The Phnom Penh Post
Thais to reconsider oil MoU
Cambodian officials yesterday welcomed statements from Thailand’s foreign minister that an all-important 2001 memorandum of understanding on the Overlapping Claims Area would most likely be renewed. Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul said the MoU would be sent to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s cabinet on October 18 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011100551947/Business/thais-to-reconsider-oil-mou.html
China IPO to benefit Kingdom
China’s Sinohydro Group Ltd earned US$2.12 billion in an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the company announced yesterday. The move came just two months before Sinohydro launches the Kamchay Hydroelectric Dam in Cambodia’s Kampot province. The company expects the IPO to help fund ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011093051879/Business/china-ipo-to-benefit-kingdom.html
Travel to coast down during Pchum Ben
Bad weather scared tourists from Cambodian beaches and other popular travel destinations during a three-day national holiday, provincial tourism officials said yesterday. Preah Sihanouk province saw a 30 to 35 percent drop in tourist numbers during the Pchum Ben holiday, which ended Wednesday, Seng Kha, deputy ...
ADB meets wall of silence
Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon has failed to respond to a request made almost two months ago about the authenticity of a letter in which he allegedly urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to ban foreign NGOs from doing advocacy work in Cambodia, the Asian Development ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011093051889/National-news/adb-meets-wall-of-silence.html
Kingdom set for IT growth over next decade
Cambodia’s information technology sector is looking to leapfrog its current capacities in the next decade as the Kingdom chases other countries in the region, industry experts say. As much as 40 per cent of the country could be online within 10 years, Dell general manager of ...
UN set to hear report on Cambodian rights
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Cambodia was due last night to present his 2011 report to the Human Rights Council in New York, where Foreign Minister Hor Namhong is attending the UN General Assembly’s annual debate. The report, first published on August 2, looks at ...
Calls for Kingdom to join transparency group
A new US commitment to oil and mining transparency may push the Kingdom closer to a similar agreement, Cambodian experts have said. US President Barack Obama announced earlier this week that the US would join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as an implementing country, according to ...
Port sees revenue increase this year
Sihanoukville Autonomous Port revenues increased more than 16 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of 2011, according to port officials. Cambodia’s largest port generated US$21 million in revenues between January and August, up from $18 million in the same period last year, SAP Director General ...
Oil-claims talks 'highly likely'
Thailand is reportedly preparing to re-enter negotiations with Cambodia on the Overlapping Claims Area after officials from the two countries talked this week at the ASEAN Energy Business Forum in Brunei. Thai Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said yesterday that he met informally with Ministry of Industry ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011092351817/Business/oil-claims-talks-highly-likely.html
Union members 'dismissed'
A garment factory hit by two mass fainting incidents last month has been accused of trying to get rid of workers who subsequently joined the Free Trade Union to push for better working conditions at the facility in Kampong Chhnang province. Free Trade Union President Chea ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011092351820/National-news/union-members-dismissed.html
Residents concerned over low land price
At least 22 families living in the capital’s Chamkarmon district say they are being forced to sell their land at below market value to Thailand’s Bun Roong Company in order to make way for a housing development. Village representative Chhim Veasna said on Wednesday that the ...
Revenues from trade inspection climbing
Camcontrol Directorate General revenue from goods inspections during the first half of the year increased by more than 32 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Ministry of Commerce data. Camcontrol, or the Cambodia Import-Export Inspection and Fraud Repression Directorate General, which regulates ...
Sickles brought to protest
Armed villagers from Kratie province’s Snoul district protested yesterday against district officials and a Vietnamese company they believe wants to cheat them out of their farmland. The rights to 300 hectares of land around Sre Cha commune’s Meanchey village have been highly disputed since 2008, when ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011092251800/National-news/sickles-brought-to-protest.html
World Bank highlights wage gains
The wages and working conditions of garment factory workers in Cambodia are at or above the national average, a report from the World Bank has found The minimum wage for garment workers in Cambodia rose to US$61 for regular workers in June 2010 and in March ...
SMEs call for better loan rates
The Kingdom’s small and medium enterprises have called on commercial banks and micro-finance institutions to lower interest rates on loans, as insiders have said they hamper SMEs’ potential for growth. Many Cambodian SMEs are concerned that the high interest rates offered by banks reduce productivity, according ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011092151765/Business/smes-call-for-better-loan-rates.html
Payout for swept-away workers
The company constructing a dam in Koh Kong province, where seven workers were swept away in floodwaters earlier this month, has paid US$1,000 to the families of each of the men for funeral expenses, but is denying responsibility for the incident, an official said yesterday. Sok ...
PM talks gas and oil with Thai assembly head
Prime Minister Hun Sen held talks with President of the Thai National Assembly Somsak Kiatsuranot in the capital yesterday, paving the way for the extraction of contested oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Thailand Yesterday’s talks between Hun Sen and Somsak focused on restoring ...
Brighton grows in Mondulkiri
Mining concession buy-outs will make Brighton Mining Limited one of the Kingdom’s largest miners by concession size in Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province, according to a company statement released yesterday. Brighton, an ASX-listed company, has completed negotiations with Summer Gold Investment Pty Limited for mining concessions in Mondulkiri ...
Cambodia, Vietnam talk trade
Cambodia and Vietnam yesterday pledged to strengthen cooperation on a range of issues involving trade and investment, in order to boost increasing trade between the neighbouring countries. Bilateral trade between the nations is currently in its most significant period, with trans-border business continuing to grow, Cambodia ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011092051739/Business/cambodia-vietnam-talk-trade.html
Rare tiger prey at risk from land concessions
Surveys conducted by the World Wildlife Foundation have revealed that the world’s largest population of banteng, an endangered species of cattle that once thrived in the Kingdom, remains at risk due to economic land concessions and poaching inside protected areas The number of banteng in Cambodia ...
Trade with Singapore soars
The Kingdom’s total trade with Singapore soared 148 percent in the first half of the year, while exports to Hong Kong increased 80 percent in the same period, according to Ministry of Commerce figures. The data showed that Cambodia’s exports to Hong Kong totalled in excess ...
Poipet border officials say crossings increasing
Inbound foreign tourists at the Poipet International Checkpoint with Thailand increased more than 26 percent year-on-year, according to checkpoint statistics. More than 273,969 foreign tourists and traders entered Cambodia during the first eight months of the year, up from 216,546 during the same time period ...
Bonus agreement in garment worker strike
Zhen Yong Garment Factory Co Ltd has agreed to some of the demands of about 400 workers who went on strike last week, including paying annual bonuses early next month Prum Veasna, deputy of the labor dispute department at the labor ministry, said yesterday that the ...
Road block jams link to Kratie
About 500 villagers from six districts in Kratie’s Snoul district protested on National Road 7 yesterday, in a bid to find a solution to their land dispute with two Vietnamese rubber companies. Cars, trucks and buses were gridlocked from 8:00am to 12:00pm along National Road 7 ...