News
KFC In Cambodia Takes Hit as Losses Continue
Fast food chain KFC lost more than half-a-million dollars in the first half of 2012, according to a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange last week by the majority owner of KFC Cambodia, QSR Brands. The statement said that the company suffered losses of $578,000 in ...
Cambodia, Dubai Sign Deal to Start Direct Flights
Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding to establish direct flights between the two countries, said Tith Chantha, director general of Tourism Ministry. Tourism Minister Thong Khon inked the deal to establish flights from Dubai to an unspecified destination in Cambodia during ...
Angkor sees gold in Liberty
Angkor Gold Corp has acquired a new economic land concession as it gains full control of its other concessions with the purchase of another mining company, according to officials. According to a statement released last week, Angkor Gold has purchased Liberty Mining International Pty Ltd (Liberty), ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091058590/Business/angkor-sees-gold-in-liberty.html
Hundreds of illegal migrants return
Nearly 450 Cambodians who were illegally working in Thailand were repatriated across the Battambang province border on Saturday in one of the largest one-day operations along that border, officials said yesterday. Thai authorities had rounded up the 447 workers, who were busted without the required paperwork, ...
Innovation and inspiration are the basis of BarCamp
BarCamp Phnom Penh, a technology conference at the University of Puthisastra, promises to attract industry professionals from ASEAN countries, the US, Germany and other countries around the world later this month, Be Chantra, lead organiser of the conference, says. Be Chantra says BarCamp Phnom Penh is ...
Fellow villagers pray for land rights activists
Borei Keila protesters, including many who live in squalor under staircases at the site, have already been compensated for losing their homes and have no right to demand more, Suy Sophan, the owner of developer Phan Imex, told the Post yesterday. About 200 supporters from the ...
250 Evacuated From Homes In Preah Vihear Due to Flood
More than 250 families in Preah Vihear province’s Preah Vihear City were evacuated from their homes yesterday and moved to higher ground due to flooding caused by persistent heavy rains that started last week, the provincial governor said. Preah Vihear Governor Oum Mara siad that the ...
Consumer price index climbs on food and fuel
Cambodia’s consumer price index (CPI) increased slightly year-on-year in July by 1.3 per cent, which was driven by increased food and fuel prices, according official data from the National Institute of Statistics (NIS). “The increase for all index groups was 1.3 per cent of inflation in July 2012 ...
Boeng Kak Arrest Not Linked to Evictions, Says Local Man
The Phnom Penh man who filed a complaint against a woman deeply involved in the Boeng Kak community’s anti-eviction protests called a press conference on Friday to insist that his dispute with the woman, which led to her arrest last week, was a personal matter ...
Pharmaceutical plant announces expansion
PharmaProduct Manufacturing, Cambodia’s self-described first pharmaceutical plant, announced last week plans to expand into other ASEAN markets once the ASEAN Community frame-work is adopted in 2015. According to its online materials, the producer of the painkiller KINAL – among other medicines – opened its doors in 1996, and has ...
PM Adviser given extra title at financial ministry
Prime Minister Hun Sen has appointed his personal adviser Kong Vibol as director general of the General Department of Taxation at the Ministry of Economics and Finance, according to the Royal Book entry of August 22. In addition to his expertise in taxation, Vibol is also ...
Tide changes at Ocean as factory pays strikers
Ocean Garment, the Phnom Penh-based clothing manufacturer at the centre of sexual harassment claims and an illegal strike that lasted more than two weeks, has agreed to compensate more than 2,500 workers for wages lost during the protests, a move union advocates have highlighted as ...
Dams, climate plague Mekong
Villagers in Kratie province have long feared the proposed Sambor hydroelectric dam and the impact it could have on their subsistence fishing and riverbank agriculture. According to Resilience on the Mekong: A Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment in North-East Cambodia, a report released by the World Wildlife Foundation on Friday, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091058600/National-news/dams-climate-plague-mekong.html
Cambodia Says No Strings Attached in Recent Chinese Aid
China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years, with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports last week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants-and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...
Cambodia opening its doors to investment
With GDP growth averaging around 9% for the past decade, Cambodia is certainly attracting interest from potential investors. It has possibly the most investor-friendly environment in Asean with no exchange controls, no restrictions on repatriation of profit, and no discrimination between foreign and local investors. Moreover, ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/311715/cambodia-opening-its-doors-to-investment
Ministry orders Kok An audit
Heng Chheang, the jailed ex-deputy general director of senator Kok An’s Anco Brothers Co, may have been improperly convicted of embezzling more than US$58 million from the tycoon, according to a letter sent to the Supreme Court from the Ministry of Economy and Finance last ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091058613/National-news/ministry-orders-kok-an-audit.html
South China Sea outlook
The disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea are approaching a tipping point. As former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino said last month: “The disputes cannot be resolved anytime soon, if at all. The most that can be done is to prevent them developing into armed ...
Rights activists concerned about status of human rights under AEC
Despite so much excitement in the run-up to the inception of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, experts and activists on human rights and democracy are ambivalent about what AEC’s repercussions will be on human rights and democracy. They have expressed concerns about AEC’s negative ...
Cambodia: Mandatory Internet Surveillance Cameras
The Cambodian government is enforcing a circular drafted earlier this year which requires internet cafes to set up surveillance cameras and to register callers. Based on an unofficial translation made by Jinja, the government said the circular was made in response to the rising number ...
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/09/09/cambodia-mandatory-internet-surveillance-cameras/
UN Housing Envoy Wants Eviction Activists Freed
The U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Raquel Rolnik, has waded in to the furor surrounding the imprisonment this week of two anti-eviction activists from Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities, posing with a poster calling for the release of the two women. Yorm Bopha, 32, ...
Japan to Give $840,000 To Demining Projects
Japan signed an agreement Thursday with the Japan Mine Action Service (JMAS) to provide $839,363 to deining projects in Battambang province, which will benefit about 5,500 residents. Together with the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), which will receive almost half of the donations from Japan, JMAS ...
P Vihear Villagers Protest at National Assembly
More than 350 villagers from Preah Vihear province protested in front of the National Assembly on Friday, asking for support from lawmakers in their dispute with military veterans. The villagers, representing some 370 families in Kulen district’s Srayong commune, said that the land on which they ...
Taiwan Cooperative Bank to open Cambodia branch
Taiwan Cooperative Bank, the banking arm under Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co. Ltd., received the green light from Cambodia’s central bank to open a branch in the capital city of Phnom Penh, the bank said Saturday. Cambodia, a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ...
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aECO&ID=201209080024
New Mekong Port to Ease Overloaded Phnom Penh Terminal
With cargo traffic at the Phnom Penh Autonomus Port growing rapidly, a nearly completed container terminal just south of the city on the Mekon River should help ease the congestion. The 30-hectare port, in Kandal province’s Kein Svay district, was completed late last month, though cranes ...