The Cambodia Daily
1,000 More Logs Discovered Inside Ratanakkiri Land Concession
Forestry Administration officials and police yesterday discovered a stockpile of more than 1,000 logs that ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district claim have been illegally cut by the Vietnamese owners of a rubber concession, a district official said. The 4,000-hectare concession was granted to ...
Hun Sen Encourages Cambodians to Emulate Chinese-Style Wealth
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday encouraged Cambodians to strive for Chinese-style millionaire status as he inaugurated a sugar refinery located inside two controversial plantations belonging to CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat and his wife in Kompong Speu province. “I have one clear policy in strengthening the ...
Illegal Luxury Wood Seized From National Police Truck
Forestry officials in Siem Reap province seized 14 cubic meters if illegally logged luxury wood being transported by a truck bearing National Police license plates, Forestry Administration officials said yesterday. ...
Hun Sen Asks Companies to Invest in Private Fire Trucks, Again
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday appealed to the private sector for the second time to invest in fire trucks instead of depending on the government’s fire departments. “Please try to do two jobs. The first is to get the fire sprinkler systems into the factory ...
Bank Accounts Rare in Cambodia, Even for Rich
Despite an expanding financial sector, increasing access to credit and strong economic growth in recent years, fewer than 1 in 20 Cambodians has a bank account, according to a new policy working paper by the World Bank. According to the paper – released earlier this month ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/bank-accounts-rare-in-cambodia-even-for-rich-6957/
Court Releases Anti-Eviction Activist, but Charge Stands
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday convicted 64-year-old Borei Keila resident Tim Sakmony for making a false declaration, but released the anti-eviction activist owing to time already served in prison. Ms. Sakmony’s day in court came, without explanation, at precisely the same time as the trial ...
Union Delivers Leaflets Urging Garment Worker Strike
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) is distributing 10,000 leaflets to garment workers across Phnom Penh, urging them to join a strike on Sunday, CCU officials said yesterday. “We would like to invite them to join us to demand for an increase if the base ...
Haul of Logs Discovered Inside Ratanakkiri Land Concession
The Forestry Administration and military police are investigating reports of a stockpile of nearly 300 logs that ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadaw district claim have been illegally cut by the Vietnamese owners of a land concession, local officials said yesterday. Indigenous villagers living in Paknhai ...
Unions to Protest Court Ruling in Triple Shooting
Union leaders are planning a demonstration in January to protest the Svay Rieng Provincial Court’s decision last week to drop charges against the former Bavet City governor, Chhouk Bundith, who was the chief suspect in the shooting of three garment factory workers during a violent ...
World Bank Tight-Lipped on Resumption of Financial Assistance
The World Bank has declined to say whether it will resume providing financial assistance to Cambodia, despite a bank official allegedly telling anti-eviction protesters last week that the organization planned to do so next year. In August 2011, World Bank country director for Southeast Asia Annette ...
Rubber plant opts for export
A local investor has spent nearly US$5 million setting up a rubber-processing factory in Kampong Cham, a key province in the Kingdom’s rubber production for export rather than producing final products, an insider says. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122460430/Business/rubber-plant-opts-for-export.html
Seven Vietnamese Arrested for Logging Inside Land Concessions
Seven Vietnamese men have been arrested for illegally felling trees inside two government-granted economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, where a Jarai ethnic minority community is fighting to preserve the forest and their ancestral lands. ...
Annual Prahok Season Threatened by Poor Catch
Cambodia’s annual prahok season began Wednesday along the Tonle Sap River, with fishermen unloading boatloads of tiny fish onto weigh stations along the riverbank. But due to low water levels during this year’s five-day migration season, fishermen and buyers were predicting a poor catch, both in ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/prahok-season-threatened-by-low-water-levels-6818/
Telecommunications Minister Assures Internet Cafe's Futures
More than a month after ordering Internet cafes within 500 meters of schools to shut down, Telecommunications Minister So Khun said yesterday that no cafes would be force to close. “We have no plans to close any cafes. We encourage more to open,” Mr. Khun said ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/telecommunications-minister-assures-internet-cafes-futures-6801/
Telecom Minister Wants Mobile Firms to Merge
Telecommunications Minister So Khun said yesterday that more mergers and acquisitions should take place between Cambodia’s mobile operators in order to ease the ruthless competition currently seen in the market. ...
Chinese Steel Giant Gets Ready for Cambodian Arm
A massive Chinese steel firm, with which Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a $2 billion deal to build a steel mill in September, has formed a subsidiary company in Cambodia, according to a company announcement. Delong Holdings Limited, which is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange but has ...
National Bank Constructing New Office Building
The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) is constructing a spacious new office building in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district, though officials at the central bank yesterday insisted there were no plans in store to vacate their current, storied headquarters on Norodom Boulevard. “The headquarters will remain where it is ...
Jarai Call for Vietnamese Rubber Companies to Cease Logging
Representatives of an ethnic Jarai community in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, along with local human rights group Adhoc, have called on two Vietnamese rubber companies to cease the clearing of forests on their ancestral land and exporting the logs to Vietnam. The companies, Day Dong Yoeun ...
World Bank Report Predicts 6.6 Percent Growth
Cambodia’s economy will grow by an average of 7 percent in each of the next five years, the World Bank said yesterday in a report on the country’s economic outlook. In its periodic update on economies in the region, the World Bank predicted gross domestic product ...
Families May Lose Farmland To Social Land Concessions
More than 100 families face the loss of their rice fields over a social land concession that was granted to the families of military veterans in Stung Treng province, local authorities and villagers said yesterday. Seven families, who depend on their rice and mango harvest in ...
Royal Group to Import BMWs Into Cambodia
Cambodian conglomerate Royal Group will be the first authorized importer and dealer of BMW automobiles in the country, and has begun construction on a showroom and service center in Phnom Penh. Premium Auto Import Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Royal Group, aims to import roughly 200 ...
Locally Created Video Game Tops Apple's Downloads in Cambodia
A group of 12 Cambodians has developed a new video game for the iPhone that just two weeks after its release has become Cambodia’s most-downloaded game in Apple Inc.’s online store. Since it was released on November 30, “Asva the Monkey” has had more than 3,000 ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/locally-created-video-game-tops-apples-downloads-in-cambodia-6761/
Kreung Minority File Complaint Over Land Clearing
Ethnic minority Kreung villagers filed a complaint against commune level authorities on Saturday for allegedly accepting money from a businessman to clear their ancestral land for a new rubber plantation in Ratanakkiri province, local NGOs and villagers said. ...
$500M Leaves Cambodia Illegally Each Year
Almost $500 million a year was taken out of Cambodia in “illicit financial flows” between 2001 and 2010, a report released yesterday in the U.S. claims. People in the Cambodian finance sector, however, expressed doubts about the accuracy of the figure, which appears in a report ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/500m-leaves-cambodia-illegally-each-year-6748/