The Phnom Penh Post
Tours aimed at attracting workers
As cooks prepped for lunch yesterday at an outdoor cafeteria for workers employed by the Japanese-owned Taica factory, more than a dozen commune-level officials inspected the premises. Seemingly satisfied with the dining operation, they moved into a recreational room with a large, flat-screen television. Taica ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/tours-aimed-attracting-workers
Cambodia’s aviation sector rapidly growing: report
Capitalising on booming travel from Vietnam and China, the domestic aviation sector has enjoyed 18 per cent passenger growth for the second year running, according to a new report, which describes Cambodia as having one of the fastest-growing markets in Southeast Asia. The report, by the ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia%E2%80%99s-aviation-sector-rapidly-growing-report
Maids not heard from since 2011
Two sisters from Preah Vihear’s Kulen district hired to work in Malaysia as maids by Mey Yorn Services have not been heard from in more than two years, their mother said yesterday. Sok Noun, 45, hasn’t spoken to her daughters Bien Phok, 17, and Bien Phoun, ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/maids-not-heard-2011
Two thousand strike over factory firings
More than 2,000 garment workers at a Vattanac II Industrial Park protested in front of the complex, threatening to block National Road 3 and demanding the reinstatement of 11 union officials and the firing of the manager who allegedly dismissed them. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/two-thousand-strike-over-factory-firings
Man charged for firing slingshot at protesters
Two days after uniformed security personnel were recorded on video in Phnom Penh chasing and beating demonstrators at will, a man police say admitted to using a slingshot at the scene to “inflame protesters’ anger towards police” was charged in court. After two hours of questioning ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/man-charged-firing-slingshot-protesters
Witnesses speak for CC3 detainees
Four witnesses appeared at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday to testify on behalf of 13 of the 23 men detained in Kampong Cham’s Correctional Centre 3 since crackdowns on striking garment workers at the beginning of this month, a lawyer representing the 13 said. ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/witnesses-speak-cc3-detainees
CPP rally possible: Manith
Supporters of the Cambodian People’s Party might stage a rally in the capital following repeated requests by the “silent majority” to take to the streets since last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son, Hun Manith, said on Monday. “I’m sure you know that the minority always ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cpp-rally-possible-manith
Union reps fired after strike
Despite Cambodia’s labour law forbidding employers from taking action against workers for engaging in union activity, more than 100 labour union representatives have been fired from at least 12 factories this month for encouraging workers to strike for a $160 monthly minimum wage. The firings came ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-reps-fired-after-strike
CPP faithful ‘burning with hatred’ of CNRP
Ruling party supporters are “burning with hatred” towards the Cambodia National Rescue Party leadership and are ready to take to the streets, according to a Facebook post by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s second-eldest son, Hun Manith. Hun Manith, who is deputy head of the powerful ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cpp-faithful-%E2%80%98burning-hatred%E2%80%99-cnrp
Poipet to see new economic zone
Japanese investors will put $56 million into a joint venture with local company Sanco Investment Group (SIG) to build a new special economic zone in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town, officials said yesterday. Chhour Vichet, executive director of SIG, said Thailand’s labour shortage, Cambodia’s ongoing political ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/poipet-see-new-economic-zone
New deadlock but old tactics, analysts say
Ahead of today’s hearing on Cambodia’s record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, opposition figures and analysts said the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has reverted to familiar tactics of post-election suppression. Analysts yesterday said that the breaking up of Cambodia National Rescue Party-led protests ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-deadlock-old-tactics-analysts-say
Developer, soldiers ‘destroyed 29 homes’
Representatives of Chinese company Tianjin Union Development Group, backed by soldiers, annihilated crops and burned the homes of 29 families in Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor district last week, rights groups say. According to a report given to the Post yesterday, a two-day fact-finding mission spearheaded by ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/developer-soldiers-%E2%80%98destroyed-29-homes%E2%80%99
No talks amid violence: Sokha
Avoiding a reprisal of the roadblocks and counter-protests that forced the cancellation of planned opposition events in recent days, Cambodia National Rescue Party vice president Kem Sokha gave a speech calling for peace and stability to hundreds of supporters at the party’s Kampong Thom province ...
May Titthara and Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/no-talks-amid-violence-sokha
Gamble on casino in Pailin looks like a loser
Crippling revenue and poor gamer numbers have prompted Entertainment Gaming Asia (EGA) to consider walking away from its Dreamworld Casino in Pailin province, according to a filing on the NASDAQ exchange on January 21. EGA, owned by Melco International Development, runs Dreamworld Casinos in Pailin and ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gamble-casino-pailin-looks-loser
Processing violent crackdowns
In the past four weeks, authorities in Phnom Penh have shot dead at least four people, injured and arrested dozens more and banned public gatherings. As Twitter feeds have gone into overdrive with eyewitness accounts of crackdowns – as happened yesterday with events at Freedom Park ...
Chhay Channyda and Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/processing-violent-crackdowns
New protection for giant ibis
A newly demarcated wildlife and forest protection zone designed to safeguard Cambodia’s national bird, the giant ibis, along with a number of other endangered species, has been approved after more than 10 years in the making. A government sub-decree approving a protection zone spanning 66,932 hectares ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-protection-giant-ibis
Sonando next to test capital ban
Beehive Radio president Mam Sonando has said he and his supporters will defy the capital’s ban on demonstrations at the Ministry of Interior this morning after the government refused to issue his station a licence for increased bandwidth. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sonando-next-test-capital-ban
UN asked to ‘address crisis’
Amnesty International and rights group Licadho in a joint statement yesterday called on UN member states to “address the country’s human rights crisis” at a UN Human Rights Council hearing in Geneva on Tuesday. The statement, which was sent to foreign embassies, the Cambodian government and ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/un-asked-%E2%80%98address-crisis%E2%80%99
Officers queried on shootings
Military police officers involved in the clash on Veng Sreng Boulevard that led to the deaths of at least four protesters earlier this month have been questioned in connection with the shootings, though none will face charges, a military police spokesman said yesterday. The five officers, ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officers-queried-shootings
Hun Sen to take lead in reform program review
Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced he will preside over a review of the government’s reform program. “[Hun Sen] announced that on January 29 he will preside over a wide-ranging meeting at the Peace Palace in order to evaluate and boost reform programs, especially economic reform ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hun-sen-take-lead-reform-program-review
NGOs push for boost in female candidates
More than 50 per cent of candidates nominated by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party in the upcoming provincial and district council elections should be women, a coalition of 12 civil society groups said in a letter on Thursday. ...
Vong Sokheng and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-push-boost-female-candidates
France fronts $359 million
The French Agency for Development (AFD) has pledged $359 million in grants and loans to Cambodia over the next three years, state news agency AKP reported Friday. ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/france-fronts-359-million
A rock and a hard place
Some three hours’ drive from the scenes of violence unfolding in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park yesterday, the Cambodia National Rescue Party found distance no remedy for what it termed a calculated attempt at intimidation. As authorities blocked roads leading to a planned public meeting at the ...
Koam Chanrasmey and Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rock-and-hard-place
Rainsy eyes seat at UN rights review meeting
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy left for Europe yesterday evening to attend a UN Human Rights Council review on Cambodia in Geneva and to lobby European Union officials to take a stronger stance against the government, he said before departure. Rainsy plans on attending the Universal Periodic ...
Meas Sokchea and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rainsy-eyes-seat-un-rights-review-meeting