The Phnom Penh Post
Gov’t forwards publishing complaint to military court
A military court may pursue legal action against a Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker-elect and newspaper publisher after the Council of Ministers yesterday filed a complaint against him. Dam Sith, editor-in-chief of the pro-CNRP Moneaksekar Khmer newspaper, published the text of a speech given by CNRP ...
Meas Sokchea and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-forwards-publishing-complaint-military-court
Micro-insurance needs revamp: UN
The UN urged government and financial organisations to stimulate Cambodia’s flailing micro-insurance industry yesterday, after a study found the country’s poor are vulnerable to indebtedness during a crisis. The United Nations Development Business (UNDB) hosted a working group yesterday at Phnom Penh’s Sunway Hotel launching the ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/micro-insurance-needs-revamp-un
Rubber firm tells villagers to bounce
Villagers embroiled in a longstanding land dispute with a Chinese rubber company in Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district received an official eviction notice last week from local authorities who failed to promise compensation, community representatives told the Post yesterday. More than 100 families will have to move so Swift Rubber ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rubber-firm-tells-villagers-bounce
Factory inspection turns up unauthorised floor
Inspectors from the ministry in charge of construction who were called to investigate a “shaking” garment factory last Tuesday discovered that an entire extra storey had been built without permission or oversight from authorities, officials said yesterday. As workers returned to the Siu Quinh Garment factory ...
Mom Kunthear and Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-inspection-turns-unauthorised-floor
Declare assets, ACU tells former officials
The Anti-Corruption Unit has sent a letter of warning to three recently dismissed Senate advisers to declare their assets and debt as required by law. In a notification signed by ACU chairman Om Yentieng on Monday, the trio – identified as Vong Sopheap, Kouch Cheahuot and ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/declare-assets-acu-tells-former-officials
Government salaries to no longer be paid in cash
The wages of 400,000 civil servants from 39 government ministries are to be paid via a new electronic banking system due to be rolled out next month. Secretary of State for the Ministry of Economy and Finance Chu Kim Leng announced the new payroll system on ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/government-salaries-no-longer-be-paid-cash
Loggers questioned by court
Stung Treng Provincial Court yesterday questioned six men apprehended while allegedly transporting more than 17 cubic metres of illegal Thnong timber by boat in Sesan district, said Y Ek Savtey, director of the provincial forestry administration. Hou Sam Ol, a provincial coordinator with rights group Adhoc, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/loggers-questioned-court
Nations unite against dam
Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand have all called on Laos to submit its planned Don Sahong hydropower dam to an intergovernmental assessment. According to the dam’s opponents, the Laos National Mekong Committee has acted unilaterally in the planning of its second Mekong dam, a project they fear ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/nations-unite-against-dam
Long march to capital begins
The long journey on foot from the provinces to Phnom Penh began yesterday for hundreds of villagers and monks who intend to mark December 10’s International Human Rights Day by protesting outside the National Assembly. Parades of people, expected to grow in size the closer they ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/long-march-capital-begins
Majority of workers denied annual leave
Only about 10 per cent of Cambodia’s workforce is being granted paid annual leave, a report released last week says. Under the 1997 Labour Law, workers who work a standard 48-hour week are entitled to 18 days of paid annual leave, in addition to one day ...
Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/majority-workers-denied-annual-leave
Villagers accuse NGO of extortion
Three staff members of a local NGO that campaigns against resource exploitation were charged yesterday with extorting money from loggers in Stung Treng province. The three staffers from the Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organization (NRWPO) stand accused of extorting groups of loggers out of at ...
Kim Sarom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-accuse-ngo-extortion
Challenging business for startups
The World Bank recently ranked Cambodia 184th out of 189 countries for ease of starting a business, but you wouldn’t have known it at Phnom Penh’s recent Startup Weekend. Pitches for Cambodia’s first commercial organic chicken farm and for an app to connect tuk-tuk drivers to ...
Justine Drennan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/challenging-business-startups
S&P reaffirms rating despite political worry
Cambodia has retained its B credit rating despite ratings company Standard & Poor’s citing the country’s ongoing political standoff as a “major” constraint. S&P affirmed Cambodia’s B/B credit rating last week, labeling the country as having a strong and stable long-term and short-term outlook. Engagement of international ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/sp-reaffirms-rating-despite-political-worry
Thais return jailed loggers
Dozens of Cambodian prisoners were released by Thai authorities yesterday after serving 20-month prison sentences in Thailand for crossing the border illegally to log rosewood. The group of 37, all arrested within Thai territory on March 12 last year, were released through the Chaom Sangman checkpoint ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thais-return-jailed-loggers
Expired meds missing: officials
Officials from Svay Rieng’s provincial health department are rounding up expired medications that medical staff and villagers are believed to have pocketed while clearing a stockpile near the provincial hospital on Wednesday, local health officials said yesterday. Provincial medical staff alerted the provincial health department after ...
Khoun Leakhana
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/expired-meds-missing-officials
Putting parking reform in gear
With civil society, the opposition and even the ruling party talking more and more about the subject of electoral and judicial reforms in the wake of July’s contested national elections, some groups yesterday gathered to call for reforms in a more modest sector – parking ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/putting-parking-reform-gear
Schoolkids find mine under tree
Primary school students playing outside their school in Oddar Meanchey province discovered an exposed landmine in the school yard on Wednesday. Students at Hun Sen Anlong Veng Primary School found the mine poking out of the ground “like a custard apple” while they were playing near ...
Kim Sarom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/schoolkids-find-mine-under-tree
ILO: women still lag behind in education
Despite making some gains, Cambodian women continue to fall well short of their male counterparts when it comes to education and position in the labour market, a study released yesterday by the International Labor Organization reports. Men account for just five per cent more of Cambodia’s ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ilo-women-still-lag-behind-education
Investment law change-up
Following the announcement of recent reforms to Cambodia’s customs department and Commerce Ministry, a revision of the country’s investment law is planned for next year, according to the secretary-general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC). Speaking to reporters at a workshop at the ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/investment-law-change
Summonsed seek delay
Scores of people in Preah Sihanouk province’s Kompong Seila district have asked the provincial court to delay proceedings in a case filed against them by three local businesspeople in September. The 88 people received summonses in September, but yesterday asked the court to postpone a hearing ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/summonsed-seek-delay
SL to reinstate fired unionists
The chief executive of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) yesterday said the factory has agreed to reinstate 19 dismissed union leaders and activists, a sticking point which could end a strike that has lasted more than three months. Hours after the Ministry of Labour announced the garment ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sl-reinstate-fired-unionists
Regional peers urge gov’t to probe deaths
An organisation made up of current and former elected representatives from across Southeast Asia has called on the United Nations to investigate the deaths of two people shot by police during protests over the past three months. In a statement released yesterday, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/regional-peers-urge-gov%E2%80%99t-probe-deaths
Fears for tourism during rally
The opposition’s planned demonstration in Siem Reap next month could affect the tourism industry in Cambodia’s most important visitor destination, the government and industry representatives said yesterday. Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon told the Post that the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s (CNRP) December 10 rally could ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/fears-tourism-during-rally
Collusion alleged in logging
Ethnic Jarai villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district have accused border officials of not only allowing illegal Vietnamese loggers to cross the border unimpeded, but also of taking their side in negotiations with a community forest patrol. Members of the patrol in Paknhai commune’s Lam village said ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/collusion-alleged-logging