The Phnom Penh Post
Regional health insider talks Cambodian medical care
A French doctor established International SOS between Jakarta and Singapore 27 years ago. The company conducted emergency airlifts for patients to Singapore due to the lack of quality health services available in Indonesia at the time. The French-owned company now has a presence in 74 countries ...
Thailand's allure is strong in Srei Snam
Dry, parched ground – evidence of severe dry season drought – stretches for miles in Siem Reap’s Srei Snam district. In a couple of months, the rains will flood these fields. Both conditions make it equally impossible to produce a good harvest. Srei Snam was a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051056096/National-news/looking-for-a-better-life.html
ACU takes aim at bribes
The Anti-Corruption Unit has set its sights on illegal fees paid at the commune level and intends to stamp out a decades-old culture of bribery within the next four months, ACU officials announced yesterday. At a press conference, acting ACU president Chhay Savuth said that 22 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050956060/National-news/acu-takes-aim-at-bribes.html
Timbergreen principal denies illegal logging
The majority shareholder of Timbergreen, a firm that has been the centre of illegal logging allegations, has denied the company is in any way involved in the illicit trade of timber. The company has gained significant attention since prominent environmental activist Chut Wutty, who had made ...
PPWSA closes higher after a week down
For the first time in weeks, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority yesterday closed up 4.35 per cent, a sign the stock was stablising after a rough opening, insiders said. After an eight-day price decline, PPWSA – the sole listed company on the Cambodia Securities Exchange – ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050956046/Business/follow-up-ipos-still-on-track.html
Follow-up IPOs still on track
Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, one of two state-owned companies slated to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange this year, yesterday called the price decline in the country’s first publicly traded company worrisome. The eight-day slide in price that neared Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s initial public offering ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050956046/Business/follow-up-ipos-still-on-track.html
Northeast new focus for tourism
The Ministry of Tourism will shift its focus to ecotourism development in the Kingdom’s northeast after efforts to promote travel to Cambodia’s coastline proved successful. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050956045/Business/northeast-new-focus-for-tourism.html
Borei Keila evictees look to UN’s Subedi
Borei Keila evictees who have spent months sleeping under staircases and near rubbish dumps delivered a petition to UN Special Rapporteur Suya Subedi yesterday as their quest to be housed again at Borei Keila continued. ...
Cambodian education investor explains his turn to real estate
Chea Sokheng, general director of Arizon Group Ltd, a potential investor in Cambodia’s education and real estate sectors, said that investment in education is a main contributor to developing human resources and growth of the national economy. Though he mentioned the opportunity to invest in the ...
Poipet project: Gaming firm starts build on slot hall
Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc, which today will launch its Dreamworld Casino in Pailin, also will break ground on a slot hall project in Poipet, near the Thai border, on Thursday, according to a company statement. ...
Government silent on ELCs
Ministry officials were silent yesterday on how exactly they planned to implement Prime Minister Hun Sen’s suspension of any new economic land concession grants and review of existing ELCs. Provincial authorities involved in granting the now-suspended land concessions yesterday said they were ready to implement ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050956051/National-news/government-silent-on-elcs.html
Factory name change fires up workers
More than 5,000 workers went on strike in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district yesterday after discovering the owners had changed the name of their factory almost two years ago, a union representative said. Concerned that the name change from Tai Yeng to Tai Nan in 2010 ...
Leader lost, but activists fight on
An estimated 600 people will travel to parts of the Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong province to investigate illegal logging and commemorate the death of slain environment activist Chut Wutty tomorrow. Communities from eight provinces that have been affected by deforestation will travel to Koh Kong ...
Thai jobs serve as siren song
Every day they come in the thousands and crowd under a blazing sun for hours, awaiting a moment that costs them more than two full months’ salary – a passport. And where are they going? “Thailand,” 21-year-old Sem Pheaktra said, squinting under a harsh mid-morning sun. He, and ...
Families call for help to find maids
The families of two maids working in Malaysia asked Preah Vihear’s anti-human trafficking office and the human rights group Adhoc yesterday to intervene on behalf of their daughters, whom they haven’t seen or heard from since last year, officials said. ...
Maids seek justice in Malaysia
Chased out of the house by her Malaysian employer, fresh-faced Tieng SaSa, 18, found shelter with an NGO, escaping alleged abuse at the hands of her employer that included binding her hands and beating her feet with a metal club until her bones broke. Three months ...
Court calls Bandith to ‘clarify’ Bavet shooting
There’s still no arrest warrant, but Svay Rieng provincial court has issued a summons to former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith, asking him to come to court on May 27 to clarify the circumstances surrounding charges related to the shooting of three protesters, an official ...
PM institutes land concessions moratorium
Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued an immediate and indefinite moratorium on the granting of new economic land concessions and called for a review of all existing concessions, a regulation signed by the premier yesterday states. Dated to an April 27 Council of Ministers’ meeting, the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050856036/National-news/conceding-a-problem.html
MFIs defy typically slow first quarter
Total loans and deposits at the Kingdom’s microfinance institutions jumped in the first quarter of 2012 despite what is typically a slow season for the industry, insiders said yesterday. Loans outstanding reached US$708 million for the period ending on March 31, climbing 9.8 per cent from ...
Maersk sees a slowing EU
The Cambodia representative for the world’s largest shipping company said exports from Cambodia to Europe grew by more than 60 per cent during 2011, but have since weakened. “Rice exports grew a lot during 2011 and a lot of it went to Poland and France,” ...
Stuart Alan Becker, P. 9
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050856019/Business/maersk-sees-a-slowing-eu.html
Workers left in limbo on union law
Almost six months after the latest draft of the proposed trade-union law was sent to the Council of Ministers for approval, employers, unions and workers’ rights groups are left asking the same question: What’s happened to it? Confusion over the status of the landmark law, which ...
Reporters summonsed in closed Chut Wutty case
Two journalists who were present when environmental activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana were killed last month have reportedly been summonsed to Koh Kong provincial court. Neang Boratino, Koh Kong provincial co-ordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said court sources had told him ...
Development report cites China as growth model
It’s been done numerous times, comparing the “China miracle” to its emerging and frontier neighbours as a benchmark for development. Cambodia might seem an ill-fitted student of the world’s second-biggest economy. But a recent report from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute pointed to some lessons the Kingdom ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050856023/Business/china-seen-as-growth-model.html
Reckless mining in Prey Lang takes toll on environment
Chemical substances used in about 3,000 mining drills operating in the Prey Lang forest in Kratie and Kampong Thom provinces are wreaking environmental havoc and making people sick, a report by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights released yesterday says. Substances used by a number of ...