News
European diplomats concerned by arrests
European diplomats called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday to express their concerns about the recent spate of activists’ arrests, with the minister reportedly saying that he believed a one-year sentence speedily handed down to seven Boeung Kak lake protesters last week was rather “heavy”. ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/european-diplomats-concerned-arrests
France to train garment firms
French textile and garment association Evalliance yesterday signed an agreement with the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) to provide training for middle-management workers in the industry. Speaking at the signing ceremony in Phnom Penh, Van Sou Ieng, chairman of GMAC said the agreement aims to ...
Chan Muyhong
http://phnompenhpost.com/business/france-train-garment-firms
Evictees sign payout deal they can’t read
Some of the families in a protracted land dispute with a pair of Thai-owned sugar plantations in Koh Kong province say they were pressured over the weekend into signing compensation deals with the firms they could not read, because they were written in Thai, and ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evictees-sign-payout-deal-they-cant-read-without-lawyers-70997/
Cambodians launch fresh rally against Aussie refugee deal
More than 100 human rights activists, youths and Buddhist monks marched on streets here on Friday in the latest round of protests against a refugee deal that Cambodia signed with Australia last month. Under the deal, Australia will send refugees, who intend to seek asylum in ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-10/17/c_133723949.htm
No breakthrough in new talks for Cambodian minimum wage increase
Cambodian authorities have held two rounds of talks with garment factory owners and unions under a new mechanism to help break a deadlock over increasing the workers’ monthly minimum wage but to no avail. But Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said that he expected the Garment ...
Roseanne Gerin
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/working-group-10162014181856.html
Vegetables get more attention
Cambodian authorities are stepping up inspection efforts of vegetable imports along the border after Vietnamese produce shipped to the European Union was found to contain harmful bacteria, an official from the Kingdoms import inspection unit said yesterday. Vietnamese media reported last week said that the European ...
Chan Muyhong
http://phnompenhpost.com/business/vegetables-get-more-attention
Cambodian trade unions lead protest to demand higher wage for garment workers
Six Cambodian trade unions led around 1,000 garment workers to march through streets here on Sunday to demand a higher minimum wage as annual talks on a wage hike are scheduled for next month. ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/141012/cambodian-trade-unions-lead-protest-demand-higher-wage-garme
EU gives $3.9 million to attract investment
The European Union will spend €3 million ($3.9 million) on a program to encourage small and medium enterprises to invest in Cambodia. Speaking at a conference yesterday in Phnom Penh, EU Ambassador to Cambodia Jean-Francois Cautain said the five-year grant – to be managed by EuroCham ...
http://phnompenhpost.com/business/eu-gives-39-million-attract-investment
http://Daniel de Carteret
KDC protests to go on
One of five villagers arrested in a land dispute with politically connected company KDC International told the Post after their release on Friday that he would keep protesting “until our community obtains a resolution from the government”. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/kdc-protests-go
KDC workers petition against the release of five villagers
Workers at the center of a land dispute between villagers in Kompong Chhnang province and a company owned by the wife of the mines and energy minister on Thursday pressed forward with a campaign against the release of five villagers who were imprisoned over violence ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kdc-workers-petition-against-the-release-of-five-villagers-67270/
Quality control to lift exports
China will work with Cambodian officials to broaden the range of agricultural products that the Asian economic giant allows to be imported from the Kingdom, government officials said yesterday. Ken Ratha, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, confirmed that China’s General Administration, Quality Supervision, Inspection and ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/quality-control-lift-exports
Despite police blockade, KDC villagers reach Phnom Penh
A day after three of their community members were arrested following a violent encounter with police, about 50 villagers from Kompong Chhnang province forged ahead with a peaceful march toward Phnom Penh on Wednesday, but were temporarily blocked by police officials in Russei Keo district. The ...
Kuch Naren and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-police-blockade-kdc-villagers-reach-phnom-penh-66465/
Thai Sugar Company Accused of Rights Abuse in Cambodia
A Thai sugar company with major shares in Cambodian sugar cane is being investigated for human rights violations in operations along the border between the two countries. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand recently investigated allegations that villagers were forced from their homes to make ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/thai-sugar-company-accused-of-rights-abuse-in-cambodia/2411955.html
Benefits there for the taking
Thailand will lose its beneficial tax treatment on exports to the European Union next year, and Cambodia’s manufacturing sector could be set to capitalise. Following three consecutive years of upper-middle income status as defined by the World Bank, Thailand will on January 1 lose its Generalised ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/benefits-there-taking
UK urged to help improve Cambodia’s factories
A group of unions in the U.K. is urging its government to make sure British brands sourcing clothes from Cambodian factories respect their workers’ rights, and to ask the European Union to negotiate a deal with the Cambodian government to improve factory conditions. In a July ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-urged-to-help-improve-cambodias-factories-65704/
Help Cambodia's garment workers, unions urge Business Secretary
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, must force British clothing companies to investigate whether garments sourced from Cambodia are made at factories with fair labour practices, the unions have warned. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, has written to Mr Cable warning that ...
Cambodia looks to put its rice on the world’s plate
For as long as Cambodian rice farmers can remember, their product has had an unsavory reputation. Tough, dirty and unmilled, it was impossible to cook evenly, and even farmers traded it as pig feed in exchange for cash or better-quality rice from Vietnam or Thailand. Even ...
Villagers request intervention in land dispute
Villagers from Koh Kong province delivered petitions in Phnom Penh on Friday seeking international intervention in their land dispute with powerful businessman and CPP senator Ly Yong Phat, alleging that his Koh Kong Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was encroaching on their farmland. Five representatives of the ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-request-intervention-in-land-dispute-65038/
Minister lauds controversial sugar industry
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Wednesday lauded the country’s controversial sugar industry and the jobs it has created, saying that companies operating in the sector need to be defended against the widespread criticism they have been receiving. Rights groups and the opposition CNRP have undertaken ...
Khuon Narim and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-lauds-controversial-sugar-industry-64810/
Health and women’s affairs get $64M grant
The German ambassador, Joachim Baron von Marschall, signed an agreement with the permanent Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon yesterday for €47 million ($64 million) in aid. The grant will be used for developing projects within the ministries of health, rural development and women’s affairs. ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/health-and-women%E2%80%99s-affairs-get-64m-grant