The Cambodia Daily
Maids ban flouted, rights group claims
Despite Prime Minister Hun Sen’s indefinite ban on sending Cambodian maids to Malaysia, two recruitment agencies continued to send maids there yesterday, according to rights group Licadho Recruitment agency Top Manpower put seven recruits on Air Asia flight AK 273 to Kuala Lumpur yesterday morning, while ...
Resume construction or refund us, Gold Tower buyers say
With no restart date in sight more than a year after construction halted on the $240 million Gold Tower 42, investors said yesterday they were forming an association to demand that their deposits be refunded if construction does not resume. Chhin Jintong, who put down a ...
Phnom Penh orders rice sell-off to fight price gouges
City Hall coordinated the release of 120 tons of rice in cooperation with the state-run Rural Development Bank yesterday to keep prices in the city stable amid reports that vendors were using the current floods to gouge customers. Last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the ...
Revenues for first seven months double to $1.6bn
The government has collected 6,557 billion riel, or about $1.6 billion, in revenues in the first seven months of 2011, a figure that is twice that of the $801 million in revenues that were collected during the same period last year, data released by the ...
Borei Keila residents appeal for governor's help
About 100 residents of Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila community embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the powerful construction firm Phanimex filed a complaint at the Prampi Makara district offices on Friday, seeking the intervention of Phnom Penh governor Kep Chuktema and demanding that the ...
Government suspends sending maids to Malaysia
Following repeated reports of abuse and illegal activity, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday ordered recruitment agencies to indefinitely stop sending Cambodian domestic workers to Malaysia, officials said Friday. Secretary of State for the Labor Ministry Oum Mean said that he had received unofficial information about ...
Cambodia post delivers 40% revenue gain
Revenue at Cambodia’s postal service rose 40 percent in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year, an official at Cambodia Post said yesterday, attributing the rise to the postal service gaining complete independence from the Ministry of Posts ...
Trade with China to hit $2 billion this year
Bilateral trade between China and Cambodia is on track to reach $2 billion by the end of this year, its highest level ever, an official at the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh said. Jin Yuan, economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy, said during a ...
K Chhnang court suspends 15 from M&V Factory
Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court on Tuesday gave permission to M&V International Manufacturing garment factory to suspend two Free Trade Union representatives and 13 other workers after they allegedly instigated an illegal protest earlier this month, a court official said Wednesday. Penh Vibol, provincial chief prosecutor, said ...
Chinese 'no-strings' loans come at a cost
As government borrowing from China continues to increase, a new study released yesterday showed that Chinese concessional loans carry higher interest than any others. According to the study, released by the NGO Forum on Cambodia at a workshop in Phnom Penh, China’s average interest rate on ...
Angkor Air to start flights to Sihanoukville in December
The national carrier Angkor Air will launch a regular flight service on December 14 between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, said Quang Dinh, assistant to the CEO of Cambodia Angkor Air, yesterday This will be the first time that Sihanoukville, the nation’s main coastal destination, will receive ...
Hongkong Land plans to break ground in 2012
Hongkong Land, one of Asia’s largest property investment companies, plans to have excavators move in on one of its four properties in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district that it bought earlier this year, according to an official at the company. John Brinsden, country adviser for Jardine ...
Education overhaul needed to grow economy
Cambodia’s education sector needs a complete overhaul in order to reduce unemployment and successfully diversify the economy beyond garment manufacturing, according to a World Bank report released today. The report’s release came after investors and economists said at a trade and investment conference in Phnom Penh ...
Banking sector shows growth in 3rd quarter
Taking advantage of strong economic growth this year, two of the country’s largest banks have posted strong third-quarter earnings. Acleda Bank yesterday reported a net profit of $32.68 million in the first three quarters of the year, almost double the amount over the same period last ...
Officials ask for more info ahead of drilling
Environment Minister Mok Mareth yesterday asked China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to provide more details on the environmental impact of its project, though he said that exploration for oil and gas would likely begin later this month. At a meeting at the Ministry of Environment, ...
Government suspends Malaysia maids recruitment firm
Officials said yesterday that the government had suspended a recruitment agency in Kompong Chhnang province suspected of forcibly confining 45 women and that plans were underway to shut it down permanently. Police rescued the women, including 26 girls under the age of 18, who were training ...
EU raises concerns over human rights
Land evictions, poor prison conditions and the lack of an independent judiciary were among the concerns listed in the European Union’s 2010 review of human rights in Cambodia. According to the EU Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2010, which charts ...
New law drafted to address price dumping
Officials and trade experts discussed a new draft law at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday that would allow the government to protect exporters against competitors abroad that engage in price dumping, or selling products at an extremely low price. Speaking on the sidelines of the ...
Demand for city property slowly returning
Phnom Penh is making a comeback after years of sluggishness and weak demand in the property sector, real estate agents said. Rose Condominiums, a project in Chamkar Mon district consisting of eight 28 and 29-story towers holding more than 350 units, has already sold out ahead ...
Medical bills lead many into debt, survey reveals
Small-scale health insurance policies can be an effective way to avoid drowning in debt, according to a survey released yesterday. Fifty-eight percent of 5,275 households surveyed in Kandal, Takeo and Kampot provinces had taken out loans, with health care and medical costs being the chief reason, ...
Boeng Kak families sue - and sued by - government officials
Two-and-a-half weeks after excavators belonging to a CPP senator’s real estate firm demolished the homes of eight families fighting eviction from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake community, those families and the government officials charged with evicting them have taken their battle to court. A pair of ...
Maid agency raid rescues 22 women, girls
Following a raid on a Phnom Penh recruitment agency, military police yesterday detained two people and rescued 22 girls and women aged 13 to 25 who claimed they were being held against their will ahead of being sent to Malaysia to work as maids. Municipal military ...
Coordination of flood aid questioned
As floodwaters across the country remain high after almost two weeks of flooding, tens of thousands of families are still waiting in unsanitary comnditions for emergency supplies such as food and water. But while help trickles down to affected communities, aid groups have begun to question ...
Kampot pepper prices expected to grow in January
The Kampot Pepper Association said yesterday that the price of pepper would increase in January to $8 per kg, up from $7 currently. Nguon Lay, president of the association, said that the price hike was due to strong demand from abroad and high production costs ...