ODC English Site
Documentary Looks at Impact of Mekong Dams
An updated documentary, “Where Have All the Fish Gone?,” examines the impacts of hydroelectric dams on the Mekong River. The Xayaburi dam, which would produce hydropower for market, has become a divisive issue among Mekong River countries. Critics say it could severely damage ecosystems on which ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/documentary-looks-at-impact-of-mekong-dams/1626779.html
Cambodia Ups Minimum Wages for Workers
The Cambodian government on Thursday announced a higher minimum wage of U.S. $80 per month for garment and footwear workers but they were not impressed, vowing to continue a strike until it is raised to U.S. $100. A tripartite meeting between the government, unions and Garment ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-03212013185628.html
Banong Families Close to Communal Land Titles
An indigenous ethnic Banong community in Mondolkiri province yesterday began the final stage in acquiring a communal land title, setting it up to become only the sixth community in the country to secure one of the coveted documents. Established by the 2001 Land Law, communal land ...
Council Of Ministers Backs Hun Sen’s Plan To Rebuild Homes
The Council of Ministers yesterday backed Prime Minister Hun Sen’s plan to rebuild the flattened homes of 49 families who were violently evicted earlier this month in Preah Sihanouk province’s Stung Hav district. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Hun Sen dismissed the Council of Ministers’ ...
Court Questions Chinese National’s Over Chemical Seizure
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned five Chinese nationals after they were arrested during a seizure of more than 106 tons of chemicals police suspect were intended for the production of illegal drugs. The four men and one woman who were arrested on Tuesday, claimed ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-questions-chinese-nationals-over-chemical-seizure-15642/
Evicted Railway Families Facing Debt 'Crisis'
Debt levels among the more than 1,000 families being evicted by a $142.6 million railway project bankrolled by Australia and the Asia Development Bank (ADB) have reached “crisis” proportions and require major intervention, according to a U.S resettlement expert who was hired by the ADB ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evicted-railway-families-facing-debt-crisis-15618/
Titles closer, but ‘land damage done’
Three ethnic Jarai minority communities passed a crucial hurdle on the way to obtaining communal land titles in government-sanctioned ceremonies this week. But a human-rights activist tempered the celebration, saying mass deforestation in the province had already stripped most of the land the villagers are ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032264629/National/titles-closer-but-land-damage-done.html
Million-dollar machine sweetens outlook
Local food producer Ly Ly Food Industry had invested about $1 million for a Chinese-made machine to improve production and food quality as it prepared for the coming regional economic community, the company’s owner said yesterday. Keo Mom said a tremendous amount of goods from neighbouring ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032164553/Business/million-dollar-machine-sweetens-outlook.html
Kingdom, Japan to ink $33.9m grant today
Cambodia will sign a $33.9 million grant aid today from the Japanese government to support various small hydropower dam projects, improve a hospital and update resources of a university, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032164548/Business/kingdom-japan-to-ink-33-9m-grant-today.html
Short on Water in the Tonle Sap
Residents of a village in the middle of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap “Great Lake” live surrounded by water, but don’t have enough access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing. The Tonle Sap, a combined lake and river system that swells in the rainy season to ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/water-03202013141227.html
Last Three Kratie Province ‘Secessionists’ Released from Prison
It was not the hero’s welcome that greeted Mam Sonando when more than a thousand boisterous supporters cheered his release from Prey Sar prison Friday and lifted the popular radio station owner onto their shoulders for an impromptu parade. But for the three unheralded farmers caught ...
Another complaint in Sen Sok
Yet another resident of Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district came forward yesterday to join “Crocodile Grandmother” Chhin Sokoutheary in accusing city and district officials of issuing a false sub-decree to acquire land in the vicinity of Pong Peay Lake in Phnom Penh Thmey commune. Chea Savean, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032062038/National/another-complaint-in-sen-sok.html
MFone workers told to wait
Former employees of the failed telecommunications company MFone have been told they can expect a decision next month on their claims for more than $4 million in compensation. Former Mfone section manager Bou Kunthea said after a meeting yesterday with offic-ials from the Ministry of Social ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032062036/Business/mfone-workers-told-to-wait.html
Majority of Unions Reduce Wage Demands
Six of the 10 labor unions negotiating with the country’s garment manufacturers over a new minimum wage for factory workers dropped their demands yesterday to $73 per month, breaking previous commitments by unions to stand at $91. Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association ...
Villagers say soldiers blocking land
Twenty-seven families in Oddar Meanchey’s Trapaing Prasat district filed a complaint with Hun Sen’s cabinet and the rights group Adhoc on Monday, maintaining that soldiers have been preventing them from farming since October 2012. A representative of the villagers, Soeung Sophea, 59, said yesterday that troops ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032062035/National/villagers-say-soldiers-blocking-land.html
Hun Sen: No to industry along coast
Hun Sen asked authorities to maintain the pristine beaches along coastal provinces by not allowing any industrial factories to be constructed on or near them. The comment was aimed towards an agreement signed by Cambodian and Chinese companies late last month to build a $2.3 ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZmQ1NGIxODRiYTk
Cambodia launches National Council on Green Growth
Cambodia on Tuesday officially inaugurated the National Council on Green Growth, aiming at developing a sustainable economic society with natural resource and environment sustainability. Cambodia has adopted several legal instruments for the green growth implementation. Those included the roadmap for green growth, the memorandum of ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-03/19/c_132246075.htm
Wage talk goes no where
Union leaders asked garment workers to go on strike and demand the $100/month wage because the factory owners were not budging from their $75 stance. Rong Chhun, President of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said “This was the last meeting and we couldn’t ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZWQzNDYwNTM4YmY
1.5 mln hectares of land concessions granted
Hun Sen announced that 1.5 mln hectares of Economic Land Concessions were granted to private companies. 1.2 mln hectares, 80 percent, of the concessions are used for rubber plantation sector. He said, that Cambodia still maintain[s] 9.2 mln hectares of forest land even though 1.5 mln ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=OWU3Nzc3ODg4YjY
Beaches to drive tourism
The Ministry of Tourism and the French TV channel TF1 have signed a deal on a “2013 action plan” that will promote Cambodia’s beach tourism. The agreement was inked yesterday by Tourism Minister Thong Khon and Franck Firmin Guion, the president of Adventure Line Product-ions (ALP). The plan ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031962003/Business/beaches-to-drive-tourism.html
ADB Smothers Report On Families Hit by Rail Project
The Asian Development Bank has refused to release a critical study on the impacts its $141.6 million railway project is having on thousands of Cambodian families because disclosure of the report could hurt its relationship with the government, an ADB spokeswoman said. Raising concerns about the ...
Titles near as students finally on way to district
Nearly 50 families in Koh Kong province’s Kiri Sakor district will finally receive official titles after repeatedly requesting – and being denied – student volunteers to measure their land, the villagers’ commune chief said yesterday. Koh Pol commune chief Ev Kosal, who participated in the meeting ...
R’kiri minorities say land’s sale improper
Fifty Tampuon ethnic minority families protested yesterday in front of the Soeung Commune Hall in Bakeo district against their commune chief, who they allege sold land that belonged to the Ratanakkiri community. In a complaint filed to rights group Adhoc yesterday, the families claim that commune ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031962012/National/r-kiri-minorities-say-land-s-sale-improper.html
Illegal checkpoints, logging tools netted
Activists in Kratie province’s Snuol district seized seven chainsaws over the weekend and collected evidence that four police checkpoints were used to solicit bribes from illegal loggers, representatives of the network said yesterday. After scouring thousands of hectares of protected forest from Friday through yesterday, the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031962013/National/illegal-checkpoints-logging-tools-netted.html