The Phnom Penh Post
More workers join Svay Rieng strike
Workers from at least six more factories in Bavet town’s Manhattan and Tay Seng Special Economic Zones joined about 5,000 workers who had been on strike since yesterday for a minimum wage increase and better working conditions. Va Sarorn, director of the Svay Rieng ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021461351/National/more-workers-join-svay-rieng-strike.html
Gold rush in Prey Lang forest
For four years now, this mineral-flecked land deep inside the Prey Lang forest has drawn thousands of small-scale seasonal miners. There are perks to working the dry season: space is one, avoiding the unofficial “taxation” system is another. For years, development agencies have urged a sweeping ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021361348/National/gold-rush-in-prey-lang-forest.html
Food, beverage imports rise
Cambodia spent about $200 million on food and beverage imports to supply the domestic market last year – an increase of more than 10 per cent from the previous year, official data from the Ministry of Commerce show. Government officials and representatives of the private sector ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021361334/Business/food-beverage-imports-rise.html
Scrutiny over hotel service fees in Cambodia
Major hotels are under the microscope after a labour rights group found that some have been failing to pass their entire service charge on to their staff, a violation of the Labour Law. Dave Welsh, country manager of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity(ACILS), said yesterday ...
Cambodia business embraces Facebook advertising
With an average of 1,100 additions every day, a new user joins Facebook in Cambodia every two minutes, according to estimates from social media marketing and advertising agency Social Media Plus. Founder of Social Media Plus Anthony Galliano said more and more companies operating in Cambodia ...
EZECOM and Thai partner interconnect
Thai telecommunications network provider United Information Highway (UIH) and Cambodian internet service provider EZECOM said they established an interconnect agreement last month to offer improved service to customers conducting business with neighbouring countries. “We have UIH as a partner for our connection to Thailand; the connection ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021261303/Business/ezecom-and-thai-partner-interconnect.html
Forest activists, firm facing off once again
The Prey Lang Community Network yesterday delivered a letter to authorities in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district calling for the postponement of a Vietnamese concessionaire’s forest clearing and notifying authorities of their intention to deliver a lawsuit to the provincial hall tomorrow, network activists said. According ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021261309/National/forest-activists-firm-facing-off-once-again.html
Graduates fear career jobs woe
A year from now, 23-year-old Sum Tiara will graduate from the Royal University of Law and Economics with a degree in law. At the moment, however, she needs to earn a living and pay for her studies by working in bars and restaurants in Phnom Penh. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021261305/Business/graduates-fear-career-jobs-woe.html
Manulife To Use Tuk-Tuks to Promote Services
Canada-based life insurance company Manulife Cambodia will launch a big advertising campaign on tuk-tuks this year to raise awareness of its services. Manulife Cambodia chief executive Robert J Elliott said the campaign would begin with 75 tuk-tuks. He believes between one and two million people ...
Land Investors Should "Play Fair"
Companies that invest in land and resources in emerging economies risk financial and public relations disasters if local inhabitants feel they are getting ripped off, consultants warned in a report last week. The report was released by a group known as the Munden Project The ...
Last days of a valley damned
Yong Yim’s voice rises to a high-pitched quiver when she talks about a planned dam in the Areng Valley that would inundate land her family has inhabited for hundreds of years to form what amounts to a giant battery. Now they are staring at ...
May Titthara, David Boyle and Danson Cheong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861238/National/last-days-of-a-valley-damned.html
Japanese delegation seeks business options
Some 140 Japanese investors arrived in Cambodia yesterday to meet with local government leaders and other stakeholders in an effort to boost economic cooperation between the two countries. According to the Japanese Embassy in Cambodia, the delegation arrived in the country yesterday afternoon, following a visit ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861255/Business/japanese-delegation-seeks-business-options.html
De Castle Royal to be completed by 2014
The De Castle Royal Condominium project, which has been on hold for some time, has announced that it will go back on the market after gaining $28 million in loans from Canadia Bank, which will allow for the completion of the 32-storey-building. The general manager of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020761213/Real-Estate/de-castle-royal-to-be-completed-by-2014.html
Longan farmers in Pailin plan factory
A co-operative of longan farmers in Pailin plans to build a processing factory to increase export capacity as output and demand rise. Meas Loeurn, the co-operative’s leader, told the Post on Wednesday rising demand from China was prompting growing numbers of farmers to cultivate the fruit. “During ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861252/Business/longan-farmers-in-pailin-plan-factory.html
Union files assault court complaint
The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) filed legal complaints yesterday, following allegations on Wednesday that police had assaulted seven garment workers, including a pregnant woman. Sa’ang district police chief Chea Socheat yesterday again denied officers had been violent during a strike ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861260/National/union-files-assault-court-complaint.html
Akra co-op signs first rice mill agreement
American business group Akra, led by Cambodian-born former US ambassador to the United Nations, Sichan Siv, has signed an agreement with a rice mill under a new co-operative structure it says puts ownership and profits back in to the hands of Cambodian producers. Akra’s managing director ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861251/Business/akra-co-op-signs-first-rice-mill-agreement.html
Hospitality sector booked out for Lunar New Year
When Chinese and Vietnamese tourists will flock into Cambodia’s Siem Reap province for Lunar New Year, heightened demand for accommodation may make things tough, insiders say. Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, said that while many Chinese and Vietnamese tourists will ...
Project set to develop franchising
The University of Sydney Business School has launched a research project in an effort to identify barriers to franchising in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, and to develop a strategy to boost the sector’s growth in the region. The two-year project, funded by AusAID, targets structural, regulatory, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861250/Business/project-set-to-develop-franchising.html
Garment firm to list on CSX
The Taiwanese-owned garment company Grand Twins International (Cambodia) Plc says it intends to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) next month, in a boost for the Kingdom’s nascent stock market. Phnom Penh Securities (PPS), an underwriter for Grand Twins International (GTI), said yesterday the company ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020761223/Business/garment-firm-to-list-on-csx.html
Cambodia's inflation rate fell to 3 per cent in 2012
Cambodia’s inflation rate fell to an annual three per cent last year, down from 4.9 per cent a year earlier, according to data from the National Bank of Cambodia released in late January. Chea Chanto, the bank’s governor, told an annual meeting in late January that ...
Cambodia's energy costs deter investors
Cambodia’s infrastructure is deterring highly anticipated investment into the production of raw materials to support its rapidly growing garment sector, experts say. While garment exports rose 10.2 per cent to $5.48 billion last year, the increase of raw materials imported to support this growth increased about ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020761221/Business/cambodia-s-energy-costs-deter-investors.html
Cambodia's government takes back land
The government has slashed about 250,000 hectares of land from 79 economic land concessions (ELCs), forest concessions and wildlife protection concessions and will return it, replete with land titles, to “poor people”, January’s Royal Book says. The publication, issued on January 17 and obtained yesterday, says ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020761237/National/cambodia-s-government-takes-back-land.html
Investors from Korea relocate to Cambodia
Korean investors are relocating labour-intensive businesses to countries such as Cambodia after Indonesia raised its minimum wage. A number of Korean investors had closed their Indonesian factories and relocated to other countries in the region because their requests for minimum-wage exemption had been refused, The Jakarta ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020761220/Business/investors-from-korea-relocate-to-cambodia.html
Tractor imports decrease, but experts not concerned
Tractor imports fell by 24 per cent last year, a significant decrease from 44,993 units in 2011 to 36,301 units, according to recent statistics from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Although the cultivation of some crops in the Kingdom has increased, analysts said yesterday ...