News
Women flee from Thai karaoke parlor slavery
Two Cambodian women escaped Thailand on Friday a week after being trafficked across the border and sold into sex slavery in a Thai karaoke parlour, according to the rights group Adhoc and Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection officials. Tan Kimrany, an officer for Adhoc’s Women’s Rights ...
Cambodian beer production and consumption on the rise
Inside a mini-mart near Phnom Penh’s Olympic stadium, the shelves holding the beer for sale have a more Cambodian feel to them these days. While imported brand like Thailand’s Singha and Japan’s Asahi, used to take up valuable retail real estate, now homegrown brands like Angkor ...
Workers Refuse to Restart Work at Thai Factory
About 600 Cambodian workers at a seafood factory in Thailand are refusing to go back to work, and are demanding compensation after a mass brawl with Burmese co-workers broke out on Monday ending in two deaths, a worker said yesterday. The fight broke out after hundreds ...
Man’s death prompts Thai factory walkout
More than 800 Cambodian workers in Thailand were scared to return to work and some had fled their homes yesterday following the violent death of a co-worker outside their factory in Songkhla province on Monday, their representative said. Phan Chem said workers wanted the Cambodian embassy ...
Two Killed in Brawl at Thai Seafood Factory
A Cambodian man and a Burmese man were killed on Monday in a mass brawl that broke out between hundreds of migrant workers at a seafood factory in Thailand, a worker and a government official said yesterday. Fighting allegedly broke out between workers at Siam International ...
Questions raised over migrant worker death
Authorities are investigating the death of a Cambodian worker that took place on Monday outside a factory in Thailand’s Songkhla province, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said yesterday. Phan Chem, a representative of Cambodian workers at Siam International Food Co said a 19-year-old worker ...
Buses to Run Direct to and from Bangkok
Starting next month, 80 Cambodian and Thai buses and trucks will be allowed to transport goods and passengers directly between Bangkok and Phnom Penh for the first time, an official said yesterday. Suon Vanhong, deputy director of transport at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, ...
IT Firm Sues Thaicom Over Mfone Ownership
Thai information technology firm Infobahn Co. Ltd. has filed a lawsuit against telecommunications conglomerate Thaicom Public Company Ltd. for breaching an agreement made last year to sell 41.14 percent of its shares, a deal that also includes a 51 percent stake in the Cambodian mobile ...
Thai-Cambodia agricultural zones set for establishment
Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to set up specialised agricultural export zones along the border inside Cambodia in a bid to curb any suspension of cross-border trade from Thailand, as well as to achieve a 30 per cent increase in bilateral trade year-on-year, commerce official ...
Cambodian Rice Exports Fall Short of Government Hopes
Cambodia’s rice exports in 2012 may fall significantly compared to last year, due to high fuel prices, soaring logistics costs and high prices. According to local sources, Cambodian rice shipments to Europe this month are at a $200 markup per container over those from Thailand and ...
Slow outlook for 2012 rice exports
Rapidly increasing logistics costs and low regional rice prices would hinder Cambodia’s rice-export target this year, with one expert saying that milled-rice exports could fall to half of last year’s shipments. The cost of shipping rice to Europe climbed by more than 50 per cent between ...
Charity Calls on UK Gov’t to Act for Cambodian Workers
A report by a U.K.-based charity has highlighted the low pay of Cambodian garment workers and called on the British government to intervene in disputes involving Southeast Asian factories supplying British retailers. Restricting Rights, a report published Tuesday by anti-poverty charity War on Want, looks at ...
Agreement reached at Thai seafood factory
A conclusive settlement has been reached in the long-running dispute between a Thai seafood factory and its Cambodian employees, Cambodian ambassador to Thailand You Ay said yesterday. Rights groups and workers at the Phatthana Seafood factory in Thailand’s Songkhla province, which employs 1,050 Cambodians, have accused ...
Q1 exports to Thailand soar
Cambodia’s exports to Thailand jumped 55 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2012 on what experts and officials said was a smoother political relationship between the countries, as well as an easing of Thai border regulations. The Kingdom shipped US$85.4 million in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051656176/Business/q1-exports-to-thailand-soar.html
Thailand moves on double tax treaty with Cambodia
Thailand is moving forward to strike a double tax treaty with Cambodia, to cope with increasing cross-border trade. Sathit Rungkasiri, director general of the Revenue Department, said it is a priority to expand the double tax treaty with all countries in Asean to prepare for the ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Double-tax-treaty-with-Cambodia-eyed-30182041.html
Hundreds Stopped in Attempt to Curb Illegal Logging on Border
Hundreds of would-be illegal loggers have been stopped this year by provincial authorities in Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey and Banteay Meanchey who have stopped them from crossing the border into Thailand, where Thai soldiers have killed 17 Cambodians so far this year. In Preah Vihear alone, ...
Walmart Denies Link to Factory Tied to Abuse of Cambodians
Mega U.S. retailer Walmart has denied allegations that it buys food products from a Thai seafood factory accused of trafficking and mistreating Cambodian workers. In a report released on Tuesday, the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC), which has sent staff to investigate the Phatthana Seafood Co. ...
Passport fee latest wrinkle in factory workers’ Thai plight
A rights group has raised concerns that up to 100 Cambodian migrant workers at a Thai seafood processing factory will be stranded abroad in less than a week without any income because they cannot afford to pay a passport fee demanded by their employer. Of the ...
Cambodians Face Abuse at Seafood Factory
A Thai seafood factory supplying retail giant Walmart is continuing to violate its labor arrangements with hundreds of Cambodian workers there and could leave up to 100 of them stranded and jobless by next week, the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) said in a new ...
Thailand's allure is strong in Srei Snam
Dry, parched ground – evidence of severe dry season drought – stretches for miles in Siem Reap’s Srei Snam district. In a couple of months, the rains will flood these fields. Both conditions make it equally impossible to produce a good harvest. Srei Snam was a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012051056096/National-news/looking-for-a-better-life.html
Thai jobs serve as siren song
Every day they come in the thousands and crowd under a blazing sun for hours, awaiting a moment that costs them more than two full months’ salary – a passport. And where are they going? “Thailand,” 21-year-old Sem Pheaktra said, squinting under a harsh mid-morning sun. He, and ...
Country’s First Life Insurance Firm Enters Market
The first company to offer Cambodians life insurance will launch on May 21, an official at the company said yesterday, though experts said the firm could struggle to make good profits in a market where fraudulent claims and limited customers could become a stumbling block. Cambodia ...
Laos Says Xayaburi Not Environmental Threat
The Laos government has said that all the necessary environmental assessments for the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River have been completed and that no damage will be inflicted on the fisheries in countries further downstream when built, an official at the Cambodia National Mekong Committee said yesterday. Watt Botkosal, ...
Thailand Asked to Help Stop Labor Smuggling
Cambodian officials asked their Thai counterparts during a meeting Friday to crack down on human smugglers on their side of the border who bring Cambodians in to work in Thailand. Banteay Meanchey provincial government spokesman Ouk Keoratanak said a delegation led by provincial Deputy Governor Try ...