The Cambodia Daily

Growing demand abroad for Kampot pepper has resulted in production levels for the commodity increasing by 22 percent to 22 tons during this year’s harvest, officials said yesterday. Nguon Lay, president of the Kampot Pepper Association, said that the amount of farmland used to cultivate pepper ...

The Free Trade Union (FTU) is unhappy with the size of the raise agreed to this week by manufacturers for garment workers and said it would meet next week to decide whether to hold a nationwide strike in August for a larger increase, said FTU ...

The Stung Treng Provincial Court yesterday questioned a Council of Ministers official and her husband over accusations that they tried to cheat a land-titling program spearheaded by Prime Minister Hun Sen, a military police commander said. Meas Sokun, who works for the Council of Ministers’ legal ...

A union representative who was beaten and detained by police during a protest Wednesday was released after being forced to sign a statement taking responsibility for starting a fight with authorities, union officials said yesterday. A bloodied Rong Panha, a representative of the Cambodian Alliance of ...

Despite being downgraded by Moody’s just over two months ago, profits at Cambodian Public Bank (Campu) and Acleda Bank—two of the largest banks in the country—increased by about 50 percent during the first half of the year, according to figures provided by the banks yesterday. In ...

A union representative was beaten with electric batons and arrested by police in Phnom Penh yesterday after more than 20 garment workers marched to submit a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet. The petitioners, workers at the Tai Yang garment factory who belong to the ...

Police in Stung Treng province on Tuesday arrested a Council of Ministers official and her husband for trying to cheat a land-titling program Prime Minister Hun Sen announced last month, according to local officials. It marks the second time this week that authorities arrested or detained ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday raised the issue of territorial disputes in the South China Sea with Prime Minister Hun Sen and outlined the strong focus the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is currently placing on the Asean region, officials said. Arriving in ...

Manufacturers in Cambodia yesterday agreed to increase the monthly wage of garment workers by $7 per month by providing them with additional allowances for transportation and housing, bringing the minimum wage packet taken home every month to $73. The raise occurred as the number of strikes ...

A second police official in Ratanakkiri province has been suspended on suspicion that he demanded money from villagers so that their names could be included on a list of people eligible for land titles as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new titling program, police ...

The share price of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), the only stock so far to trade on Cambodia’s recently launched bourse, fell yesterday to the lowest price since its first day of trading nearly three months ago. At the day’s close, stock in PPWSA ...

The government last month privatized more than a dozen department and commune offices in some prime locations around Phnom Penh, and will move many of them to Sen Sok district, according to documents and officials. A sub-decree dated June 27 and signed by Prime Minister Hun ...

Less than two weeks after being released from prison, the 13 women convicted in May for protesting evictions at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community staged their first public action yesterday. The women, joined by about as many neighbors, submitted petitions to the Australian, French, U.K. and ...

A local police official in Ratanakkiri province has been suspended for demanding money from villagers before adding their names to a list of people eligible for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s new land-titling program, police and villagers said yesterday. A total of 1,100 student volunteers are being ...

Less than four months after suspending work on Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, Toll Royal Railways (TRR), the network’s operator, has informed the government that it will recommence transporting construction materials needed to build the southern line on Aug. 1, company officials said yesterday. The decision to ...

The Siem Reap Provincial Court charged the director of a recruitment agency with fraud for allegedly taking money from victims in exchange for promising jobs in the U.S., a court official said yesterday. “Bich Bunara, head of the recruitment agency, was charged with fraud and another ...

Forestry Administration officials in Banteay Meanchey province have confiscated and continue to hold equipment valued at $1.5 million from a troubled biofuel plantation without any legal backing, an official in the provincial governor’s office said. Bulldozers, steamrollers and dump trucks were confiscated last month from a ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday said Asean would not postpone its plans to approve a controversial human rights declaration for the region by November, and would publicize only “key provisions” of the draft beforehand. Disappointed by the lack of openness and concerned that the declaration will ...

Authorities in Daun Penh district rounded up more than 80 homeless people, drug users and prostitutes ahead of this week’s high-level meetings for Asean and regional delegates in Phnom Penh, a district official said yesterday. District governor Sok Sambath said that the 82 people rounded up ...

The director of a recruitment agency in Siem Reap will face fraud charges today at the provincial court for allegedly taking money from victims in exchange for promised jobs in the U.S., police said yesterday. Hong Bunhav, chief of research and investigations section of the Siem ...

A further nine excavators used in the creation of illegal reservoirs have been seized by military police in Kompong Thom province’s Stong district, bringing the total number of machines confiscated this week to 38, police said Thursday. Twenty-nine excavators were seized during raids around the Tonle ...

Veun sai district, Ratanakkiri – Kitted out in their camouflage uniforms, military boots, belts and Ministry of Land Management baseball caps, the dozen or so student volunteers looked like a stern bunch. There was no smiling as they sat at wooden desks in an open pagoda ...

The state-owned energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) will increase the price of electricity in September for tens of thousands of homes in Phnom Penh and three other provinces due to a hike in the cost of energy being supplied by Vietnam, officials said yesterday. Ty ...

About 2,000 workers at a factory supplying clothes to U.S. brands Levi Strauss, Gap and Old Navy were stopped by security forces yesterday as they attempted to march from Kandal province to the Ministry of Labor to protest for severance payments and additional benefits. Protests at ...