News
Border Officials Ask Thailand To Stop Shooting at Loggers
Cambodian border officials urged their Thai counterparts not to shoot Cambodians who cross into Thailand illegally during a special meeting in Siem Reap city yesterday to cement border relations. The request comes as Thai soldiers have already fatally shot 11 Cambodians this year who illegally ...
Police Hear Borei Keila Evictees' Apartment Claims
Ten representatives from the Borei Keila community met with Phnom Penh police chief Touch Naruth yesterday to discuss whether their housing documents could qualify them for an apartment, a representative said yesterday. Chhum Ngan said Mr. Naruth asked representatives to furnish housing documents from 106 ...
Warrant sought for shooter
The Ministry of Interior has sought a warrant for the suspect who shot three people at a protest outside a shoe factory last week amid more allegations from government and police officials that the perpetrator was Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030154802/National-news/warrant-sought-for-shooter.html
Kingdom’s arable land all but gone
If the government continues to grant economic land and mining concessions at the current rate, there will be no more arable land left in the country to give away within one year, a researcher from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights said yesterday. Pointing to the ...
River Dolphin Conservation Gets Go-Ahead
A government committee yesterday approved a draft sub-decree aimed at protecting the endangered Mekong River dolphin and will send it to the Council of Ministers within a few weeks. Among the provisions contained in the sub-decree is the creation of a 180-km-long conservation area stretching ...
A refuge for river dolphins
The government yesterday moved to protect endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River, announcing plans for a 180-kilometre-long conservation area that would stretch from the Lao border through Stung Treng province to Kratie town. Touch Seang Tana, chairman of the Commission for Conservation and Development of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030154794/National-news/a-refuge-for-river-dolphins.html
Villagers take case to capital
Representatives from five communes in Koh Kong province engaged in a long-running land dispute with a private Chinese firm urged the government to issue them proper land titles during a press conference in the capital yesterday. Representative Chhai Beng Hout asked the government to instruct the ...
Land Concessions Now at 1.2 Million Hectares, Official Says
The total number of land concessions offered by the government to private agro-industrial firms hit 1.19 million hectares, or 13.5 percent of Cambodia’s total land mass, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The government figure undermines figures released late last year ...
Gov't Opens Rivers to Sand Dredging
Nine companies have put in bids for the rights to dredge the lengths of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and sell the sand for export, Water Resources Ministry officials said yesterday, noting that the dredging would be beneficial in terms of deepening the waterways. ...
Cambodia telco growth in 3G
Despite the hype surrounding the advent of fourth-generation mobile services, the bulk of growth and profits in Cambodian telecom remains in 3G networks, experts say. A recent study by London-based research firm Ovum notes that emerging markets such as Cambodia will see rapid growth in 3G ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022954766/Business/kingdom-telco-growth-in-3g.html
Cambodia's debt a concern
An International Monetary Fund and World Bank report has questioned Cambodia’s ability to deal with future financial crises if government borrowing increases. While the report indicated that Cambodia was at low risk for severe debt problems, it highlighted the need for effective management of new debt ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022954764/Business/cambodias-debt-a-concern.html
Hun Sen bans industry fishing at Tonle Sap lake permanently
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday extended indefinitely a ban on commercial fishing in Tonle Sap lake, citing ongoing illegal fishing to the detriment of local villagers. The premier had first imposed the ban on 35 fishing lots in the lake in August, as a result of ...
Battambang families seek land-dispute aid
Representatives of more than 300 families in Battambang province’s Bavel district yesterday urged government officials to intervene in a land dispute with provincial authorities and a businessman. Representative Thuy Ry said the 305 families had lived on the 3,638 hectares of land in Ampil Pram Doeum ...
Climate concerns for Cambodia
The government needed better mechanisms to adapt to the effects of climate change, which could result in droughts and floods that cause deaths, destroy rice paddies and place an undue burden on the budget, a senior official said yesterday. Environment Minister Mok Mareth told a workshop ...
Alarm over proposed dam
The Sam Rainsy Party has asked Prime Minister Hun Sen to verify the details of a proposed dam that could inundate about 10,000 hectares of protected forest, citing concerns that it would lead to rampant illegal logging and devastate a traditional habitat of Siamese crocodiles. ...
David Boyle with additional reporting by Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Cassandra Yeap, P. 5
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022954773/National-news/alarm-over-proposed-dam.html
Thai Envoy Proposes Group to Address Logging
The Thai Ambassador in Phnom Penh has suggested that Cambodia form a special delegation to tackle the common – and often deadly – practice of illegal logging along the two countries’ shared border, the ambassador said yesterday. Already this year, 11 Cambodians have reportedly been ...
Hun Sen Ends Tonle Sap Fishing Lot System
Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he would permanentlycance all 35 fishing lots on the Tonle Sap lake – which had already been suspended in recent months – and turn them into a conservation zone to protect the lake’s pressurized wild fisheries, on which ...
NGOs Urge Cambodia, Malaysia to Agree on Maid Protection
More than 60 Cambodian and international human rights groups and trade unions yesterday called on Cambodia and Malaysia to reach a bilateral agreement that would guarantee strong labor rights and working conditions for Cambodian maids employed in Malaysia. “The time is ripe for the Cambodian ...
Villagers ask for Government’s Help in Koh Kong Land Dispute
Koh Kong villagers facing the loss of their land to a Chinese mega-tourism project held a news conference in Phnom Penh yesterday to appeal to the government for the right to remain on their property. Kith Ten, 54, from Kiri Sakor district’s Prek Khsach commune, ...
Prayer Ceremony Held In Attempt to Stop Dam Construction
About 400 indigenous Lao villagers prayed and sacrificed chickens to a powerful local spirit yesterday in Stung Treng province, seeking supernatural help in halting the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam, villagers and commune officials said yesterday. The hydropower projects, funded by Vietnam ...
Illegally Logged Rosewood Seized In Kratie Operation
The Kratie Provincial Court yesterday charged a truck driver with illegally collecting and transporting luxury wood after forestry officers last week confiscated 148 pieces of luxury wood totalling 31.2 cubic meters from his truck, which had been transporting the timber along National Road 7 ...
Hun Sen Blames Migration for Labor Shortage in Agriculture
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blamed illegal immigration for contributing to a current shortage in the Cambodian labor market but said workers could benefit from rising wages as a result of the demand for workers. Mr. Hun Sen said the shortage was hitting the agriculture sector ...
Net Vegetable Yields Still Miss Demand
Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said yesterday that Cambodia currently produces only half as many vegetables as it needs to meet demand and that more needs to be done to remedy the situation. “Cambodia only produces 40 to 60 perent of its needs and imports, the ...
Beer Promoters Allege Bias Following Strike
Beer promoters in Phnom Penh claimed Monday that they are being discriminated against for staging a month-long strike last summer, and their livelihoods are under threat. In July and August, hundreds of promoters for Cambrew Ltd – which produces and distributes Angkor beer – went ...