Government
Cambodia, Belarus set to boost bilateral ties
Cambodia and Belarus set to promote bilateral relations in politics, diplomacy, economics, trade, and tourism for mutual benefits of the two countries and peoples, a Cambodian spokesman said Thursday. Cambodia and Belarus established diplomatic relations in 1995, he said, adding that economic and trade relations ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-01/16/c_133049868.htm
Hun Sen: Minimum wage of workers cannot be increased to USD160
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said it would be impossible to double the garment workers from USD 80 to USD 160 even though he wish to see them to have better life. “Which leaders and Prime Ministers don’t want to see their peoples have good ...
Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=M2EzNmZiZGVkNjA#sthash.0G8ytVha.dpuf
SMBC To Reinforce Biz Cooperation In Cambodia, S.Africa
Megabank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. said Tuesday that it will boost business collaboration with Acleda Bank, Cambodia’s leading commercial bank, and Absa Bank in South Africa, Japan’s Jiji Press reported. The Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. unit said it has dispatched a staff member to a ...
Bernama News Staff
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1007470
Cambodia has no ambition to develop nuclear power plant: PM
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the Southeast Asian nation has no ambition to develop a nuclear power plant, but wants to use nuclear technologies in agriculture, health, and animal breeds. The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with Yukiya Amano, director ...
Global Times News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/837562.shtml#.UtYhn9IW2ls
Government Denies Beehive Radio Bid for Expansion
The Ministry of Information has rejected an application by independently run Beehive Radio to expand its operations nationwide. Beehive, which carries Voice of America and other international programming, currently serves Phnom Penh through an FM frequency. It had applied to expand radio relay stations throughout the ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/government-denies-beehive-radio-bid-for-expansion/1829952.html
Road Safety Hit by Suspension of Law Enforcement
The continuing suspension of traffic-law enforcement by traffic police since the run-up to July’s national election has had a detrimental effect on road safety practices, a senior Ministry of Interior official admitted Tuesday. Road safety groups have already expressed concern that the decision to halt enforcement ...
Simon Henderson and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/road-safety-hit-by-suspension-of-law-enforcement-50592/
Official busted for alleged graft
An official at the Takeo provincial department of labour was arrested on Friday and charged for allegedly embezzling more than $310,000 from vocational teachers, the ACU and a prosecutor said yesterday. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/official-busted-alleged-graft
Economic freedom low: report
Economic freedom in Cambodia worsened over the past year, according to the latest report from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in the US. Cambodia is ranked 108 out of 178 countries surveyed, with an overall score of 57.4, a 1.1-point dip from ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/economic-freedom-low-report
No union for workers in food biz
After the Ministry of Labour denied a food service union official registration, a union official is crying foul, asserting that authorities are discriminating against her group – a charge the government denies. The Cambodian Food and Service Worker Federation (CFSWF), a 4,000-member union representing workers in ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/no-union-workers-food-biz
Vinamilk deal to go ahead
Vietnam Dairy Product Joint-Stock Co, better-known to milk lovers as Vinamilk, was granted a licence on Monday to open a $23 million processing facility in Phnom Penh’s Special Economic Zone. A statement to the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange released by the dairy giant on Monday ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/vinamilk-deal-go-ahead
Lon Nol-era explosives found
An unscheduled bathroom break led to the discovery of 27 pieces of unexploded ordnance in Kampong Speu’s Samrong Tong district on Monday, military police said yesterday. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lon-nol-era-explosives-found
Garment Workers Go Back on Strike Over Unpaid Wages
Thousands of garment workers from four factories have gone back on strike this week to protest a decision by their employers to withhold pay for the days they did not work during recent nationwide strikes. Between 8,500 and 12,500 workers at four factories—two in Phnom Penh, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-workers-go-back-on-strike-over-unpaid-wages-50580/
Cambodian opposition said to be seeking compromise with PM
Cambodia’s opposition has been in talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen to find a deal to end the political crisis caused by last year’s disputed general election and a compromise may be near, two analysts briefed on the matter said. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and his ...
Prak Chan Thul
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/15/uk-cambodia-election-idUKBREA0E0H420140115
UN Envoy Continues Meetings With CNRP, NGOs
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi, who is on his 10th fact-finding mission to Cambodia, met with opposition CNRP leader Sam Rainsy on Tuesday ahead of a planned meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior government officials Wednesday. Reached by telephone after the meeting ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-continues-meetings-with-cnrp-ngos-50589/
Staffers walk at tech NGO
More than 100 work-study participants employed by NGO Digital Divide Data (DDD) in the capitol’s Chamkarmon district jumped on the strike bandwagon on Monday, demanding the same monthly wage garment workers are calling for, a union representative said yesterday. Employees are charged with transforming physical documents ...
Chhay Channyda and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/staffers-walk-tech-ngo
Construction on $35 Million Hospital Set to Begin in April
Construction on Phnom Penh’s first international-standard critical-care center is expected to begin in April, and when completed it will offer state-of-the-art medical technology and highly trained staff, according to an official with the Japanese firm in charge of the project. “[Construction] is supposed to start from ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/construction-on-35-million-hospital-set-to-begin-in-april-50596/
Cambodia opposition leaders questioned in court
Cambodia’s opposition leaders were questioned in court Tuesday in connection with recent protests against strongman premier Hun Sen — a case they denounced as politically motivated. Prosecutors at Phnom Penh Municipal Court spent several hours grilling Sam Rainsy and his deputy Kem Sokha about unrest that ...
Channel News Asia Staff
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/cambodia-opposition/954294.html
Free Trade Union Reports Overall Jump in Labor Strikes in 2013
The Free Trade Union (FTU) on Monday reported an overall increase in industrial action by its local branches last year with 136 total strikes in the first 11 months of 2013, up 35 percent from all of 2012, when there were 101 strikes by its ...
Group Defies Government Ban to Demand Detainees’ Release
Defying a new ban on public gatherings, more than 50 activists and monks gathered outside the local U.N. human rights office Monday morning to demand the immediate release of 23 men who were arrested earlier this month during violent clashes between police and garment workers. The ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/group-defies-government-ban-to-demand-detainees-release-50483/
Amnesty idea floated during talks: report
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and Prime Minister Hun Sen discussed the possibility of offering amnesty to senior government officials in order to allow for “an honourable exit of the leaders”, Rainsy was quoted as saying to the French newspaper La Libération last week. Rainsy reportedly said in the ...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/amnesty-idea-floated-during-talks-report
PM praises VN involvement
In his first public remarks of the year, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday took pains to recount his experience under the Khmer Rouge and thanked Vietnam for overthrowing the brutal communist regime. Speaking at the inauguration of a Vietnamese hospital, in the presence of visiting Vietnamese ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-praises-vn-involvement
Cambodian PM vows not to step down as demanded by main opposition
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday reiterated that he would not step down as demanded by the country’s main opposition party since the contested election last July. “No need to speak much. I will not step down,” he said during the groundbreaking ceremony for a ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-01/14/c_133043661.htm
Political deal on horizon
Secret negotiations between the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition are close to reaching a solution to the political stalemate that has gripped Cambodia since July’s general election, according to sources privy to the discussions. Officials from both parties yesterday denied that talks had occurred, ...
Kevin Ponniah and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/political-deal-horizon
UN Envoy Urged to Probe Arrest of Monks
The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, who began his 10th fact-finding mission to Cambodia on Sunday, has been asked to investigate issues faced by ethnic Khmer Krom people after five monks were arrested for participating in garment worker protests earlier this month. In ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-urged-to-probe-arrest-of-monks-50489/