News

Up a sweeping jungle valley in a remote corner of Cambodia, Chinese engineers and workers are raising a 100-meter- (330-foot-) high dam over the protests of villagers and activists. Only Chinese companies are willing to tame the Tatay and other rivers of Koh Kong province, ...

PHNOM PENH – Authorities are searching for three missing construction workers at a Chinese hydroelectric dam in Pursat province, after pipes burst there on Saturday, causing a flash flood. One man, who had been fishing nearby and was thought missing, has been found “safe and alive” ...

The national electricity provider has warned residents in Phnom Penh and in Kompong Speu and Kandal provinces to expect power outages in the coming months as supply would likely fall short of demand throughout the dry season. In a statement issued Friday, Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) ...

Four workers have gone missing after the collapse of an in-progress hydropower dam in Western Cambodia, apparently due to a leak in the structure. The Associated Press reports that the Saturday collapse occurred at the Stung Atay Hydroelectric Project, a $255-million dollar dam on the Atay ...

The government is carrying out 18 power projects to generate more than 4,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020, according to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy. In its annual report, the ministry says Cambodia consumed 2,788 million kilowatt/hours in 2011. Thailand and Vietnam supplied 1,765 ...

The massive and highly controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam project took a major step forward yesterday with the inking of government power purchase agreements and an investment deal between Royal Group and a Chinese company. But details about the contracts, their implementation or the fate of ...

The Kingdom’s consumer price index declined by 0.1 per cent in October for the first time in 2012 due to a decline in food and gasoline prices and a stable US dollar exchange rate, according to official data released by the National Institute of Statistics ...

A NEW report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says GDP growth in Cambodia over the next five years is likely to hit 6.9 per cent, the highest of any ASEAN country apart from Laos. However, the report warns that Cambodia needs to ...

The SET-listed Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc (RATCH), Thailand’s largest private power producer, is to delay the purchase of a coal mine in Indonesia, as the global coal price has dropped sharply. Ratch had planned to acquire a mine to serve its new coal-fired power plants ...

The United States on Monday criticized a decision by the struggling Asian nation of Laos to build the first dam across the mainstream of the Mekong River, a project that environmentalists warn could affect tens of millions of livelihoods and trigger a dam-building spree along ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday signed off on the Lower Sesan 2 dam project in Stung Treng province, despite long-standing criticism leveled against the project by environmental groups who say it would adversely affect 100,000 people as a consequence of reduced access to fish. The ...

Cambodia’s government has approved a controversial hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Mekong River. The joint venture involves Cambodian, Chinese and Vietnamese investment of $781m (£488m) and is due to be completed within five years. The project in northern Stung Treng province is known as Lower ...

Cambodia rose five places in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business study to 133I’d out of 185 countries, largely due to the establishment of a credit bureau, which makes acquiring loans easier. The report, which ranks countries in 10 categories on the ease of doing ...

Some questions remain about whether hydro dams on the upper Mekong River in China exacerbated conditions during Cambodia’s devastating drought of 2010, environmental groups say, as China’s dam program powers ahead. When the first power-generating unit was switched on last month at China’s giant 262-metre tall ...

Anti-nuclear activists have called on the Thai government to clarify its involvement in Cambodia’s controversial plan to construct a nuclear power plant in the border province of Koh Kong. The activists doubted Phnom Penh’s capacity to single-handedly build and manage such a vast and risky project. Santi ...

Thailand has committed to supplying additional energy to provinces on the Thai-Cambodia border, an official says. Tun Lean, director of the General Energy Department at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said on Monday its Thai counterpart would supply an additional 40 megawatts of energy. For ...

Cambodia’s service sector has seen significant growth in recent years, but the sector remains hampered by challenges, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) However, inadequate supporting infrastructure, such as transport and basic utilities, the high cost of electricity and inadequate implementations of ...

Scientists in Bangkok are about to start work on a new flush toilet especially designed for the urban poor in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Their aim is to create a toilet that will process wastewater in family homes and convert it into gas or electricity, ...

In his talk at the ASEAN energy ministers meeting held in Phnom Penh last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen emphasized the need for the ten-member bloc to work together to bolster its regional energy connectivity to meet a rapidly growing demand for energy. He also ...

Thailand had been asked to supply more electricity to those Cambodian provinces close to the shared border, according to officials. Suy Sem, Cambodian minister of Industry, Mine and Energy, talked to reporters after a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Thai Minister Arak Chonlatanon last week, a ...

Two weeks after Prime Minister Hun Sen returned from China with more than half a billion dollars in new loans and grants, Cambodia once again asked Beijing for money on Thursday. In a bilateral discussion held alongside this week’s series of meetings between Asean energy ministers, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen opened the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh, where ASEAN officials will focus on ASEAN green energy and develop a plan for ASEAN’s power grid, officials said. Victor Jona, deputy director general of energy of the General Department ...

India is financing the construction of a US$70 million transmission line to bring electricity from hydroelectric projects in Laos to Cambodia, according to Indian Chamber of Commerce President Debasish Pattnaik. Speaking yesterday after the official launch of the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia (ICC), Pattnaik ...

At the turnoff of Sihanoukville outside Phnom Penhmetal shop owner Kuch Sareun watches the sparks fly as his emplyees join pieces of steel. This year, he installed a diesel-run generator at his business since the frequent electricity outages were hurting his bottom line. Electricity is ...