The Phnom Penh Post

Tycoon Try Pheap has filed a defamation complaint against two people quoted in an NGO report released last week that accused him of illegal logging and widespread land grabbing, summonses obtained yesterday reveal. The documents, bearing the signature of Kandal Provincial Court prosecutor Sam Rithy Veasna, ...

Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) to help support Japanese investment in Cambodia. The MoU was signed by SMBC President and CEO Takeshi Kunibe and PPSEZ Chairwoman Lim Chhiv Ho earlier this ...

Forest land in Asia-Pacific countries has grown overall since 2002, according to a study released last week, but Cambodia was one of only three countries surveyed to buck the trend. Out of 14 countries included in the study by the Regional Community Forestry Training Center (RECOFTC), ...

The Ministry of Labour has ordered management at a Kandal province garment factory to clean their workroom and limit employees’ overtime hours, in response to over 100 workers fainting over two days. During a visit to King First Industrial Co, Ltd’s Kandal location yesterday, Seng Sakada, ...

After being delayed twice, construction of the New Siem Reap International Airport (NSRIA) is expected to start in early 2014, a senior government official said yesterday. Tek Reth Samrach, chairman of the NSRIA steering committee, said a detailed plan must be completed by the airport’s two ...

A month after a company owned by tycoon Kith Meng was ordered to suspend logging the reservoir area of the controversial Lower Sesan II dam, the government yesterday threatened legal action against it if its orders aren’t followed. In a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, the Council ...

Civil servants including police officers in a supervisory role who cut into their subordinates’ salaries will face consequences including criminal charges, Interior Minister Sar Kheng announced last week. In an order obtained by the Post yesterday, Kheng urged civil servants who handle payroll to immediately report to the ...

About 50 garment workers fainted yesterday at the King First Industrial factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district, union representatives said. Khouth Touch, the Free Trade Union president at the factory, said a number of workers had experienced stomach aches and diarrhoea that morning. ...

Phnom Penh’s chief prosecutor yesterday attributed an alleged rise in Cambodia’s crime rate to an increase in public demonstrations. Prosecutor general of Phnom Penh Municipal Court Ouk Savuth’s theory came out during a speech he made at a meeting of police and prosecutors held at City ...

When the Supreme Court hears land-rights activist Yorm Bopha’s final appeal this morning, familiar cries for justice will come from Boeung Kak women on the streets outside. Much has been written about the housewives of Boeung Kak who have risen up against the government and developers ...

Average Cambodians are to pay the price for stamping out corruption in the customs department. Prices for basic goods, such as food and clothing, rose recently after the department was ordered last week to clean up its act and apply the official tax rate, importers told ...

The Forestry Administration fined 16 ethnic Tumpoun villagers $400 each for allegedly logging within the Yak Oum tourism site in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district on Wednesday, said Chhay Thy, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc. The villagers were accused of logging after clearing a patch of ...

Historic O’Russey Market will not be the location of a planned Chinatown development, according to Cambodia’s Tourism Minister. Tourism Minister Thong Khon said the government was looking for another site for the tourism-focused development and that O’Russey Market was not under consideration, as had recently been ...

As salt farmers in Kep and Kampot provinces prepare for the upcoming salt season, they have expressed concerns that unstable weather conditions could cause a supply shortage on the growing domestic market. Salt production in Cambodia usually starts in early January and ends in late ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has rebuked the European Union over two low-profile election experts it sent to monitor July’s elections, claiming their presence had undermined Cambodian democracy. In a letter sent on Tuesday to Ugu Astuto, the EU’s top diplomat for South and Southeast Asia, Rainsy ...

Office space demand in Cambodia remained stable in the third quarter of this year, the lack of growth reflecting market concerns regarding post-election political instability, property experts say. Hang Yuvan, sales manager at Phnom Penh Tower, said that office space demand should improve by the end ...

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has released a nine-month status report on 2013’s illegal timber seizures, saying it had confiscated, among other things, more than 2,000 kilograms of rosewood – a figure that represents only a tiny fraction of seizures reported by the Post this ...

More than 100 workers from the Alim garment factory in Phnom Penh marched on City Hall yesterday, demanding the dismissal of four managers. Yam Thaisan, a legal officer from a union representing the workers at the Por Sen Chey district factory, said strikers had called on ...

A development company with a government concession for a high-end property project on the island of Koh Pos, also known as Snake Island, has announced that it will significantly alter its original plans for the project. The new plan, which must first be submitted for ...

Tonle Bassac is located on the western shore of the Bassac River, from which it takes its name (Tonle is Khmer for ‘river’). Contained by the river to the east, Sihanouk Boulevard to the north and Norodom Boulevard to the west, Tonle Bassac hooks westward ...

Cambodia’s finance sector should increase insurance accessibility to its smallest lenders to help protect against indebtedness at times of disaster, an industry expert said at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. Speaking at the Hotel Cambodiana to an audience of industry representatives on rural entrepreneurship, Jaime ...

While the streets of Phnom Penh were quiet this holiday period after the Water Festival was cancelled, numbers swelled in the provinces as tourists flocked to Cambodia’s temples and beaches, provincial officials said yesterday. Chhoeuy Chhorn, director of the Siem Reap Provincial Tourism Department, said Angkor ...

Though a bit young to be socio-political analysts, Cambodia’s children are major believers in the social value of education, are wary of the negative side effects of alcohol on their communities and place a high priority on honest government, a study released yesterday says. According ...

Logging tycoon Try Pheap’s rapidly expanding land empire, criticised by rights groups for displacing families and encroaching on protected forest areas, has grown to almost 70,000 hectares in size and is helping to facilitate a cross-border illegal logging operation, a report released today alleges. The Cambodian ...