The Phnom Penh Post
Judicial draft laws still unseen: rights groups
Two civil society organisations are calling on Prime Minister Hun Sen to publish three long-gestating draft laws on judicial reform to allow ample time for “genuine, inclusive and meaningful participation in the drafting process”. Hun Sen said in a speech last Wednesday that the three laws ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/judicial-draft-laws-still-unseen-rights-groups
Sand rises as villagers wait
Thirteen families in Phnom Penh’s O’andoung village, who have been locked in a long-running dispute with tycoon Sok Kong’s Sokimex company, say their land is being flooded with sand as they wait for a response to a complaint filed with Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sand-rises-villagers-wait
A refined approach?
Hundreds of trucks hauling sugarcane queue up along the dusty roads that cut a path through a plantation in Kampong Speu province. Their destination: Cambodia’s most advanced sugar refinery. Its owners say the landmark project, run by the Phnom Penh Sugar Company and its president, ruling ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/refined-approach
Strike may be shifted to post-holiday date
A stay-at-home garment strike scheduled for tomorrow is in doubt after a number of workers and unionists urged that it be postponed until after the Khmer New Year, a union leader said yesterday. Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said some ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-may-be-shifted-post-holiday-date
New Thai crossing is in works on border
The Cambodian government is conducting a feasibility study investigating the need for a Thai border crossing at Steng Bort Village in Banteay Meanchey province, four kilometres from Poipet. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/new-thai-crossing-works-border
Locals seeking justice after ‘broken deal’
Villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district are demanding their land back, claiming buyers from a local company failed to uphold a 2007 deal. The 66 ethnic Kreung families filed a complaint on Friday after workers from a nearby rubber plantation started to slash and burn the 400 ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/locals-seeking-justice-after-%E2%80%98broken-deal%E2%80%99
WWF unveils bid to help Mondulkiri forests
In the latest bid to protect Mondulkiri’s ravaged forests, World Wildlife Fund is rolling out a new project designed to give locals financial incentives to help preserve Mondulkiri Protected Forest and Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary. Cultivating small-scale, community-run businesses such as resin tree tapping and beekeeping ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wwf-unveils-bid-help-mondulkiri-forests
Addicts’ lifeline to go
Every morning, right about 8am, Vuthy* starts to feel out of sorts. On the way from his home in Meanchey district to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, where he receives treatment, he breaks into a sweat. Vuthy is one of about 140 former heroin addicts who ...
Stuart White and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/addicts%E2%80%99-lifeline-go
New local distributor for Jaguar, Land Rover
RMA Cambodia confirmed yesterday it had taken over from rival firm Envotech as the Kingdom’s only authorised dealer of Land Rover and Jaguar vehicles. Envotech will have held the authorised dealer rights for two years when it closes its Phnom Penh dealership on March 26. RMA, whic ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/new-local-distributor-jaguar-land-rover
VisionFund empowering rural women
VisionFund Cambodia, which took root in the Kingdom in 2003 as the result of a partnership with global NGO World Vision, aims to empower women and their families with small loans and other financial services, in additional to bolstering the education available for poor children ...
Moeun Nhean
http://phnompenhpost.com
Borei Keila firm told to pay $2.7 million
Suy Sophan, the owner of development firm Phan Imex, has been ordered to repay $2.7 million to a Korean company over an uncompleted sale of land at Borei Keila, from where hundreds have been violently evicted, a court document reveals. In a decision handed down in ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/borei-keila-firm-told-pay-27-million
Gov’t passes buck on faintings
Mass faintings in Cambodia’s garment factories do not occur as a result of long hours and arduous working conditions, but from workers’ failure to care for their own health, according to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) director. During an annual meeting, which mainly focused on ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-passes-buck-faintings
CNRP seeks reform input
The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party will hold a seminar this morning on election reform to “seek input” from civil society and election monitors ahead of the second meeting of a bipartisan election reform committee on Monday. According to an invitation issued on Tuesday, the CNRP ...
Meas Sokchea and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-seeks-reform-input
Open skies policy examined
Promising to dramatically open up the region’s airways, the planned Asean Single Aviation Market (ASAM) will bring with it fierce competition and price wars, experts said yesterday during a seminar on the subject at the Phnom Penh Hotel. The seminar brought representatives from the majority of ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/open-skies-policy-examined
Cambodia has floor in Oz parliament debate
A spirited debate on human rights in Cambodia was heard in the Australian parliament this week after an opposition Labor Party MP introduced a motion calling on the government to condemn state violence against striking garment workers and ask authorities to release detained protesters. Clare O’Neil, ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia-has-floor-oz-parliament-debate
Input on NGO law over: gov’t
The government will not consult civil society groups on the latest iteration of a draft law that will regulate non-governmental organisations and associations, a senior Interior Ministry official said yesterday. Meas Sarim, deputy director-general of the General Department of Local Administration at the Ministry of Interior ...
Chhay Channyda and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/input-ngo-law-over-gov%E2%80%99t
ILO convention still debated
The government has no intention of withdrawing its signature from the International Labour Organization’s freedom of association convention, despite calls for it to reconsider its position, a Ministry of Labour spokesman said yesterday. “I don’t think we will withdraw. The prime minister [Hun Sen] has already ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ilo-convention-still-debated
Dam developers hit back
Hydropower developers in southern Laos have fired back at the World Wildlife Fund after the conservation group issued two disparaging reports in as many weeks on the Don Sahong dam project. WWF released a brief on February 19 alleging that construction of the 260-megawatt damcould result ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-developers-hit-back
Solar power for communes
The offices of commune officials along the Tonle Sap basin will soon be solar-powered as part of a poverty-reduction project backed by the Asian Development Bank. Some 123 off-the-grid commune council offices in Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom and Kampong Cham provinces will be fitted ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/solar-power-communes
Siem Reap sees property gains fuelled by tourism, economic integration
Siem Reap city land prices have continued to increase year-on-year since 2008, despite the impact of the global economic crisis elsewhere. Sorn Seap, general manager of KEY Real Estate, said that land prices in Siem Reap city in early 2014 saw an increase of 15 per ...
Insurance investment in construction and property see year-on-year increases
Cambodia’s insurance business is continuing to make strides, with the total value of engineering insurance reaching approximately $4 million in 2013, a significant increase compared to 2012. According to data recently released by the Insurance Association of Cambodia, the value of engineering insurance purchased in 2013 ...
New rules for taxmen
Following an order from Prime Minister Hun Sen last month to crack down on intimidation and harassment by tax collectors in local markets, City Hall pledged to take legal action yesterday. Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong told municipal and provincial governors that fines for rogue collectors ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-rules-taxmen
For Yunus, charity is not the only way
Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate who is considered the founding father of microfinance, urged an assembled crowd at the Royal University of Phnom Penh yesterday to start thinking about creating so-called social businesses. “Charity money goes, and does wonderful work, but it doesn’t come back,” ...
Joe Freeman
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/yunus-charity-not-only-way
Low ranking for rule of law
The World Justice Project yesterday ranked Cambodia 91st out of 99 nations and at the bottom of the barrel regionally in terms of its devotion to the rule of law, despite its midlevel performance in terms of providing order and security. In its annual Rule of ...
Stuart White and May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/low-ranking-rule-law