Government
Transport minister defends self-granted bonuses
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Wednesday posted to its website a four-page document giving Public Works and Transport Minister Tram Iv Tek’s response to complaints of corruption within his ministry, including that the minister had awarded himself exorbitant bonuses. The ACU said in the document that ...
Hul Reaksmey and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/transport-minister-defends-self-granted-bonuses-63726/
Cintri back to work in time for royal ceremony
Phnom Penh’s trash collectors ended their strike Wednesday after being promised increased salaries—leaving two days to clean the streets before Friday’s ceremony to inter the ashes of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk. Ngoun Sipheng, the operations manager for Cintri, which has a monopoly on waste ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cintri-back-to-work-in-time-for-royal-ceremony-63738/
Transparency NGO pulls out as exam monitor
Transparency International (TI) Cambodia on Wednesday announced it would not be dispatching observers to independently monitor the National High School Exams on August 4 and 5 after the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and Education Ministry said they would not allow reserve observers at exam halls. TI says ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/transparency-international-pulls-out-as-national-exam-monitor-63720/
Passenger arrival at airports up by 10 pct
The number of passenger arrivals at the Kingdom’s airports rose to 1.37 million in the first six months of the year, up 10 per cent from 1.24 million visitors in the same period in 2013, according to figures from Cambodia Airports. The figures include both international ...
Hor Kimsay
http://phnompenhpost.com
Agreement provides better access to Cambodia and the Philippines
Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says Cabinet approval of two new air services agreements will make it easier for New Zealanders to travel and do business in Cambodia and the Philippines. The new agreement with Cambodia places no limits on flights and routes operated by airlines ...
Voxy News Staff
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/agreement-provides-better-access-cambodia-and-philippines/5/195776
New Zealand opens door to more flights to Philippines, Cambodia
The number of flights between New Zealand and Southeast Asia is set to grow with the approval of new air services agreements with the Philippines and Cambodia, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said Wednesday. “These agreements help provide New Zealanders with better access to Southeast Asia, providing ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=228794
Raid on house finds 84 workers
Before dawn yesterday, Thai military officials raided a house not far from the border, finding dozens of undocumented Cambodian workers crammed into a room awaiting transportation deeper into the country. The 84 workers were woken, taken into military custody and deported, but the brokers who had ...
Cheang Sokha and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/raid-house-finds-84-workers
Barred from exam, grade 12s protest
Fifty-two students in Kampong Thom are blaming teacher favouritism and an inherently unequal system for preventing them from sitting the national exam and graduating this year. The students, from Hun Sen Taing Kork High School in Baray district, filed a petition to the provincial department of ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/barred-exam-grade-12s-protest
Concern for children as migrants return to Thailand
In the wake of a mass exodus of Cambodian migrant workers from Thailand last month, World Vision says that an alarming number of children have found themselves lost and separated from their parents at the border. In a statement released Tuesday, the organization also said many ...
Lauren Crothers and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-for-children-as-migrants-begin-returning-to-thailand-63592/
Strike divides Cintri workers
While Phnom Penh’s garbage truck drivers returned to work yesterday following a brief strike, piles of refuse continued to mount in parts of the city, as trash collectors who had joined the drivers’ cause were continuing the strike alone as of 7pm. On Monday, drivers of ...
Pech Sotheary and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-divides-cintri-workers
City Hall brings in security guards to collect trash
District security guards, often used to break up demonstrations and beat protesters, were mobilized Tuesday to help clean up the city as hundreds of Phnom Penh’s trash collectors continued their strike over pay and working conditions. City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said 60 Cintri trucks returned ...
Ben Sokhean and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-brings-in-security-guards-to-collect-trash-63583/
As fish stocks vanish, locals flout law to survive
Khan Thea, a subsistence fisherman who lives and works along this sprawling, 7,000-hectare lake fed by the Mekong River, was not having a good day on the water. Struggling to net even a single fish, he finally resorted to a dangerous—and illegal—technique: fishing with electric current. ...
Phorn Bopha and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-fish-stocks%E2%80%88vanish-locals-flout-law-to-survive-63567/
Constitutional Council OKs contentious judicial reform
Cambodia’s Constitutional Council has approved three controversial draft laws on judicial reform, despite heavy opposition from rights groups and international observers who say they will not restore the public’s faith in the courts. Critics say the laws—passed without opposition members in the National Assembly—put too much ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/constitutional-council-oks-contentious-judicial-reform/1952955.html
Khmer Krom monks clash with Cambodian police over Hanoi statement
More than a hundred monks and students from Vietnam’s Khmer Krom ethnic minority living in Cambodia clashed Tuesday with riot police and security guards in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh as they marched to demand an apology for statements by ...
Richard Finney
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/clash-07082014164311.html
Cambodian workers are allowed to return for work
Employers, who wish to have Cambodian workers return to work after they left Thailand hurriedly, due to personal anxiety based on rumors, can relay their requests to Suphanburi Provincial Employment Office. ...
National News Bureau of Thailand
http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNSOC5707080010020
EU ban on Cambodian fish remains in place
More than one year after its fish products were banned from Europe, the industry and government has done little to ensure it will be lifted. The ban, instituted in early 2013, has hurt potential fish exports to a potentially lucrative trade partner. But EU officials say Cambodia ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/eu-ban-on-cambodian-fish-remains-in-place/1952962.html
Thais mandate migrant worker health checks
On the road to legal employment in Thailand, Cambodian migrant workers are being made to undergo check-ups that have them cough, strip and give blood and urine samples to prove they are physically and mentally sound enough to work in the country. Obtaining a workers’ permit, ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thais-mandate-migrant-worker-health-checks
‘Abused’ maid awaits return
Woman who was taking part in a pilot scheme to place Cambodian maids in Singapore is waiting to be repatriated after being molested at her employers home and allegedly mistreated by a recruitment firm, she said yesterday. Nation’s managing director, Gary Chin, rejected those claims ...
Sen David and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98abused%E2%80%99-maid-awaits-return
Companies warned over slow development of ELCs
Provincial government officials in Stung Treng have warned companies granted economic land concessions (ELCs) in the province to fulfil their promised development plans or face losing their rights to the land. Touch Thea, director of the Stung Treng provincial department of agriculture, said the call for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/companies-warned-over-slow-development-elcs
FBI to assist ‘Crackdown’ on dissident, police say
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has agreed to Cambodia’s request for greater assistance as it attempts to “crack down” on U.S.-based dissidents, according to the National Police Commissariat website. A delegation led by National Police Chief Neth Savoeun returned Saturday from a three-day visit ...
Simon Henderson and Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fbi-to-assist-crackdown-on-dissident-police-say-63470/
Commerce minister, US Ambassador swap praise after trade trip
U.S. Ambassador William Todd and Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol praised each other for their dedication to the development of the Cambodian economy at a press conference in Phnom Penh on Monday, following a joint trade mission last month to the U.S. Mr. Todd and Mr. Chanthol, ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/commerce-minister-us-ambassador-swap-praise-after-trade-trip-63458/
Boeng Kak families ask ACU to probe Senator’s land sale
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood lodged a formal complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Monday, asking it to investigate 12 current and former government officials and Senator Lao Meng Khin over the senator’s plans to sell land they say was stolen from ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-families-ask-acu-to-probe-senators-land-sale-63453/
Constitutional council approves judicial laws, sends to king
The approval of King Norodom Sihamoni is all that is needed for three controversial judicial bills to be passed into law after they were declared constitutional this week by the CPP-stacked Constitutional Council of Cambodia (CCC). Despite an outcry from rights and legal advocacy groups over ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/constitutional-council-approves-judicial-laws-sends-to-king-63282/
Online registration option to be rolled out to SMEs
The Ministry of Industry and Handicraft will introduce an online registration platform for Cambodia’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) this year, a ministry official confirmed yesterday. Heng Sok Kong, secretary of state at the ministry, said the new software for web registration was built in partnership ...
Annie Lee
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/online-registration-option-be-rolled-out-smes