News

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 ...

After a 60- minute debate, the Senate on Friday voted in favour of a payment guarantee for the private companies constructing the controversial Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province. At the Senate session, 43 out of 48 senators voted to approve the deal which ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Cambodian Bar Association of trying to silence potential government critics ahead of July’s national elections by imposing restrictions on lawyers making public statements. The Bar Association and the Information Ministry have both issued edicts that ...

A controversial order instructing lawyers to consult the Cam­bodian Bar Association before making public statements was triggered by comments made by an attorney involved in the high-profile legal battle involving mo­bile operator Mfone, a spokes­man confirmed on Monday. Kuoy Thunna—who is representing Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei ...

Although Mfone subscribers are due to transfer their accounts to Mobitel today, the Post has learned that telco provider Huawei Technologies (Cambodia) is still waiting for a court to rule on the legality of the transaction. Huawei’s lawyer, Kuoy Thunna, filed a letter late last month ...

A draft law on the financing of a controversial dam project in Stung Treng province obtained yesterday shows that about $38 million will be spent on the resettlement of almost 800 families. This marks a significant decrease from the more than 1,000 families the companies ...

Representatives of a massive hydropower dam project in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district approached local authorities late last month informing them that the government had granted the company permission to clear 36,000 hec­tares of land for a reservoir, officials said on Sunday. The 400-megawatt Lower Se­san ...

U.S. fast-food chain Burger King is set to open its first restaurant in Cambodia next month, an official confirmed yesterday. Advertisements have gone up at the Phnom Penh International Airport bearing the famous Burger King logo, with a message saying that the chain is “Coming soon.” ...

A mining company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange has announced a plan to pay $14 million for a license to explore for copper in Preah Vihear province, in a deal involving local conglomerate Royal Group. In an announcement to the bourse last Thurday, Geopacific Resource ...

Geopacific Resources, an Australian mineral exploration company focused on gold and copper projects in Fiji, wants to take over Worldwide Mining Projects Limited, a mineral assets searcher in Southeast Asia. Worldwide Mining Projects Limited has signed a sales agreement with Golden Resources Development, a South Korean ...

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 ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen will open the 2012 ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, to run from the 17th to the 18th, in Phnom Penh tomorrow, ahead of the 21st ASEAN Summit on Monday. The summit is being held in an attempt to increase regional trade ...

A glance around Battambang’s dilapidated train station reveals the monumental task it will be to complete the Cambodian segment of the ‘iron silk road’, which will connect Southeast Asia to Europe by rail for the first time. Cows graze between missing rails in front of ...

A new Russian-Cambodian digital satellite television service plans to have 400,000 subscribers in the next two years with 60 channels in Khmer, English, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese and other languages. The venture between Russia’s General Satellite and Cambodia’s Royal Group was soft-launched last night at Sofitel, with ...

The Cambodian Broadcasting Service launched the Kingdom’s first 24-hour news channel, Cambodian News Channel, to great fanfare last night at its new studios. During the launch, Kith Meng, chairman of both Royal Group and the new channel, said this news channel would further the development of ...

Less than four months after suspending work on Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, Toll Royal Railways (TRR), the network’s operator, has informed the government that it will recommence transporting construction materials needed to build the southern line on Aug. 1, company officials said yesterday. The decision to ...

Several days after a report that Australian transportation company Toll Holdings would abandon its stake in a joint venture to operate Cambodia’s railway system, the company remained silent Friday on its future plans here. “Let’s wait for the truth rather than make assumptions,” he added. ...

Royal Group chairman Kith Meng yesterday denied reports that Australian company Toll Holdings would be pulling out of a $140 million joint venture project to rehabilitate Cambodia’s railway system. Toll Holdings, in a joint venture with Royal Group, signed a 30-year contract with the government in ...

In a rare siding with villagers, government officials earlier this week rejected a proposal by tycoon Kith Meng to develop the area surrounding Boeung Prek Tub lake in Preah Sihanouk town and instead vowed to issue proper land titles to residents. ...

Investment approved between January and October surpassed those last year by  US$160 million, according to a report from the Council for the Development of Cambodia. The 126 local and foreign investment projects through October, worth about $6 billion, overshadowed the $5.8 billion in the whole of ...

A fertiliser company that has been approved to do billions of dollars’ worth of business in Cambodia, and is presumed to be based in the United Kingdom, is in fact affiliated with domestic conglomerate Royal Group, an insider has confirmed. Nitrogen Chemicals and Fertiliser (Cambodia) Ltd ...