The Phnom Penh Post
Cambodia's unions cry foul on fainting figures
Union reps and government officials are offering significantly different – if both substantial – numbers in their year-end tallies of garment workers who fainted on the job in 2012. The Free Trade Union yesterday announced that the number of workers to faint in factories rose to ...
Vietnam raises minimum pay
A new decree that increases the minimum wage of workers in Vietnam will not necessarily lead to companies relocating to Cambodia, according to officials. “The Vietnam government has issued [a] decree, which takes effect from January 1, to adjust the minimum wages paid to workers by ...
New Siem Reap airport’s progress slow but on track
A senior government official said a new Siem Reap International Airport (NSRIA) being developed with $1 billion of investment by two Korean companies is still on track. NSRIA is wholly owned by two Korean companies, Camco Airport Co and Lees A&A, which held 50 per cent each ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010360604/Business/airport-s-progress-slow-but-on-track.html
Coffee production in Mondulkiri province increases
Coffee production in Mondulkiri province in 2012 will be higher than in 2011, according to farmers and producers. Coffee farmer Bou Sopheap told the Post that he just finished the harvest in December. In 2012, his two-hectare plantation provided about four tonnes of coffee beans, compared to ...
Factory worker wages to be re-examined
Amid threats of another mass strike in the thriving garment sector, the Ministry of Social Affairs has called a meeting with the industry’s leading players to discuss union demands for a $150-per-month minimum wage, a letter obtained yesterday reveals. At the behest of Prime Minister Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010260589/National/factory-worker-wages-to-be-re-examined.html
Garment worker protest builds over severance
More than 1,000 workers protested in front of the soon-to-be-closed Svay Rieng Cambodia Garment factory yesterday to demand better severance benefits, and nearly half of them then marched to the provincial hall to seek help from government officials, workers said yesterday. Worker representative Pang Tra said ...
Tourist arrivals top estimates
The number of tourists to arrive in Cambodia in 2012 was at least 200,000 higher than expectations, possibly reaching 3.5 million, officials said yesterday. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, told the Post yesterday that in the first 11 months of 2012, Cambodia received 3.2 million tourists, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010160559/Business/tourist-arrivals-top-estimates.html
Tough times for telecom bosses in 2012
The year 2012 has seen a number of changes of personnel within different companies in Cambodia, particularly in the telecommunications sector, but also in the insurance and banking industry. According to In Channy, ACLEDA Bank’s CEO and vice chairman of the International Business Chamber Cambodia, the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010160558/Business/tough-times-for-telecom-bosses-in-12.html
Malaysian Maybank expands to outskirts
Malaysian-owned Maybank, one of the largest banks in Cambodia, opened its 12th national branch in Phnom Penh on Friday. The bank aims to reach emerging businesses in the city’s Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ) with the new office. ...
OSK Investment Bank and RHB Capital merge
OSK Investment Bank Berhad (OSKIB), the parent company of OSK Indochina Bank Limited (OSKIBL), has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malaysia-based financial services group RHB Capital Berhad (RHB Capital), effective from November 9. ...
Garment strikers march on despite ban
About 300 workers continued protesting at the Master and Frank garment factory yesterday, rejecting a Kandal Provincial Court injunction ordering them back to work within 48 hours. After the company promised to consider workers’ demands that it reinstate fired union members, workers cancelled their plans to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122860510/National/garment-strikers-march-on-despite-ban.html
Cambodia defies global crisis
Cambodia’s economic performance this year has been heartening despite the global economic slowdown, especially the chaos caused in Europe by the sovereign-debt crisis and the sluggish recovery of the US economy. In October, the International Monetary Fund revised its world growth projections to 3.3 per cent ...
Cambodian sugar plant leaves villagers bitter
Though the mood was congratulatory yesterday at the inauguration of ruling party Senator Ly Yong Phat’s sugar company – a gleaming, new facility nestled in between two hills in Kampong Speu province’s Omlaing commune – the mood just a few kilometres away bordered on desperation. Sitting ...
In Koh Kong land fight, volunteers requested
More than 30 representatives of families who claim a dispute piece of land in Koh Kong province went to provincial hall for the second time yesterday and submitted an official request to allow Prime Minister Hun Sen’s youth volunteer corps to measure the area. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122760493/National/in-koh-kong-land-fight-volunteers-requested.html
MFI launches 15 ATMs in Cambodia
Hattha Kasekar Limited (HKL), one of Cambodia’s largest microfinance institutions (MFI), plans to install 15 ATM machines to service its increasing number of depositors. It becomes the second MFI after Prasac in Cambodia to provide this service to its clients. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122760495/Business/mfi-launches-15-atms-in-cambodia.html
Residents ask PM to intervene in dispute
Villagers travelled from Poipet to Phnom Penh yesterday to seek the prime minister’s help in ending a land dispute with military police officials. About 30 villagers travelling on behalf of families from Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town gathered in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s home ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122760494/National/residents-ask-pm-to-intervene-in-dispute.html
Vietnam to invest in hotels in Cambodia
Vietnamese investors are planning to invest more in accommodation services and to build hotels in at least three provinces that Vietnamese visitors traveling to the world-knowned Angkor Wat will travel past. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122760497/Business/vietnam-to-invest-in-hotels-in-cambodia.html
Workers 'beaten unconscious'
Four garment workers, three of them female, were injured yesterday morning when company and police officials clashed with protesters, union representatives said yesterday. During the demonstrations for the reinstatement of fired workers and back pay, authorities beat two workers unconscious at a protest in front of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122760502/National/garment-workers-beaten-unconscious.html
Two new ports for Cambodia
The Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) will officially open two new ports in January in response to a rise in imports and exports of cargo. The PPAP is also one of the state-owned enterprises due to be listed on the Cambodian stock exchange by 2014. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122660476/Business/two-new-ports-for-cambodia.html
Land activists targeted, rights groups say
Prominent female land activists Tim Sakmony and Yorm Bopha, who have been locked in Prey Sar prison since their arrest in early September, will face court today on charges rights groups say have been fabricated to stop them and others from protesting. Hundreds of the women’s ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122660488/National/land-activists-targeted-rights-groups-say.html
Phnom Penh’s new commune prices steady
Land prices in Meanchey district’s four communes that had been transferred into Phnom Penh municipality’s control from Kandal province have held steady, despite the construction of Prek Samroung Bridge and the extension of roads to the area. Meanchey Governor Kuch Chamroeun said that he is ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122760489/Real-Estate/phnom-penh-s-new-commune-prices-steady.html
Satellite systems for Cambodia’s airports
With the support of the Japanese government, satellite systems will be installed at Cambodia’s international airports from next year, according to an official. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122560460/Business/satellite-systems-for-cambodia-s-airports.html
Plans for open paddy market
The Ministry of Commerce is conducting a feasibility study to set up an open paddy market for paddy rice in at least two provinces to make the rice trade more transparent, s senior official says. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122560464/Business/plans-for-open-paddy-market.html
MFIs as one commercial bank
PhillipCapital, a Singapore-based integrated financial services provider and a majority stakeholder in three of Cambodia’s micro-finance institutions (MFIs), plans to consolidate the three into a commercial bank. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122560462/Business/mfis-as-one-commercial-bank.html