News
Former Mfone Employees Protest for Severance Pay
More than 100 former employees of bankrupt mobile phone operator Mfone traveled from three provinces yesterday to protest outside the firm’s shuttered office on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard demanding their severance pay. Sok Samphorn, an engineer who was employed by Mfone, said employees from Phnom Penh, ...
Thais to urge transport push
Thailand will propose to Cambodia that they jointly develop border areas and transport links between the two countries, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said yesterday. Thailand will also develop roads, railways and border checkpoints, he said. Proposed road projects include improving roads Nos.5, ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/352101/thais-to-urge-transport-push
Spending in NagaCorp casino drops
Spending in NagaCorp’s casino has dropped by about 4.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year. Some $1.17 billion was gambled in the casino from January to March this year, said a company quarterly report released last ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052865866/Business/spending-in-nagacorp-casino-drops.html
Cambodia’s students to get schooled in tourism
Young Cambodians will now learn about tourism in grades 11 and 12, according to the new curriculum for public education that was launched yesterday. The development is aimed at enhancing quality in the tourism sector, officials said during a press conference. The new curriculum covers the ...
Samsung pushes for 30 stores in Kingdom
Samsung plans to more than quadruple its number of stores – currently seven – in the Kingdom, aiming to have 30 branches by the end of this year. The move will extend its lead as the electronic brand with the most stores here, and comes as ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052865864/Business/samsung-pushes-for-30-stores-in-kingdom.html
Cambodian police clash with thousands of garment workers, 23 hurt
At least 23 workers were hurt in Cambodia on Monday when police using stun batons moved in to end a protest over pay at a factory that makes clothing for U.S. sportswear company Nike , a worker and a trade union representative said. Police with riot ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/27/cambodia-garments-workers-idUSL3N0E829T20130527
Blackouts to end soon: EdC
Blackouts in Phnom Penh will no longer be a problem after an energy source near Sihanoukville starts providing an extra 50 megawatts of coal-fired power to the city next month, the director-general of Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) said. Keo Rottanak said by mid-June at the latest ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052765845/Business/blackouts-to-end-soon-edc.html
Cambodia: A rising star with a falling reputation?
Cambodia’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is wearing thin – and yet the country is a rising star when it comes to attracting foreign investment and increasing exports. There are many reasons to deter brands and retailers from sourcing clothing in Cambodia. The Kingdom ...
http://www.just-style.com/analysis/a-rising-star-with-a-falling-reputation_id117944.aspx
NGOs Assessing Development Goals for Coming Years
As Cambodia assesses its development goals, a study has found that many Cambodians want to see an improved judicial system, better education, improved agriculture and more human rights. A broad consortium of local and international development agencies spent the early part of the year conducting conferences ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/ngo-assessing-development-goals-for-coming-years/1667239.html
Rice Boss in Pre-trial Detention ‘13 Months’
The general director of a local rice wholesaler accused of defrauding business associates in a deal has lashed out at the judiciary – claiming delays in legal processing have left him imprisoned for 13 months without trial. Sovann Veasna is accused of cheating three businessmen ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052465829/National/rice-boss-in-pre-trial-detention-13-months.html
Subedi Protest Linked to CPP-Aligned Youth Group
Despite the apparent spontaneity of a protest against U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi at a university in Phnom Penh on Tuesday night, it emerged Wednesday that one of the apparent leaders of the demonstration is associated with a youth organization aligned with the ruling ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/subedi-protest-linked-to-cpp-aligned-youth-group-26156/
Families Say Land Was Taken
Nearly 90 representatives of 137 families in Battambang province, some of whom include former Khmer Rouge cadres, protested for a second day in Phnom Penh yesterday, claiming authorities had seized land they had held since the late 1990s. Ul Yan who was among protesters at Butom ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052465825/National/families-say-land-was-taken.html
Massive Power Outage Triggered by Falling Tree
A massive power outage that left large areas of Phnom Penh without electricity and water and plunged southern Vietnam into darkness on Wednesday was caused by a crane operator knocking a tree onto a high voltage power line, Vietnam’s state-owned energy provider said yesterday. “A ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/massive-power-outage-triggered-by-falling-tree-26557/
Eviction Protestors Block Phnom Penh International Airport
About 20 people protesting their pending eviction from their homes near Phnom Penh International Airport blocked people from leaving or entering the airport for about half an hour yesterday, before a large force of police broke up their protest. In July, authorities told 182 families ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eviction-protesters-block-phnom-penh-international-airport-26147/
Vietnam Power Failure Hits Phnom Penh
A massive power outage Wednesday in Southern Vietnam brought rolling blackouts that lasted for hours to Ho Chi Minh City, the entire southeastern region of Vietnam and large sections of Phnom Penh. Vietnam’s state-owned Southern Power Corporation said Wednesday that the problem occurred around 2 p.m. ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vietnam-power-failure-hits-phnom-penh-26121/
Tourist arrivals up 18 per cent
International tourist arrivals soared nearly 18 per cent in the first quarter in this year compared to the same period the year before, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism. The ministry’s official statistics report showed that Cambodia received 1,172,072 tourists in three-month period, compared ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052365790/Business/tourist-arrivals-up-18-per-cent.html
World’s Second Tallest Building for Phnom Penh?
A 555-metre tower planned for Diamond Island is to go ahead, and expert engineers from China and Vietnam are studying the river bank and calculating the strength of the foundations needed to support the building. The building plan will not be changed and now the company ...
Students Protest At UN Envoy’s University Lecture
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi on Tuesday received a thorny reception from hundreds of students at a Phnom Penh university, who angrily questioned his impartiality and unfurled banners calling for him to end his work in Cambodia. Special rapporteur Subedi delivered a lecture to about ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/students-protest-at-un-envoys-university-lecture-25855/
Standards Building Up Safety Fears
When a 100-metre-long section of a Phnom Penh garment factory crumpled in on itself like a cheap pup tent, Sen Sok district officials promised an investigation. The results of that investigation, which was to have taken place more than a year ago, in March 2012, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052265780/National/standards-building-up-safety-fears.html
Homeowners petition ADB
The occupants of 90 Phnom Penh households whose homes were partially or completely dismantled to make way for the Railway Rehabilitation Project partly funded by the ADB have demanded the bank offer them fair compensation. In a letter submitted to the Inter-Ministerial Resettlement Committee, the ADB, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165738/National/homeowners-petition-adb.html
Factory Dining Hall Collapses in Phnom Penh; 23 injured
The dining hall of a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district that supplies clothes to U.S. brand Gap collapsed into a pond Monday, injuring more than 20 workers who were eating lunch, workers and officials said. The hall, which is part of Top World Garment ...
Accident rocks garment industry again
For the second time in five days, Cambodia’s garment industry has been rocked by another partial collapse of a structure at a factory. Garment workers are reporting that at least 10 people, including a pregnant woman, have been injured after a concrete platform collapsed into a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065721/National/accident-rocks-garment-industry-again.html
Investments in Cambodia Up
Vietnam’s investment in Cambodia has increased significantly in the last three years, but a mechanism to encourage and oversee investments in prioritized sectors is needed, according to diplomatic sources. Tan Nguyen Tien, head of the economic section at the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, said Vietnam’s ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NjA1NjRhYTIxOTd
Factory Orders Staff Back to Work Amid Safety Concerns
Employees at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory in Kompong Speu province where two workers were killed when one of the building’s floors collapsed on Thursday have been ordered back to work today, despite ongoing concerns from labor activists about the building’s safety. While conceding that some parts ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-orders-staff-back-to-work-amid-safety-concerns-25192/