The Phnom Penh Post

SACOMBANK yesterday announced the launch of its new subsidiary, the 100 per cent foreign-owned Sacombank Cambodia Plc, which is set to target the Kingdom’s rural population. The Vietnamese commercial bank plans to open branches throughout the country’s provinces to provide banking services to a larger cross-section ...

The dollar figure on government-approved investments in construction for the first eight months of the year increased by 92 per cent compared to the same period in 2010, according to official statistics. The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction approved 1,470 construction projects worth ...

The Angkor Village Hotel and Resort is breaking the law by refusing to reinstate 67 sacked workers that the Arbitration Council ruled were unlawfully dismissed, Siem Reap’s deputy governor claimed yesterday. After attending a protest of hotel workers and supporters outside the hotel in Siem Reap ...

Government officials yesterday pointed to developing countries as the main culprits behind climate change and claimed such nations should provide the majority of finan-cing for protecting the Kingdom from the issue. “We are a victim of the problems of the rich,” Environment Minister Mok Mareth said ...

Recent flooding has extended the dengue fever season this year, the National Dengue Control Program said on Tuesday. Officials added that more than 12,000 people, primarily children, had been hospitalised so far this year with the mosquito-borne infection. Dr Ngan Chantha, head of the NDCP, said “12,392 ...

Astra Resources, parent company of Australia’s Astra Mining, will finalise within two months the acquisition of a 222-square-kilometre gold concession in Cambodia’s Ratanakkiri province, the company announced yesterday. Astra, which listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange September 30, is aiming for large and speedy gold production ...

Freight shipments through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port saw year-on-year growth of 30 per cent in the first nine months of the year, according to official PPAP figures. The total number of twenty-foot equivalent units that passed through the port hit 60,810 between January and August, up from ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...