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H&M slammed over wages
Criticism has mounted against Swedish multinational clothing company H&M in its home country following a documentary released last week that sheds light on wages in its source factories in Cambodia. The episode of Swedish network TV4’s Kalla Fakta, or Cold Facts, focuses mainly on Cambodian garment ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102959442/National-news/ham-slammed-over-wages.html
Europe Adopts Resolution on Cambodian Rights Situation
Drawing from a long list of human rights abuses, the European Parliament has urged the Cambodian government to stop forced evictions, called on the European Commission (E.C.) to investigate the country’s controversial land concessions policy, and raised the prospect of sanctions. In a resolution passed Friday ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/europe-adopts-resolution-on-cambodian-rights-situation-4862/
European body sends a message
The European Parliament, representing one of the country’s largest donors, on Friday called for a moratorium on forced evictions, an overhaul of elections and even went so far as to suggest to the European Union that it suspend tariff-free imports of agricultural goods linked to ...
Government Allocates More Than $3 Billion in 2013 Budget
The government has allocated more than $3 billion for total government spending in 2013, an increase of 19.2 percent on the $2.6 billion the government planned to spend in 2012, according to a statement issued by the Council of Ministers on Friday. The statement did not ...
Three More Airlines to Offer Flights to Cambodia
Three more international airlines will soon begin operating flights to Cambodia’s two main airports, according to Cambodia Airports, which owns and operates the facilities. Lao Central Airlines and Qatar Airways will offer flights to Phnom Penh, and Frankfurt-based Condor Air will fly direct to Siem Reap, ...
Maid Company Offers Alternative to Migration
A new made-service company that claims to be the only one of its kind in Cambodia is offering an alternative employment option for the country’s many domestic workers who face insecure, and often abusive, workplace conditions overseas. Ming Hour Home Service, which opened in July, employs ...
Missing girl feared trafficked
Meas Bopha, 47, sits in an outdoor pagoda over a lotus-filled pond on her property in Kampong Speu, home to 10 of her 12 children, and wipes back tears as she talks about her missing teenage daughter, Bophea, who vanished one morning last week. Bophea ...
Too few businesses registered
A majority of small and medium enterprises in Cambodia were not registered, despite the advantages it offered to businesses, participants at a workshop on business registration procedure, intellectual property and business etiquette for women heard yesterday. Referring to 2011 statistics, Chan Sorey, vice-minister of the Ministry ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102659433/Business/too-few-businesses-registered.html
PM urges migrant protection
Some 285 million workers will migrate for employment when ASEAN countries open their borders to each other in 2015, Prime Minister Hun Sen predicted yesterday, as he urged speedier regional legislative action to ensure they could travel safely. At an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council meeting, the premier warned ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102659423/National-news/pm-urges-migrant-protection.html
Ratanakiri deaths 'avoidable'
Better communication from authorities in Cambodia and Vietnam might have prevented the deaths of villagers and the destruction of homes in Ratanakkiri at times when water has been released from Vietnam’s Yali Falls dam, researchers said yesterday. Speaking at a national workshop about the Yali Falls ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102559406/National-news/ratanakkiri-deaths-avoidable.html
ADB may back disputed dam
The Asian Development Bank is considering providing funds to a controversial 400 megawatt dam project in Laos that could have adverse impacts on the Mekong River in downstream Cambodia. Conservation group International Rivers wants the Lao government to pull the plug on the $1 billion Xe ...
More Houses Torn Down In Canal Clean-Up
Authorities in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district continued to demolish houses in Niroth commune yesterday, despite 46 families appealing to the municipality and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet to intervene. On Tuesday, three houses were torn down as part of efforts to clean up a stretch of ...
Ratanakiri Court Questions Rights Workers
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday questioned the first of two human rights workers who are suing local officials for allegedly disrupting a July meeting they were hosting for villagers in Lumphat district. Deputy court prosecutor Ros Saram said he questioned Chhim Savuth, program officer for the ...
Chinese Factory Manager Deported, Another Stands Trial
A Chinese garment factory manager was deported yesterday after she was given a one year suspended sentence for destroying a picture of the late King Norodom Sihanouk, officials said. The deportation took place as another Chinese factory manager, Liv Kuy Chheang, was charged by the ...
Advocacy Group Slams Murder Case 'Hush Up'
Reporters Without Borders has joined mounting criticism of the government’s handling of the April 26 murder of environmental activist Chut Wutty. On Monday, a security guard was convicted of accidentally killing the officer officially blamed for the activist’s death. “How convenient,” the Paris-based advocacy group said in a ...
Fight to Save Mekong Dolphin Makes Enemies
Sitting at his outpost overlooking the Mekong River, Deab Kuy remembers an incident some years ago when fishermen threatened to attack him if they were stopped from casting their nets around the river’s sandy islets here in Sambok commune. The outpost, little more than a wooden house on ...
Airport Operator to Go Ahead With Expansion
Cambodia Airports said yesterday that it planned to move forward with plans to build a new security fence at Phnom Penh International Airport ahead of next month’s Asean and East Asia summits, even though its construction will result in more than 180 families being evicted. Speaking ...
Index Shows Little Progress in Gender Equity
Cambodia has made almost no progress over the past six years when it comes to gender equality, and is still the lowest-ranked country in the region, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2012 Gender Gap Index. Ranked 103 out of 135 countries surveyed, Cambodia placed last ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/index-shows-little-progress-in-gender-equality-4777/
Kratie meet pushes dolphin protection
Residents of Kratie province had an education in conservation yesterday as the government and outside partners reiterated a September sub-decree banning gill nets on a sizable stretch of the Mekong in a bid to protect the badly endangered Mekong River dolphin. Touch Seang Tana, head of the Commission ...
More Lao land deals inked
Laos has contracted firms to build and operate another significant hydro-power plant on the Mekong River system, adding to the existing furor over potential effects on downstream countries such as Cambodia from the controversial Xayaburi dam. The contracts, reportedly worth $1 billion, are for a series of three dams making ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102559403/National-news/more-lao-dam-deals-inked.html
Cambodia issues licenses to 2,606 new firms in 9 months, up 11 percent
Cambodia had granted operating licenses to 2,606 new companies in the first nine months of this year, a 11 percent rise from 2,336 new firms at the same period a year ago, the report of the Commerce Ministry showed Wednesday. Those companies are dealing in the ...
Fish output likely to drop
Fishery resources could fall this year because of a lack of flooding along rivers and waterways impeding fish from travelling freely or finding food to encourage their growth, a fishery official says. Sam Nov, deputy general director of Fishery Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102459389/Business/fish-output-likely-to-drop.html
Kompong Thom Prepares to Halt 100 Illegal Miners
Kompong Thom provincial officials will stop illegal gold mining in seven locations in Sandan district’s Meanrith commune come November, provincial and district officials said. About 100 residents of Meanrith have been illegally digging for gold in the district for several years, provincial deputy governor King Vimean ...
Global Witness Adds to Criticism of Chut Wutty Murder Case
Environment rights group Global Witness yesterday joined the call for an independent investigation into the April 26 murder of conservation activist Chut Wutty following the conviction of a security guard in the case. On Monday the Koh Rong Provincial Court sentenced Rann Boroth, a security guard ...