News
Two more provinces to be able to issue certificates of origin
Producers, traders and exporters in Ratanakkiri and Tbong Khmum can now apply online for certificates of origin for their exports, submitting applications through the website of their respective provincial commerce department. ...
May Kunmakara
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50505079/two-more-provinces-to-be-able-to-issue-certificates-of-origin/
Logging up after poll, NGOs claim
At least a dozen companies including some of Cambodia’s most prominent developers have been illegally logging and transporting rosewood since the election without any action from authorities, a pair of local NGOs alleged. In a report released yesterday, the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community and the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-after-poll-ngos-claim
Angkor finds visible gold in Ratanakkiri
Canadian miner Angkor Gold has found “visible gold in the soil samples” in the Otray prospect in Ratanakkiri province, which hints at possibly larger reserves, said CEO and chairman Mike Weeks in a press release published on Wednesday. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013053165964/Business/angkor-finds-visible-gold-in-ratanakkiri.html
Jarai Man Exiled After He Opposes Land Deal
Commune authorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district have allegedly banished a local resident for persisting with a lawsuit that accuses them of selling 500 hectares of community forest to two Cambodian developers for $300,000. Romas Svang, who is a member of the ethnic Jarai minority, filed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051765682/National/jarai-man-exiled-after-he-opposes-land-deal.html
Deutsche Bank, IFC Rubber Investments Questioned
Deutsche Bank and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) have poured millions of dollars into Vietnamese rubber companies operating in Cambodia that have engaged in illegal logging and forced evictions of local farmers, the environmental rights group Global Witness says in a new report ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/deutsche-bank-ifc-rubber-investments-questioned-23598/
Adhoc Investigator Under Investigation for Inciting Protest
Officials in Ratanakkiri province are investigating the provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc for incitement after he helped villagers organize a demonstration, ultimately canceled, against a Vietnamese rubber company in O’Yadaw district. Mr. [Chhay] Thy, [Adhoc’s Provincial Investigator] said yesterday that he met with about ...
Hun Sen’s Land Titles Receive Rare Praise From Germany
Since Prime Minister Hun Sen announced an ambitious new plan some 10 months ago to make nearly half a million families official land owners, hardly a week goes by that a rural community does not complain of local officials trying to scam the project. But when ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-land-titles-receive-rare-praise-from-germany-17312/
Villagers Pray to Spirit to Delay Dam Construction
More than 500 villagers from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces held a traditional sacrificial ceremony yesterday, calling on a local spirit to help in postponing the construction of a 400-megawatt hydropower dam in Stung Treng’s Sesan district. Siek Megong, Srekor commune chief, said the villages ...
Ecotourism in Cambodia up 9.7 per cent
Ecotourism sites in the northeast of Cambodia last year saw visitor growth of 9.7 per cent – a total of 53,374 tourists – compared with 2011, an official said yesterday during the first Workshop on Northeast Ecotourism Development, organised by the Ministry of Tourism. Tith Chantha, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013021461366/Business/ecotourism-in-cambodia-up-9-7-per-cent.html
Cambodia: Mineral, Metal and Fuel Resources
Cambodia, with a total population of 14,952,665 as of July 2010, is located in Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, between Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. The country mostly has a tropical climate and covers a total area of 181,035 km2 Cambodia’s key natural resources include ...
Rights Groups File Lawsuit Over Land Meeting Breakup
Two local human rights groups filed lawsuits yesterday at the Ratanakiri Provincial Court accusing commune and village officials of defamation and intimidation after they disrupted land-rights training session last month. On July 26, a group of armed officials stopped Adhoc and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) ...
Gov't Denies Flouting Ban on Concessions
The government on Friday denied it had violated a moratorium on granting new land concessions when Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on more than 20,000 hectares of land to three rubber companies 11 days after the ban was announced on May 7. According to documents ...
Cambodia grants mine exploratory licenses to 24 firms in 2011: gov't report
Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy had issued mineral resource exploratory licenses to 24 local and foreign companies in the past year. According to the annual report of the ministry’s mineral resources department released on Friday, the firms are mostly Cambodian-owned ones and those from ...
Xinhua
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90777/7753471.html
Minorities Seek Land Dispute March Approval
Local human rights group Adhoc has requested provincial approval to stage a large-scale march later this month involving hundreds of indigenous minorities embroiled in a land dispute in Ratanakiri province. The demonstration is being organized to bring attention to what minority villagers claim is judicial ...
Indigenous land exploited
The Royal Government of Cambodia and private land developers were exploiting indigenous communities in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces by signing concession deals for the communities’ land without prior consultation, advocates said yesterday. “We urge the government as well as the private sector to respect [indigenous peoples’] ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030254821/National-news/indigenous-land-exploited.html
Villagers Appeal to Halt Stung Treng Dam
Eleven village representatives from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces traveled to Phnom Penh yesterday to meet with National Assembly lawmakers and appeal for an end to the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam. The hydropower project, funded by Vietnam Electricity, will flood tens ...
Prayer Ceremony Held In Attempt to Stop Dam Construction
About 400 indigenous Lao villagers prayed and sacrificed chickens to a powerful local spirit yesterday in Stung Treng province, seeking supernatural help in halting the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam, villagers and commune officials said yesterday. The hydropower projects, funded by Vietnam ...
Hundreds Protest Dam Plans
More than 500 ethnic minority residents of riparian communities in northeastern Cambodia held a peaceful protest Tuesday against the construction of a Vietnamese-led hydroelectric dam that will relocate them from their ancestral land. The villagers, who live along the Se San River in Stung Treng and ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-02282012135535.html
Protesters try new tactics
Rocks were hurled, fires lit, hostages taken and the message delivered in no uncertain terms last week: Cambodians are increasingly willing to use violence against companies that intimidate them or ignore their demands. Twice – in Svay Rieng and Kampong Cham provinces – garment workers pelted ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022754739/National-news/protesters-try-new-tactics.html
Villagers Claim Intimidation in Land Settlement
Villagers being questioned in relation to a land dispute with a powerful company said on Friday that a Ratanakiri court official had intimidated them by urging them to accept an out-of-court settlement with the firm or face a countersuit. Court officials denied the claims and said ...
Authorities Downplay Hostage-Taking in Land Dispute
Two days after Ratanakiri province villagers took hostage a group of local officials who were clearing land for a rubber plantation, authorities downplayed the incident, saying they had no plans to press charges and that “the problem has been settled.” A representative of the rubber company, ...
Largest-ever Cambodian solar project launched
Cambodia’s biggest solar power initiative to date – expected to provide electricity to 12,000 households in off-grid areas – will be completed on January 31, according to officials involved with the project. Yiang Tal, chief of administration at the Rural Electrification Fund, said more than 10,000 ...
Hun Sen sets out northeast development plans
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the government’s plans to spur economic growth in the northeast of the country through implementing a wide range of projects in sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries. Rights workers have warned that little information on the plans for ...
Forestry department confiscated rosewood in Ratanakiri
The Ratanakiri provincial forestry department over the past week in Andong Meas district confiscated more than 600 pieces of the luxury rosewood species of timber, a forestry official said. Vong Sok Serie, Ratanakiri provincial administration chief, said his officers collected a total of 610 pieces of ...