News
ELCs on mind at donor meet
While protesters demonstrated outside, urging land and human-rights reform, members of the donor community met with the government yesterday at the Council for the Development of Cambodia in Phnom Penh to sign off on a series of development targets that bore only a faint resemblance to those ...
LG looks to introduce Optimus G soon
One of the top three manufacturers of mobile phones for the Cambodian market, LG, is likely to roll out its new flagship product, the Optimus G, by the end of the year. Success in the smartphone market would signal a successful turnaround for LG. Prior ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012092758949/Business/lg-optimus-g-coming-soon.html
World Bank urges government to accelerate reforms
The World Bank urged the Cambodian government Wednesday to accelerate reforms while taking a participatory approach to its National Strategic Development Plan. Speaking at a meeting of the Development Partner Coordination Committee, World Bank Country Director Annette Dixon congratulated the government on its current development plan ...
Cambodia's Angkor Wat Temple attracts 1.36 mln foreign visitors in 8 months, up 31%
About 1.36 million international tourists visited Cambodia’s Angkor Wat Temple, one of the World Heritage Sites, in the first eight months of this year, a 31 percent rise compared with 1.04 million during the same period last year, a report of Siem Reap provincial tourism ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/culture/2012-09/26/c_131874967.htm
AOS to extend reach with Cambodia, Singapore offices
MALAYSIA’S leading inbound tour operator Asian Overland Services (AOS) Tours & Travel has unveiled plans to expand regionally to provide customer support for its online B2B portal, aosclick.com, which has been recording double-digit growth since its 2009 launch. Two overseas offices will be established in Cambodia ...
Cambodia Aims for Offshore Production Next Year
The Cambodian government expects U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. CVX -0.53%to begin developing the country’s first offshore oil field early next year, and hopes the nation will become a regional hot spot for oil and gas investment, a government official said Wednesday Chevron discovered commercial resources ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443507204578020023711640726.html
GO Communications snaps up Cambodia's Active Event Management
Malaysia-based GO Communications Group has acquired Active Event Management, one of the leading public relations and events agencies in Cambodia. The 100-per-cent buy-out follows the group’s signing of a partnership agreement with leading Thai PR agency DC Consultants in May. Danai Chanchaochai, CEO of DC Consultants, said ...
Social Work to shape Kingdom
Social work, long-established in developed countries but unheard-of in Cambodia, could be set to change the face of child protection in the country as interest in the field grows. Last week, a hundred potential social workers from around the country came to Phnom Penh for an ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012092558885/Lifestyle/social-work-to-change-cambodia.html
Bokor development harms biodiversity
Two studies have found that development on Bokor Mountain in Kampot province is threatening some of the area’s plant and animal species. The Sokimex Group has been granted development rights for the entire mountain and in May, the first of three hotels to be built ...
First certified organic rice heads for Europe
Five metric tonnes of certified organic rice — the first such shipment from Cambodia — will depart for the European Union this Friday. The shipment, exported from Cambodia by an entity called Green Trade, comprises three tonnes of brown rice and two tonnes of white jasmine ...
Training needed for tourist industry
Representatives of Cambodia’s booming tourism industry yesterday called on the Asian Development Bank to provide funding for workforce training in the sector. During the meeting at the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, tour operator Ho Vandy, who also co-chairs the Tourism Working Group in the Government-Private Sector Forum, said representatives ...
Citibank looks to Cambodia for investment opportunities
Citibank, one of the largest banks in the US, showed stronger interest in Cambodia yesterday when the Bangkok-based Thailand head of the big international bank met with Economy and Finance Minister Kheat Chhon. Mey Vann said Citibank recognized that Cambodia had a good investment climate and incentives ...
Thais Appeal Sentence in Prisoners Case
Three Thai convicted of imprisoning three other Thai and two Chinese nationals over debts owed to a Poipet City casino asked the Appeal Court yesterday to reduce their 25-year prison sentences. The defendants-Chelao Keutthang,42; Chanadet Chareunsuk, 28; and Narungvit Cheuman, 28-were arrested in November 2009 when Banteay ...
Hun Sen Urges Vigilance as Flood Conditions Persist
More than 100 families were evacuated to higher ground in Banteay Meanchey province’s Serei Saophoan City yesterday, as Prime Minister Hun Sen urged people to be vigilant in the face of continued flooding. After heavy rain last night, 100 more people from Serei Saophan City ...
Anti-Eviction Activists Conjure Up Curses to Bolster Cause
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Borei Keila neighborhoods yesterday sprinkled a concoction of chili, salt and black rice into flames of a small fire in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to “curse” the court officials they accuse of unjustly charging and ...
Protests call for workers to be rehired
Nearly 100 workers held a strike inside Phnom Penh’s Conpress Holdings jeans factory yesterday to demand the company allow four fired workers to return to work. The Seak Meanchey district factory, which employs more than 1,000 workers, fired the four in August because they attempted to ...
Official pushes for an information access act
Many groups, including the ruling party, would benefit from a proposed access to information law – which would provide transparency when it comes to the government’s development plans and spending – a Council of Ministers official said yesterday. Tuot Lux, a legal expert who has been ...
UN Envoy Paints Bleak Picture of Economic Land Concessions
Economic land concessions (ELCs) benefit only a minority, the human rights consequences of the concessions are stark, and Cambodia’s sustainable economic development is threatened by the practice. U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi told the Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday. Mr. Subedi cited uneven access to ...
Government Hopes for Chevron Offshore Oil Deal This Year
The Cambodian government expects U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. CVX +0.77% to begin developing the country’s first offshore oil field early next year, and hopes the nation will become a regional hot spot for oil and gas investment, a government official said Wednesday. Cambodia has vast untapped oil and gas resources ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443507204578020023711640726.html
US Says Army Truck in Crash Not a Donation
An American-made army truck that was allegedly used to smuggle illegal timber through SIem Reap province, and which crashed and killed a family of three on Friday, was not a U.S. government donation, the embassy confirmed yesterday. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said an inspection ...
NGOs Discuss Reforms Ahead of Donor Meeting
At a meeting in Phnom enh to prepare for today’s high-level donor Government-Development Partner Coordinating Committee (GDCC) forum, dozens of mostly local NGOs agreed on their own list of broad reform suggestions for the government. But land disputes took center stage. Today’s GDCC meeting, which the ...
Villagers facing re-eviction
Villagers evicted from the former Sambok Chab community in the capital’s Dangkor district in 2006 face eviction for the second time – this time without any compensation, evictees told the Post yesterday. According to villager Heng Pheng Chun, 26, authorities in Por Sen Chey district have ...
Land abuses 'threaten stability'
Cambodia’s economic land concession (ELC) policies are hindering development far more than helping it and beginning to erode the country’s hard-won stability, Cambodia’s special rapporteur warned yesterday. “As I have noted in relation to other sectors in Cambodia, the existence of the legal framework on paper ...
Gov't Says No Plans to Send Maids to Singapore
The governemnt yesterday denied a recent news report that discussions were under way to have Cambodian domestic workers sent to Singapore. An Bunhak, chairman of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA), said he did not know of any immediate plans to send maids to ...