempted to source from the country, labor experts said yesterday at a round-table discussion in Phnom Penh. ...
Illegal-logging claims rejected
Provincial forestry administration officials in Ratanakkiri have dismissed allegations of illegal logging by community residents and chalked the deforestation up to legitimate clearing. A cursory examination of the land in question yesterday seemed to back the company’s claims, Ly Sophan, a team worker at the provincial ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/illegal-logging-claims-rejected.html
Cambodia could tap up to 10,000 MW from hydroelectric dams
Cambodia has great potential in hydropower development and the country could build and tap up to 10,000 megawatts from hydropower dams, said an energy official on Thursday. “At the present, about 10 percent of the hydropower potential is under construction,” Heng Kunleang, chief of the energy ...
Kampong Cham residents say casinos pollute fishing grounds
Residents of Tropang Thlong village in Ponhea Krek district say casinos near the border with Vietnam are polluting fishing grounds. ...
Villagers Demand That Power Company Lower Rates
More than 1,000 families in four communes in Kandal province’s Lvea Em district submitted a petition Sunday to local officials demanding that a private electricity company either lower its rates or the commune switch to cheaper state-run power, villagers and commune chiefs said yesterday. ...
Kep first province to wrap land-titling scheme
Seven months after Prime Minister Hun Sen unveiled an ambitious plan to demarcate 1.8 million hectares of state land and formally acknowledge those who live on it, the completion of the first – albeit the smallest – of eight affected provinces has wrapped up. Marking the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/kep-first-province-to-wrap-land-titling-scheme.html
Crane removed from Gold Tower 42
Last week, the crane on the top of Gold Tower 42 was removed, adding to the sense that the completion of the Korean-owned skyscraper is ultimately a distant hope. The owner of the unfinished skyscraper, sitting at the corner of Sihanouk and Monivong Boulevards entered into ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/Real-Estate/crane-removed-from-gold-tower-42.html
Hun Sen Appeals for Kep's Vines to Be Tamed
Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed yesterday for developers and landowners in Kep City to build fences around their neglected properties to prevent vines from creeping onto the street of the coastal resort. Since much of the land in Kep City is owned by investors who live ...
UN Envoy Calls for Judicial Reform, Lauds Other Progress
The court system is still “chronically underfunded” and laws on its management are almost 20 years overdue, the U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi said yesterday. One year ago, during his sixth mission to Cambodia, Mr. Subedi described reform in the courts as moving at a ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-calls-for-judicial-reform-lauds-other-progress-6630/
New solar powered lights for Cambodia
Cambodia’s energy sector acquired a new product yesterday with the introduction of solar powered lights from energy company Total, advancing it toward a longer term solution to meeting the population’s energy needs. An industry player described the products as a nice bridge toward seeing Cambodia supplied with ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/Business/new-solar-powered-product-launched.html
Thai Rights Commission to Publish Report on Sugar Plantations
A final report from Thailand’s human rights commission on the alleged rights violations of a Thai company involved in two Cambodian sugar plantations is expected by late January, a member of the commission said. In July, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand said its investigation ...
Residents seek compensation as homes fall into Tonle Sap
Nineteen families from Svay Pak commune in Russey Keo district protested for a second day Wednesday after their homes fell into the Tonle Sap River. Twenty-four houses along the river have been affected, they said. Although five have already left, the other 19 refuse to accept ...
Idemitsu, Cambodia sign biofuel production deal
Idemitsu Kosan Co. said Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Cambodian government to promote biofuel production in the Southeast Asian country. The move is part of plans by the Japanese energy firm to produce bioethanol out of cassava, a type of potato, ...
Vietnam Confirms Stake in Sesan Dam Bought by Chinese Firm
A representative of Vietnamese state-owned electricity giant Electricity Vietnam International (EVNI) confirmed yesterday that their stake in a dam project in Stung Treng province has been bought out by their Cambodian and Chinese business counterparts. While Royal Group chairman Kith Meng has maintained that EVNI still ...
EU Ambassador Says Listen to Envoy's Advice
The European Union’s ambassador to Cambodia yesterday urged the government to heed the advice of the U.N.’s visiting human rights envoy, who has come under increasing rebuke from officials for his unflattering reports. Addressing a crowd of about 3,000, mostly garment factory workers, at Phnom Penh’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-ambassador-says-listen-to-envoys-advice-6582/
Families make plea to PM Hun Sen over eviction
Despite a court-ordered land title in their favour, 163 families in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district last week watched excavators rip apart their homes at the behest of two district deputy governors. The forced eviction, denounced in a petition delivered on Friday to Prime Minister Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/General/families-make-plea-to-pm-hun-sen-over-eviction.html
Ethnic group press for communal title
Economic land concessions granted to a pair of Vietnamese companies in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district were endangering the traditional lifestyles of as many as 200 ethnic-minority families, villagerstold the Post yesterday. As the companies actively cleared forest to make room for the eventual rubber plantations, the government ...
Pension scheme ramps up
More than 700,000 workers at private companies and factories across 19 provinces have registered to join a nationwide pension scheme that goes into effect in 2015, Labour Ministry officials told the Post yesterday. A branch of the National Social Security Fund (NSFF), the pension scheme was ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012121160211/National-news/pension-scheme-ramps-up.html