The Phnom Penh Post
New facility for young offenders
The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday confirmed it would construct a new national facility to rehabilitate child offenders. The news follows a meeting last Thursday when spokesman Touch Channy told attendees that the new centre to detain juvenile offenders would be built following the recent adoption ...
Kong Meta and Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-facility-young-offenders
GSP exemption pitched
A roadshow to Hong Kong this week to pitch Cambodia’s newly received duty-free access on travel goods to the US market was successful, but manufacturers have yet to sign concrete deals to establish new production lines here, a delegate of the returning business mission said. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gsp-exemption-pitched
Centre eyes potatoes for a changing diet
Cambodia’s first experimental farm and research centre for potato cultivation opened yesterday as experts confirmed that the Kingdom’s soils are suitable for the starchy tuber – raising hopes that local crops could one day satisfy the fast-food cravings that have put potatoes in high demand. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/centre-eyes-potatoes-changing-diet
Officials heed call to buy rice
A day after a state bank called on Cambodians to buy domestically milled rice to help a government scheme to stabilise prices in the sector, multiple ruling party officials were reaching into their own pockets to do just that. The Rural Development Bank – tasked with ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-heed-call-buy-rice
Workers laid off at Kampong Speu teak farm
Close to 300 workers at Kampong Speu province’s Grandis Timber Limited, a teak nursery, have sought the aid of an agricultural union after they were asked to stop coming to work last week after management said they did not have enough work for them. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-laid-kampong-speu-teak-farm
Cambodian rails linked to Thailand’s
The long-awaited railroad between Phnom Penh and Bangkok moved one step closer to completion yesterday after tracks on the Cambodian side were connected to those in Thailand. The Poipet-Phnom Penh rail line was joined to the Bangkok-Sa Kaeo line during a ceremony at the international border ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodian-rails-linked-thailands
Terms announced on rice lending package
The government-owned bank charged with issuing $27 million in emergency loans to rice millers as part of an initiative aimed at propping up the struggling rice industry announced the terms of the credit lines yesterday, and said it would ensure that the funds were used ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/terms-announced-rice-lending-package
MoU with UN stalled by government
A memorandum of understanding between Cambodia and the United Nations has been stalled for almost 10 months thanks to the government’s insistence that an updated version include pointed references to the concept of “non-interference” lifted from the UN charter, the Post has learned. ...
Shaun Turton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mou-un-stalled-government
Embalming chemical found in Takeo prahok
Takeo provincial authorities yesterday confiscated and destroyed more than 180 kilograms of contaminated prahok from four production sites, according to an official with the Cambodia Import-Export Inspection and Fraud Repression Directorate-General (CAMCONTROL). ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/embalming-chemical-found-takeo-prahok
Banking with a positive spin
A banking sector initiative launched yesterday aims to advise Cambodia’s financial sector on best practices for sustainable lending while capitalising on the growing pool of international funds that could flow into green and socially responsible projects. The Sustainable Finance Initiative will conduct two years of ...
Kali Kotoski
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/banking-positive-spin
Japan building Mekong supply chain
Greater connectivity between Japan and Cambodia is tightening economic links between the two countries while catalysing Japan’s ambitions to develop a chain of industrial complexes that cut a tract through the Lower Mekong region. Officials at Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), Japan’s development agency, say ...
Matthieu de Gaudemar and Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/japan-building-mekong-supply-chain
Cambodian producers urged to build effective brands
Better branding of Cambodian products is essential as major global brands inundate the domestic market and local producers look to compete in international markets, panellists said Wednesday evening during an industry forum in Phnom Penh. Var Roth San, an adviser to the Ministry of Commerce, said ...
Matthieu de Gaudemar
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodian-producers-urged-build-effective-brands
ICC move fuels debate on Cambodian case
A new paper from the International Criminal Court laying out a shift in focus to crimes linked to environmental destruction and the unlawful dispossession of land has rekindled the debate over whether the court will launch an investigation into a case highlighting land-grabbing in Cambodia. ...
Cristina Maza
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/icc-move-fuels-debate-cambodian-case
For ‘police’ vehicles, no tax, no problem
Prime Minister Hun Sen has quashed an attempt by the Ministry of Finance to collect back taxes owed on 470 police vehicles, granting them tax-exempt status after a request from the Ministry of Interior. The request, dated September 8, was approved on Tuesday. ...
Mech Dara and Andrew Nachemson
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/police-vehicles-no-tax-no-problem
Envoy's report shifts gaze back to Prey Speu
Nougy Mom bounces her 2-year-old son in her arms as she waits at the gates of Phnom Penh’s notorious centre for “undesirables”, Prey Speu. The 34-year-old mother was there to visit her husband, a rubbish collector like herself, who was rounded up by authorities as he ...
Erin Handley and Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/envoys-report-shifts-gaze-back-prey-speu
Battambang farmers protest plummeting rice prices
Attempting to call attention to the havoc low rice prices are wreaking on their livelihoods, hundreds of farmers in Battambang’s Sangke district took to the streets yesterday, symbolically pouring rice onto National Road 5. ...
Lay Samean
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/battambang-farmers-protest-plummeting-rice-prices
CNRP pegs 424 voter names as ‘suspicious’
The Cambodia National Rescue Party plans to ask the National Election Committee to investigate the citizenship status of more than 400 people who have recently logged their names in the new digital voter lists. ...
Bun Sengkong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-pegs-424-voter-names-suspicious
More Chinese FDI on the horizon
China has pledged to increase its investment in Cambodia in return for the Kingdom’s commitment to its regional policies and economic initiatives in Southeast Asia. Wang Lei, secretary-general of the Chinese-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) Secretariat, said on Wednesday that Cambodia had thrown its full support behind China’s ...
Kali Kotoski
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/more-chinese-fdi-horizon
Activists tell US to step up forest protection efforts
Conservationist Marcus Hardtke yesterday blasted USAID and Winrock for “four years of mismanagement” as the Forest Monitoring Working Group put out a call for “urgent action” from the American bodies. “They’re not addressing the core problem,” Hardtke said, adding that the two groups were ignoring the ...
Andrew Nachemson and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activists-tell-us-step-forest-protection-efforts
Cintri says it is owed up to $20M by Phnom Penh residents
Phnom Penh’s much-maligned waste-collection firm Cintri yesterday used a meeting with City Hall to ask for help in collecting between $10 million and $20 million in unpaid fees it says it’s owed by residents in the capital. ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cintri-says-it-owed-20m-phnom-penh-residents
Plan to certify organic quality
GIZ Cambodia, a branch of Germany’s international development agency, signed an agreement yesterday with local organic food retailer Khmer Organic Cooperative to provide technical support to develop organic vegetable production and to assist the firm in obtaining certification for its products. The agreement calls for the ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/plan-certify-organic-quality
Reptile caper in the bag for border cops
A car filled with a slithering menagerie of reptiles destined to be sold at market in Vietnam was seized by Cambodia-Vietnam border officials in Kandal province on Wednesday night, according to Koh Thom district police. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/reptile-caper-bag-border-cops
Voter registration ahead of schedule: NEC
With almost 2 million voters registered so far, the National Election Committee yesterday declared its roll-out of new digital voter lists to be ahead of schedule, though efforts to organise “free and fair” elections continued to be undermined by the persecution of opposition politicians, an ...
Bun Sengkong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/voter-registration-ahead-schedule-nec
No sign of relief for rice industry
As the harvest season of Cambodia’s most important crop kicks off, a crisis is looming as both rice farmers and millers face crippling capital shortages and a promised industry lifeline has yet to materialise. Industry experts said yesterday that these small farmers desperate to pay their ...
Kali Kotoski and Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/no-sign-relief-rice-industry