The Phnom Penh Post
Xayaburi opposition escalates in Thailand
Criticism of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in northern Laos is mounting in Thailand – the country set to enjoy most of the electricity if the project is completed. Representatives from 130 Thai civil-society organisations yesterday published a statement backing a report that outlines an ...
Vietnam visitors drive tourist stats
International tourist arrivals to Cambodia increased nearly 28 per cent during the first quarter of the year compared with the corresponding period of 2011, Ministry of Tourism data shows. The country drew more than 995,000 tourists from abroad during the three-month period, up from 778,467 a year earlier, ...
Garment sector peace sought
Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on unions, employers and the Ministry of Labour to take a collaborative approach to stamping out violent protests in the garment industry, a unionist said yesterday. During a Saturday conference involving 4,000 people from more than 60 union groups, Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012043055870/National-news/garment-sector-peace-sought.html
Act on environment, UN urges
The government needs to enforce legislation on protecting the environment, even as it gives away masses of land and resources in concessions, or risk jeopardising its economic future, the UN assistant secretary-general for disaster risk reduction said yesterday. “The most critical impact of disasters today is ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042755821/National-news/act-on-environment-un-urges.html
Chut Wutty slain: another chapter in bloody history
With his slaying yesterday in the jungles of Koh Kong province, Chut Wutty becomes one of the highest-profile members yet on a dark list of Cambodian activists who have been killed for making a stand against greed and corruption. Although the details of his death remain ...
Chut Wutty's wife says he was target for murder
The wife of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty today rejected early police accounts of the circumstances around his shooting death, saying she believed he had been targeted for death for his work in protecting Cambodia’s endangered forests. Speaking to the Post by phone, 40-year-old Sam Chanthy, ...
Cambodia, Japan team up to diversify economy
Government officials have joined forces with Japanese experts to formulate a new plan for economic diversity in Cambodia. Foreign direct investment in Cambodian industry has largely gone to garment manufacturing during the past 10 years, putting the country at risk of economic shock in the event ...
Trading volume drops on new Cambodia Securities Exchange
The Cambodia Securities Exchange has seen a sharp decrease in action this week, with trading volume yesterday falling to 3,453 shares, down nearly 100 per cent from Monday. Despite the drop, which was accompanied by a strong shift from institutional to retail investors, experts have stressed the time ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042755811/Business/trading-volume-drops-on-new-csx.html
Bandwidth boost underway
Fuelled by downward pressure on internet pricing, state-owned Telecom Cambodia had dramatically increased its fibre-optic link with Vietnam, officials and experts said. The new 10-gigabyte connection would further lower prices and boost the speed of Cambodian internet connections in a market where demand for bandwidth was driven by ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042655784/Business/bandwidth-boost-under-way.html
Thai protesters rally against Xayaburi dam construction
Protests over construction of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in northern Laos could spread from Thailand to Cambodia as communities along the Mekong River begin to feel its negative effects, an International Rivers programme director said yesterday. About 70 Thai villagers who rely on the ...
Cashew nut harvest likely to decline
As the end of this year’s cashew harvest nears, the yield in two major producing provinces has fallen compared with last year, officials and farmers said, while traders said that the price of the nuts had also dropped since last year. In Kompong Cham province, this ...
Stocks still an unknown for many Cambodians
Despite interest in participating in the stock market, confusion as to how and where to invest in the Cambodia Securities Exchange still persists among many Cambodians without close ties to or backgrounds in trading. After the much-anticipated and long-delayed launch of CSX trading last week, Soun Sokret, an ...
Stock trading sees first glitches
Share prices on the Cambodia Securities Exchange yesterday fell for the first time since trading began a week ago, as technical problems reportedly caused a 90 per cent drop in the amount of shares traded. Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares dropped 4.9 per cent to 9,700 riel (US$2.44). The ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042555750/Business/csx-sees-first-trading-glitches.html
Hun Sen aims to attract more Japanese money
Japan’s Sumi Wiring Systems Co Ltd launched production of automobile wiring this month, a company official said yesterday. Japanese companies such as Sumi and Minebea, a ball-bearings maker, have helped Cambodia’s manufacturing industry diversify away from garments, the country’s main manufacturing product and export, and Prime Minister Hun Sen ...
Milled rice exports gaining traction
The tonnage of the Kingdom’s milled-rice exports jumped nearly 50 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, according to the Ministry of Commerce, with export revenues soaring as much as 82 per cent. Total exports of milled rice for the first three months of 2012 hit ...
SH protesters to keep striking
More than 700 workers at the SH International factory in the capital’s Po Sen Chey district have vowed to keep striking, despite the Ministry of Labour saying it could not help solve their dispute because their demands were “excessive”. The workers protested again yesterday outside the ...
Cambodia must seek new trade partners
Cambodia will no doubt look to partners other than the US and the European Union to bolster its economic growth as those key export markets continue to struggle, a senior International Monetary Fund official says. One way in which Cambodia would forge new and growing relationships with higher-income ...
MP urges government to scrap Koh Kong dam project
A dam project set to flood thousands of hectares of protected forest and displace about 1,500 indigenous minority villagers in one of Koh Kong province’s most precious ecosystems should be scrapped, opposition Sam Rainsy Party MP Son Chhay said yesterday. The 109-megawatt dam project in the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042055676/National-news/dont-dam-minority-mp-says.html
PPWSA up again, with retail buyers moving in
The price increase for Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority shares maxed out after an hour of trading yesterday morning, the second day of operations on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. PPWSA closed up 4.84 per cent yesterday at 9,750 riel (US$2.44), climbing from 9,300 the day before, ...
FTB signs MoU with Tong Yang
The Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (FTB) and Tong Yang Securities (Cambodia) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding on financial consultation services and trade co-operation that is hoped to expand banking and securities business in the country. The MoU should bring the bank and the securities firm into ...
Moody’s to review Cambodia's banks for downgrades
Moody’s Investor Services will review ACLEDA Bank and Cambodian Public Bank (Campu Bank) for potential downgrades, according to a release from the rating agency on Wednesday. But the move comes primarily as a response to the global financial crisis and the rating agency’s attempt to realign sovereign ratings with ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042055668/Business/moodys-eyes-kingdom-banks.html
Two Cambodian banks on review for downgrade
Moody’s Investor Service yesterday placed local currency long-term deposit and issuer ratings of two of Cambodia’s largest banks, ACLEDA Bank and Cambodian Public Bank (Campu Bank), on review for downgrade, according to a statement from the rating service ...
PPWSA up 48 per cent on first day
By the time Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon closed the first session of the Cambodian Securities Exchange yesterday morning, shares in Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, the Kingdom’s first domestically listed company, were just shy of soaring 50 per cent. Institutional and retail investors traded 487,110 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012041955648/Business/ppwsa-up-48-per-cent-on-first-day.html
Walmart intervention sought at Thai factory
A large North American union has called on US retail giant Walmart to take immediate action against one of its seafood suppliers in Thailand accused of holding Cambodian workers in debt bondage while barely providing them with enough money to eat. The United Food and Commercial Workers ...