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Police seize luxury wood in house raid
About 2,000 kilograms of Kran-houng luxury timber worth tens of thousands of dollars and a Toyota Camry car were seized by authorities in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district on Wednesday, military police said yesterday. ...
Two More Villagers Are Arrested Amid Evictions in Pursat
Two more people in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district were arrested Tuesday in connection with what local authorities are calling a secessionist plot, a forestry official said yesterday. Veal Veng district forestry chief Thorn Bunthet said that Kuy Van, 55, and Leng Chhoeuk, 50, were arrested ...
PM looks to counter OPEC, push rice-exporting power
Cambodia will push to finalise a rice-exporting bloc with four other regional countries by the end of the year in a bid to become the world’s “food basket”, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The group of countries including Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar – ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071957506/Business/pm-looks-to-counter-opec.html
Phnom Penh's new apartments soar on high rents
Real estate developments covered in green tarp have sprung up across the capital’s Boeung Kang Kong commune, and housing units are filling before the projects are finished, insiders said. The value of construction approvals in Phnom Penh jumped by 557.5 per cent in March to US$150.5 ...
Number of Condominiums Grows in Phnom Penh
The number of condominiums in Phnom Penh has increased 22 percent to 2,578 units since the beginning of the year, according to data released yesterday by Asia Real Estate Cambodia. The firm said that the majority of the new units came from the completion of 10 ...
Airport Arrivals Soar With Business Traffic
The number of visitors to Cambodia through its two main airports increased 19.7 percent to more than 1 million people in the first half of the year, compared to the same period last year, figures released by Cambodia Airports show. Between January and June, 1,028,285 passengers ...
Cedac Encourages Using Frogs As an Alternative to Pesticides
Cambodian farmers often turn to pesticides when trying to stop insects from destroying crops, but the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (Cedac) has come up with a better idea: frogs. “Frogs are important to protect rice plants from damage by insects, especially during ...
Officials Urge NGOs to Respect Rule of Law in Sonando Case
As criticism continues to mount over the arrest of outspoken Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando, a government spokesman shot back yesterday, accusing NGOs of undermining the country’s rule of law. “NGOs are not a judge and [the] rule of law reflects from the people,” said ...
Cambodia's Garment Workers Earn Additional Wage
Cambodia’s garment workers will earn 10 US dollar additional wage from September 1, the statement from the advisory committee of labor said this week. The announcement was made after the meeting between union leaders, employers and minister of labor Vong Suth on July 11. “450,000 of 600,000 workers from 700 garment and shoe factories will get this ...
Kantha Bopha hospitals get another $1 million
The Cambodian government donated $1 million to Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospitals on July 18, said Minister of Health Mam Bunheng. The donation came to the free outpatient medical institution as it’s facing a budget shortfall. ...
National Rail Project Heralded by Eviction Notices in Poipet
Poipet City authorities have given dozens of families living along a section of railway slated for renovation 10 days to move or face forcible eviction. Poipet City Deputy Governor An Vanak said that the eviction notice was sent Monday to about 40 families, only eight of ...
Years After Eviction, Families Return In Search of Land Titles
More than 100 families in Stung Treng province have returned to land they were evicted from in 2007, hoping to acquire property titles after student volunteers arrived in the area to demarcate land under the titling program announced last month by Prime Minister Hun Sen. Stung ...
Homes Razed to Stop ‘Secession,’ Officials Say
The homes of nearly 200 families living in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district were demolished yesterday and Monday after officials accused the residents of being involved in a secessionist plot, local officials and villagers said. District governor Chhe Chhiv said that authorities had demolished 191 homes ...
No Plan to Shut Beehive Radio, Gov’t Says
As questions linger over the fate of the independent Beehive Radio station in the wake of its owner’s arrest, a government official yesterday insisted there were no plans to stop it from broadcasting, despite its often critical stance toward the ruling party. “No plan to shut ...
SMEs seek own SEZ
The Federation of Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia (FASMEC) is now pushing for the establishment of a special economic zone (SEZ) for small and medium sized enterprises and is currently discussing such a move with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071857474/Business/smes-seek-own-sez.html
Eviction pain lingers in Phnom Penh
Three years after authorities demolished the last houses in Phnom Penh’s Group 78 community, evictees relocated to the outskirts of the capital are still struggling, the Housing Rights Task Force said yesterday. More than 200 members of the Group 78 community gathered close to the site ...
Second ‘seccesionist’ arrested in Pursat
Another alleged “secessionist” involved in a land dispute was arrested yesterday in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, where villagers said authorities continued a prolonged forced eviction that has led to the destruction of some 500 homes. Three other men accused of attempting to create an autonomous ...
Poipet families told to make way for train
Families living along a planned national train route in Poipet town were told they have 10 days to vacate their properties or be forcibly evicted, residents and NGOs said yesterday. Eang Vuthy, Development Watch Program Manager of Equitable Cambodia, said an eviction notice from the Poipet ...
Sonando broadcast targeted PM
A day before Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly called for the arrest of Mam Sonando, the Beehive Radio station director hosted a fiery broadcast from The Hague, where lawyers were trying to launch a case against the premier in the International Criminal Court. Just under three ...
Rural surveyors miss Phnom Penh
Inner city students enlisted into Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-titling program have been getting a taste of the rural life and some of them are ready to come home. Prepped with a two-day crash course in surveying, more than 1,000 youths have been dispatched across ...
Alleged 'secessionist' faces 15 years
Beehive radio station director and accused “secessionist” Mam Sonando was sent to Prey Sar prison yesterday, where he will be detained until his trial on formal criminal charges including insurrection, a conviction that alone could result in up to 15 years behind bars. After two and ...
Mam Sonando Charged, Jailed Ahead of Trial
After two hours of questioning, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sent independent radio station owner Mam Sonando to Prey Sar prison for pretrial detention, where he will await a hearing on allegations that he tried to foment a secessionist movement in Kratie province. As Mr. Sonando was being questioned, ...
GE Engines to power Cambodian rice husk power project
GE Energy has signed a contract with Cambodian industrial conglomerate Soma Group to supply two of its engines to power a biomass gasification facility. Soma Group’s Hak Se mill biomass gasification project is located in Cambodia’s rural rice milling region Kamphong Cham, and reinforces a 2011 ...
http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/7870/ge-engines-to-power-cambodian-rice-husk-power-project
Xayaburi dam construction to proceed
The Laos government will continue to allow what it has dubbed “preparatory work” on the controversial Xayaburi dam, including the resettlement of villagers, despite promising to suspend the project at last week’s ASEAN Regional Forum, according to a media report in Laos. ...