News
Svay Rieng Court Questions Victims in SEZ Shooting Case
The Svay Rieng Provincial Court on Friday questioned three female factory workers who were shot, allegedly by Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith, during a protest inside a special economic zone (SEZ) in February, the plaintiffs said. More than 20 union leaders and labor activists also gathered ...
Thousands of Striking Factory Workers Briefly Block City Road
Nearly 6,000 striking garment factory workers briefly blocked Road 371 in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district on Friday to bring attention to their demands for higher salaries, union officials and protesters said. Marking the third day of strike action, the mainly female workers moved into the middle ...
No Access to Kratie Village After Killing
The village in Kratie province where a teenage girl was shot dead by government security forces on Wednesday remained completely sealed off to independent observers on Friday, drawing concerns from human rights workers that the government had imposed a state of martial law in the ...
Kratie Village Sealed After Girl’s Killing
Kratie city – Soldiers and military police yesterday blocked all access to a village where a 14-year-old girl was shot dead by security forces on Wednesday while the authorities launched a massive operation to evict hundreds of families from the area under a cloak of ...
Mourning villagers flee
Hundreds of people fled in fear yesterday from the village in Kratie province where a bloody security forces crackdown the previous morning left a 14-year-old girl dead. Joint police and military police forces locked down the area where a land dispute has raged this year, and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051856248/National-news/mourning-villagers-flee.html
UK to open investment office
The United Kingdom Trade and Investment Office would establish a permanent branch in Phnom Penh in the expectation that economic ties between the two countries would continue to grow, Cambodian and UK officials said yesterday. Bilateral trade has risen by 300 per cent during the past ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051856232/Business/uk-to-open-investment-office.html
Growing Number of Strikes Worries Clothing Brands
Major clothing brands sourcing from Cambodia’s garment factories have expressed concern about the growing number of strikes in the country and called for the renewal of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at preventing strikes, a representative from the International Labor Organization (ILO) said yesterday. ...
Koh Kong judge queries reporter in Wutty case
One of the journalists on the scene when environmentalist Chut Wutty was gunned down last month appeared in a Koh Kong provincial court yesterday to answer questions about the shooting incident, which also led to the death of military police officer In Rattana. According to human ...
Brands proving free lunches might exist
Major international garment and shoe brands have expressed interest in funding a food program that would feed Cambodian factory workers lunches in an effort to improve health and productivity, a labour advocate said on Wednesday. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for International Labor ...
British companies eye on Cambodia on education, construction and finance services
Considering the growth potential of US$400-million worth in bilateral trade between the United Kingdom and Cambodia for the past five years, the British Trade and Investment office plans to establish its permanent branch in Phnom Penh. British companies are eyeing investment opportunities in education, construction and ...
Fewer Pig Imports Send Pork Prices Upward
Growing demand for pork on the Thai market since March has lead to an increase in the price of live pigs in Cambodia, as Thai farmers reduce the amount of live pigs exported to Cambodia in order to fuel local demand, officials said yesterday. ...
Trio face forest-clearing charge
A married couple and another man were called before a judge yesterday after being charged with clearing protected forest in Koh Kong province’s Kandorl commune. Kry Deuy, his wife, Moeung Yan, and a man named Soun Sareth cleared about 16 hectares of state-protected forest to cultivate ...
Court Hears Borei Keila Residents’ Case for Housing
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned nine Borei Keila community representatives and a lawyer from the powerful Phanimex firm after residents filed a complaint against the company accusing it of failing to provide them with replacement housing following their eviction. ...
Cambodia rubber drops 6 per cent
Cambodia’s rubber prices declined almost six per cent in the past two weeks, caused by concern over the European crisis with Greece, industry players and Cambodian officials said yesterday. Men Sopheak, deputy director general of Chop Rubber Plantation, a big rubber exporter in Cambodia, said the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051856229/Business/cambodia-rubber-drops-6-per-cent.html
Second can factory will cater to locals’ thirst
Crown Holdings, a metal packaging company, said this week it would build a second factory in Cambodia to keep up with the Kingdom’s growing beer industry. The Sihanoukville factory, which is expected to produce 725 million aluminium cans a year, will be begin operating in the ...
Appeal Begins in Cambodia-Related Fraud Case
An appeal hearing in South Korea involving the CEOs behind two major property projects in Cambodia involved in a massive fraud scandal is scheduled to begin today, an official at the court in Seoul said. In February, a Seoul court sentenced a raft of executives of ...
Strikers told they have it good
About 4,000 workers from two garment factories protested in Phnom Penh yesterday for better working conditions – but bosses told them their 7.5 hour working days and free meals meant they had it pretty good. The workers from SL Garment Processing (Cambodia)’s SL1 and SL2 factories ...
Cambodian Rice Exports Fall Short of Government Hopes
Cambodia’s rice exports in 2012 may fall significantly compared to last year, due to high fuel prices, soaring logistics costs and high prices. According to local sources, Cambodian rice shipments to Europe this month are at a $200 markup per container over those from Thailand and ...
Strategy for ventures: convince yourself
One of the two partners who have created Cambodia’s leading food and beverage company, with 22 outlets, says business is not merely about money, but more about finding a need and serving the need. Kouch Sokly says entrepreneurs need to find out what the market needs ...
Cambodia Home to Frenchman in Bo Xilai Drama
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Throughout the drama this spring revolving around the dismissal of the ambitious Chinese official Bo Xilai and the investigation of his wife as a murder suspect, the most mysterious figure has been a French architect named Patrick Henri Devillers. When Mr. Bo ...
Kratie Demonstration Area Sealed as Police Arrest Leaders
Authorities in Kratie province have denied entry to journalists and rights workers to the site of violent land clashes that led to the death of a teenage girl on Wednesday. Rights workers say they fear for the safety of villagers in Broma village, but police say ...
Cambodian troops seal off village after land clashes
Security forces have sealed off a village in eastern Cambodia and denied entry to human rights workers after the fatal shooting of a teenager in the latest violent eviction aimed at clearing land for development. Soldiers said they needed to secure the area around Proma village, ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/17/cambodian-troops-land-clashes
Death points up urgency of ELC review
The government needs to act – and act now – to review all economic land concessions, which underscore the Kingdom’s dark disease of violent land disputes, rights groups said yesterday. Ten days after Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a regulation for an immediate and indefinite moratorium ...
Slow outlook for 2012 rice exports
Rapidly increasing logistics costs and low regional rice prices would hinder Cambodia’s rice-export target this year, with one expert saying that milled-rice exports could fall to half of last year’s shipments. The cost of shipping rice to Europe climbed by more than 50 per cent between ...