The Phnom Penh Post
Gov’t gives telecom firms time to digest new draft law
The ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) has postponed a two-day meeting with telecom firms to discuss a controversial draft law leaked to the Post last week, which details the government’s plan to assert control over the industry. A representative from one telecommunications provider who wished ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/gov%E2%80%99t-gives-telecom-firms-time-digest-new-draft-law
Anglers ‘invading’: Villagers say rivals taking over fish lot
More than 200 residents from seven villages in Ratanakkiri province’s Taveng district have filed a complaint to the local Administrative Fisheries Department and two right groups over claims that rival anglers in the area are collecting fish in their protected lot by poisoning the catch. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/anglers-%E2%80%98invading%E2%80%99-villagers-say-rivals-taking-over-fish-lot
Down to the power of one
One person will hold the balance of power on the overhauled National Election Committee when the political agreement signed by the opposition and ruling parties on Tuesday is implemented. Sitting beside four members from the ruling party and four from the opposition, the man or woman ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/down-power-one
Workers clash: At factory in Kandal, fight over protest
Melees at a garment factory in Kandal province between striking workers and employees who are against the industrial action have left five people mildly injured. Employees at the Tae Young factory began striking a week ago, calling for two administrators at the plant to be fired, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-clash-factory-kandal-fight-over-protest
Interested, but not yet committed
From the finance to the education sector, the interest from companies looking to list on Cambodia’s nascent stock exchange is on the rise, a CSX official said yesterday, after a meeting with some of the Kingdom’s largest firms. Some 30 companies, the CSX say, are eyeing ...
Daniel de Carteret and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/interested-not-yet-committed
Deal making waves abroad
With the country’s longest post-election deadlock now over and the opposition parliamentarians ready to take their seats, at least some of the CNRP’s most lucrative supporters – those overseas – are struggling to swallow the new concessions. “Join[ing] the CPP [in the National Assembly] is the ...
Laignee Barron, Charles Rollet and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/deal-making-waves-abroad
New rules for proctors
In its continuing campaign to clean up the grade 12 national exam, the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has warned that anyone caught leaking copies of the test or selling answers could find themselves imprisoned. Punishments for misbehaving exam observers are spelled out in an ACU statement released ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-rules-proctors
Homes move due to floods
Coastal erosion became serious enough in Kampong Cham province for authorities to dismantle and move 13 houses along the Mekong. Officials are planning to do the same for about 100 others to prevent them from falling into the river due to rising water levels over the ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/homes-move-due-floods
Telecom law outrage
Cambodia’s telecom sector is outraged over a draft law handed down by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) on Wednesday, which details a government plan to assert control over the industry. In what is being labeled an “unprecedented, draconian” effort to nationalise the industry, the ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/telecom-law-outrage
On the march: Days-long strike shifts to district HQ
After striking for more than a week, employees at Phnom Penh’s Sun Well Shoes yesterday marched to Por Sen Chey district hall, demanding their voices be heard. Some 300 people marched from their Veng Sreng Boulevard factory with a list of seven demands, including the ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/march-days-long-strike-shifts-district-hq
After deal, unions expect support
News of an end to a year-long political deadlock has labour union leaders believing the opposition party can bring their interests to parliament, but a lack of follow-through could cost the Cambodia National Rescue Party vital support from one of its key interest groups. Different union ...
Sean Teehan, Mom Kunthear and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/after-deal-unions-expect-support
Walkway, bag plans in works
Phnom Penh City Hall yesterday announced plans to build a promenade down the city’s waterfront, picking up where the current riverfront walkway ends around the Chaktomuk theatre and extending some four kilometres south to the Monivong bridge. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/walkway-bag-plans-works
Ministry vows to take some ELC land back
Amid promises reiterated by the government yesterday that it will take a tougher stance on economic land concessions, logging tycoon Try Pheap minimally reduced his sweeping natural resource empire, returning more than 20,000 hectares of undeveloped forestry. It was unclear what kind of arrangement prompted Pheap ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-vows-take-some-elc-land-back
Health and women’s affairs get $64M grant
The German ambassador, Joachim Baron von Marschall, signed an agreement with the permanent Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon yesterday for €47 million ($64 million) in aid. The grant will be used for developing projects within the ministries of health, rural development and women’s affairs. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/health-and-women%E2%80%99s-affairs-get-64m-grant
Anonymous hacked us: Hun Many’s youth group
The Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC), led by Hun Many, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son, is claiming that one of its Facebook pages was hacked by international “hactivist” group Anonymous. ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/anonymous-hacked-us-hun-many%E2%80%99s-youth-group
Eyes turn to legislation passed without CNRP
After months of decrying the one-party National Assembly as illegitimate and vowing to amend any flawed legislation passed during a parliamentary boycott, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, by agreeing to take its seats yesterday, is about to get its chance. In the roughly 10-month period since ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/eyes-turn-legislation-passed-without-cnrp
Easing sex trade laws ‘could lower’ HIV rate
Decriminalising sex work could slash the world’s HIV infections by a third or more, according to a new study. Published yesterday in health journal The Lancet, the paper says that punitive treatment of sex workers can “elevate HIV acquisition and transmission risks”. In Cambodia, which has Southeast Asia’s ...
Laignee Barron
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/easing-sex-trade-laws-%E2%80%98could-lower%E2%80%99-hiv-rate
Price woes fuel corn farmers’ fears of lackluster sales
Corn farmers and dealers in the country’s northwestern provinces fear a decline in sales this season as local storage facilities become increasingly scarce and demand from Thai importers declines. Khun Thorn, president of Ta Sdar Samky Farmer Community in Battambang province, told the Post yesterday that ...
Chan Muyhong
http://phnompenhpost.com/business/price-woes-fuel-corn-farmers%E2%80%99-fears-lackluster-sales
Deadlock end lifts business spirits
Cambodia’s business community welcomed the news yesterday that the county’s longest-ever parliamentary deadlock had come to an end – a resolution investors say will help ease fears of political instability. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party yesterday struck a deal ...
Eddie Morton and Daniel de Carteret
http://phnompenhpost.com/business/deadlock-end-lifts-business-spirits
Release quickly follows deal
A jubilant crowd of opposition supporters burst into cheers yesterday afternoon as seven Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers-elect and one party activist were released on bail just hours after an announced rapprochement between the CNRP and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. They walked free through exits ...
Joe Freeman
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/release-quickly-follows-deal
Villagers in court: Prey Lang land activists deny charge
Forest activists accused of destroying private property told a court hearing in Kampong Thom province yesterday that they were acting to protect mainland Southeast Asia’s largest evergreen forest from illegal logging. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-court-prey-lang-land-activists-deny-charge
Sochua ‘off limits to US Embassy’
Despite multiple requests, the US Embassy has not been given access to visit dual citizen Mu Sochua since her arrest last Tuesday, officials said yesterday. “Consular officers attempted to visit Mu Sochua the evening she was arrested but were not permitted to see her and multiple ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sochua-%E2%80%98-limits-us-embassy%E2%80%99
To fight illegal logging, officials seek out saws
Desperate to cut down on illegal logging, Kampong Thom forestry officials are trying out a new strategy: disarming loggers before they can get to the trees by cracking down on chainsaw dealers and other sellers of equipment used to fell trees. On Sunday night, the Baray ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fight-illegal-logging-officials-seek-out-saws
Acid attack leaves 3 injured
After more than half a year with only one acid attack recorded in Cambodia, police in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town are at a loss to explain an incident yesterday in which three women were allegedly doused with the chemical while eating noodles at a local ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/acid-attack-leaves-3-injured