News

Laos held a “groundbreaking” ceremony on Wednesday for a $3.5 billion hydropower dam on the Mekong River that is opposed by environmentalists and some neighbouring countries because of the possible impact on livelihoods, fisheries and agriculture. But it was unclear when actual construction of the contentious ...

Fourteen Cambodian men jailed in Thailand for drug trafficking or illegal logging have been released in the past week after reaching the end of their sentences, a border official said yesterday. Touch Ra, director of the Chaom Sangam Cambodia-Thailand border checkpoint in Oddar Meanchey province, said ...

In a single factory that supplies some of the biggest international brands, faintings occurred every day for five years, a new investigation by the Cambodian Legal Education Centre has found. Until just weeks ago, when the management installed new fans, three to four garments workers were ...

Twelve families from Koh Kong province on Nov. 6  filed a complaint with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s youth volunteers and the Department of Land Management, requesting assistance in a land dispute with businessman, Heng Huy. Pok Yon, the families’ representative, said that earlier this year, Heng ...

Cambodia’s total exports increased more than 13 per cent in the first nine months of this year, with a year-on-year comparison indicating a widening trade deficit. A private-sector representative, an exporter and an independent economist said the slow growth was mainly due to the slowing of ...

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hold a verbal hearing with Cambodian and Thailand over disputed land around Preah Vihear temple in April, government officials said yesterday. “A verbal hearing with the Thai party will be held in April so that [we can] have a ...

The two men convicted of – and widely believed framed for – the 2004 assassination of union leader Chea Vichea are set to appear at the Appeal Court for their retrial today, nearly four years after the Supreme Court released them and ordered a reinvestigation ...

More than 100 moto-taxi and tuk tuk drivers who are part of a little-known workers union submitted a letter to the U.S. Embassy and the European Union Delegation yesterday, asking them not to intervene in the case of Boeng Kak activist Yorm Bopha. It is not ...

Villagers in the Prey Lang forest in Kompong Thom province have filed the complaint with the provincial court and the Forestry Administration accusing a commune police chief of involvement in logging high-grade timber, officials and villagers said yesterday. The complaint, thumbprinted by 210 people, alleges that ...

A factory in Phnom Penh has been ordered to construct a barrier to reduce noise, and a bad smell, from ice-making machinery that runs 24 hours a day and has local residents losing sleep, district officials said. Seventy families from Russei Keo district’s Kilometer 6 ...

The U.K.-based coffee chain Costa Coffee will join the mix of few coffee shops in Phnom Penh when it opens its first branch in Chamcar Mon district next month, representative of the international branch said yesterday. Rami Sharaf, CEO of RMA Cambodia, which represents international brands ...

United Arab Emirates-telecoms group Vimpelcom has hired Standard Chartered to advice it on the sale of its business in Cambodia, Laos, Burundi, Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic, two people familiar with the matter said. New York-listed Vimpelcom wants to focus on its largest markets of ...

The US yesterday criticised Laos for announcing it will begin building the 1,285-megawatt Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River today without studying its potential effects on Cambodia and Vietnam. A spokesperson from the US State Department in Washington said the government was concerned construction of the ...

ASEAN says it will study how to implement a proposed economic partnership with its six external partners that might lead to the foundation of world’s largest economic bloc. The proposed bloc, dubbed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or “ASEAN+6” , would integrate ASEAN’s 10 ...

Cambodia Monday reported a 12% rise in rubber latex exports in the first nine months of this year; however, revenues from the exports went down by 27% due to declining rubber prices in the international market. ...

VINCI Airports will invest close to $400 million on upgrading Cambodia’s airport system over the next eight years, according to chairman, Nicolas Notebaert. Notebaert, speaking at the Global Airport Development (GAD) conference in Paris earlier today, revealed that $80 million would be invested on an extension ...

Disgraced former Lieutenant General Doeun Sovann appeared in court on Nov. 5, 2012. to answer charges for attempting to rope in volunteers from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s national land-titling scheme, monitoring measurment of a disputed plot he allegedly purchased. Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating Judge Ly ...

With less than two weeks until Asean leaders meet in Phnom Penh to consider approval of the region’s first human rights declaration, international NGOs yesterday urged them to postpone passing what they are calling a “deeply flawed” document.  “In the current form, the [Asean Human Rights] ...

Workers who were left stranded after protests at three Tai Yang Enterprises garment factories dragged on for months earlier this year were waiting for a long awaited resolution when they attended the arbitration yesterday. The 53 employees of the Kandal provincial factory, which supplies Levi’s and ...

The amount of cargo entering Cambodia through the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port increased 14.92 percent over the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period in 2011, a port official said yesterday. “We are seeing that the major imports are construction equipment ...

About 100 residents embroiled in land disputes in Phnom Penh submitted a petition to the U.S. Embassy yesterday requesting that President Barack Obama raise the issue of evictions and reform of the country’s land concession policy when he visits Cambodia later this month. The plea comes ...

Hiroshi Uematsu had a tough start in Cambodia, where he heads an economic zone that aims to attract business from his native Japan. He arrived just before the global financial crisis sent the Asian Economic Minnow’s exports into a tailspin and dried up investment interest. Now, ...

The price of paddy rice in Cambodia’s northwestern provinces jumped to 1,500 riel from 1,350 riel per kilogram in mid-October on a lack of supply, but quickly fell to 1,360 riel. Meanwhile, the prices in the Cambodia-Vietnam border provinces rose from 1,300 riel to 1,390 ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and a microfinance industry insider applauded one of Cambodia’s top 10 MFIs Sathapana Limited, for changing the majority shareholder to a commercial bank. They said it proves a positive and strong funding source is essential for MFIs to peruse their ...