News
Two Decades On, Constitution Fails to Live Up to Promises
The atmosphere in Phnom Penh 20 years ago today was one of jubilation and optimism as then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk signed Cambodia’s new Constitution into law and reclaimed the throne as King. The promulgation of the Constitution—which marked the end of the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia’s ...
Alex Willemyns and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-decades-on-constitution-fails-to-live-up-to-promises-43035/
Fertilizer Scam Referred to Anti-Corruption Unit
The case of a Battambang provincial government official accused of embezzling some $200,000 in state funds has been referred to the Anti-Corruption Unit in Phnom Penh, provincial officials said Thursday. Battambang Provincial Court deputy prosecutor Long Hokmeng said a two-week investigation into the case brought against ...
Eang Mengleng and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fertilizer-scam-referred-to-anti-corruption-unit-42818/
Senior CPP Officials Agree to Give Up Lawmaker Positions
The National Election Committee (NEC) on Monday said that a host of senior ruling party officials had resigned from their elected posts in Parliament in order to allow lawmakers lower down the party’s rostrum of candidates to be given a seat in the National Assembly. “The ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/senior-cpp-officials-agree-to-give-up-lawmaker-positions-41986/
Four More Named in Fertilizer Embezzlement Scandal
An official from Battambang province’s department of agriculture who was charged last Monday with embezzling $200,000 from the illegal sale of fertilizer donated to the poor by Japan has implicated four other officials in the case, including the son of senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap, ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/four-more-named-in-fertilizer-embezzlement-scandal-41913/
Fresh Faces on CPP’s Shortened List of Lawmakers
When the ruling CPP takes its seats in the new National Assembly, its members of Parliament will include a few new faces, and significantly less old ones, according to ratified election results announced by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Sunday. The CPP’s poor showing in ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/fresh-faces-on-cpps-shortened-list-of-lawmakers-41902/
Cambodia Tourism Industry Fears Fallout From Election Uncertainty
Enterprises in Cambodia’s biggest tourism hub have called on Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy to quickly resolve a festering election dispute that they say is threatening business prospects as tensions rise ahead of mass opposition protests next week. Travel companies ...
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/tourism-08302013144408.html
Cash for Siem Reap Market Repair to Come From National Budget
A $300,000 sum to repair Siem Reap City’s fire-ravaged Doeum Kralanh market, originally billed on Monday as a donation from Prime Minister Hun Sen, will actually be taken from the national budget, according to a senior ruling-party official. Less than three weeks before the July 28 ...
Cambodian Parliament Rejects Opposition-Proposed Draft Law On Minimum Wages For Civil Servants, Garment Workers
The National Assembly’s Commission on Economy on Wednesday rejected the opposition- proposed draft law on minimum wages for garment and state workers. The opposition group proposed the National Assembly to make a law to limit a monthly minimum wage of 150 U.S. dollars for garment ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-04/03/c_132282889.htm
Government Says New Jet Was Leased From Chinese Airline
The Council of Ministers has revealed that its new Airbus A320, meant for shuttling Prime Minister Hun Sen and a select few others around the world, is being leased from China Southern Airlines but refrained from disclosing how much the deal was worth. Last month, CPP ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-new-jet-was-leased-from-chinese-airline-12328/
CNRP Proposes Minimum Wage Law for Garment, State Workers
The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) has submitted a new law to the National Assembly for consideration that would institute a minimum monthly wage of $150 for garment workers and $250 for civil servants, the newly formed opposition party announced at a press conference yesterday. The ...
Government Has 13 Payment Guarantees for Energy Projects
A CPP lawmaker said yesterday the government has signed 13 payment guarantees to companies constructing coal-fired power plants and hydropower dams in the country, a move that an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official reiterated was risky for the country’s fiscal future. CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-has-13-payment-guarantees-for-energy-projects-11377/
Government's New Jet Takes To the Skies
The government’s brand-new Airbus A320 jet took off on official state business for the first time yesterday, when it departed from Phnom Penh International Airport en route to Beijing with King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath. “It is the government’s plane and is for ...
Regional Bank, IMF Note Risks to Government's Dam Guarantee
The government’s guaranteed bailout of major infrastructure projects, such as the future 400-megawatt hydropower dam in Stung Treng province, requires a thorough assessment of forecasted risks – a capacity which the government currently does not possess, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said yesterday. Speaking on ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/regional-bank-imf-note-risks-to-governments-dam-guarantee-11269/
CPP Promises Oversight on Royal Group's Dam
The government has promised to monitor the progress of local conglomerate Royal Group in its implementation of a $781 million dam project in Stung Treng province, that has been guaranteed by the government, CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said yesterday. Mr. Yeap said yesterday that the ...
Questions follow on heels of hydropower dam Sesan 2 vote
Villagers near the Sesan River in Stung Treng province are a step closer to being forced to make way for a hydropower dam following a National Assembly vote on Friday, but they are no closer to learning the details of such a move, a community ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021861415/National/questions-follow-on-heels-of-sesan-2-vote.html
Lawmakers to Discuss Sesan 2 Dam Draft Law
The National Assembly has announced that it will discuss a draft law on the financing of a controversial dam project in Stung Treng province on February 15, a move environmental groups called premature. Meach Mean, coordinator for 3S Rivers Protection Network – which has been ...
Chevron drilling delay caused by US slowdown: lawmaker
Chevron Oil and Gas Co has delayed offshore oil drilling in Cambodia until 2016 mainly because of the economic slowdown in the United States, a senior lawmaker says. Cheam Yeap, chairman of the National Assembly Commission on Economy, Finance, Banking and Audit, said inadequate human resources ...
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 this week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants—and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...
http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/09/06/cambodia-says-no-strings-attached-in-recent-chinese-aid/
CPP Claims 72% of Seats In Communes
The CPP yesterday declared victory in Sunday’s commune election, saying it had taken 72 percent of the country’s commune councilor seats and all but 41 of the country’s 1,633 powerful commune chief positions. The SRP in turn said it took 19 percent of the available councilor ...
Government eyes fuel taxes
The government plans to review fuel import taxes in the wake of soaring prices at the pump over the past few weeks, an official said yesterday. Cheam Yeap, Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker and chairman of the finance and banking commission, said the government will look into ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012041055530/National-news/government-eyes-fuel-taxes.html
China reaps concession windfalls
About half of the land concessions granted since 1994 are in the hands of Chinese companies, according to data released yesterday by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. Ouch Leng, CCHR land reform project coordinator, said that from 1994 to 2012, the Cambodian government granted 4,615,745 ...
South China Sea Will Not Surface at Asean
Cambodia, in its role as Asean chair, has decided that the thorny issue of the South China Sea will not be on the agenda at next month’s Asean Summit in Phnom Penh, CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap announced yesterday. “Cambodia is a neutral country, and based on ...
Cambodia's debt to China grows to $4 billion, official says
Cambodian debt to China now stands at $4 billion, 35 percent of last year’s gross domestic product and more than half of the country’s total outstanding debt to foreign donors, according to a senior government official. The amount of money Cambodia owes China has been growing ...
Donor Forum Put on Hold by Goverment
The government has postponed a top-level meeting with its foreign donors scheduled for November, a move that comes just over a week after a displeased World Bank revealed its decision to freeze all future loans to Cambodia. In an Aug 17 letter to World Bank ...