News
Transparency urged in communes’ spending
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith instructed commune councils to inform the local population whenever restoration, development or construction work is undertaken by the commune authorities. ...
Samban Chandara
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/transparency-urged-communes-spending
Minister: Transparency vital in identifying poor households
Minister of Interior Sar Kheng has instructed all municipal and provincial governors to improve the process of identifying poor households qualified for financial support from the government’s cash handout programme. The move came after Minister of Planning Chhay Than urged local authorities not to collude with ...
Niem Chheng
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minister-transparency-vital-identifying-poor-households
Ministries tackle deep reforms in industries
Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra has announced that four ministries have issued two separate inter-ministerial prakas to create a joint inspection group to look into the manufacturing and tourism sectors to strengthen the effectiveness of work, transparency and accountability. ...
Long Kimmarita
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministries-tackle-deep-reforms-industries
31 districts selected for one-window services
The Interior Minister has selected 31 districts in 24 provinces to have new one-window service offices this year, according to a letter issued on Thursday. Interior Minister Sar Kheng said in the letter that five of the 24 provinces require multiple one-window service offices, including ...
Mom Sophon
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50303632/31-districts-selected-for-one-window-services/
Parliaments share auditing experience
The Cambodian, Laos, and Vietnam parliaments have shared a stage to discuss their expenditure experiences and improve transparency and auditing of public investment in areas such as infrastructure. ...
Sum Manet
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/36507/parliaments-share-auditing-experience/
Cambodia Falls Short as Garment-Industry Model
This small Southeast Asian country was supposed to become a model for the world apparel industry, with tough factory monitoring and strong worker protections. But a dozen years after the United Nations’ International Labour Organization launched a program to manage Cambodia’s booming garment trade—the first of ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324423904578521240151597504.html
Call for Oversight of Cambodian Land Campaign
A land titling campaign in Cambodia launched and financed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s lacks transparency and could leave thousands of people landless, a human rights group said Wednesday, urging the country’s donors to push for reform of the program. The campaign, which employs volunteer youth ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-06122013150317.html
Mekong Communities Tell of Hardship From Hydropower Dams
About 200 people from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia affected by hydropower dam projects on the Mekong River and its tributaries gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to share their experiences of how their lives have been adversely affected since the dams were constructed. Speaking at the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mekong-communities-tell-of-hardship-from-hydropower-dams-28793/
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
As Foreign Aid Increases, Questions About Conditions
Cambodia has seen huge growth of foreign aid and loans over the past two decades, but experts are beginning to question its worth—and what conditions might be attached. Total aid from 1993 to 2012 amounts to around $10 billion, with the percentage of aid coming as ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/as-foreign-aid-increases-questions-about-conditions/1664821.html
After Factory Collapse, Questions Mount Over ILO Monitoring
Labor rights activists and a government official accused the International Labor Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia program of ineffectiveness in its monitoring of factory conditions following a deadly ceiling collapse on Thursday at a shoe factory in Kompong Speu province. Moeun Tola, labor program head of the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-factory-collapse-questions-mount-over-ilo-monitoring-24860/
Think Tank Says Cambodia Isn't Managing Its Resources
With the potential for vast state revenues from oil extraction and mining in coming years, Cambodia is currently failing to manage its nascent extractive industries according to a think tank. New York-based Revenue Watch Institute yesterday launched its 2013 Resource Governance Index, which included Cambodia for ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/think-tank-says-cambodia-isnt-managing-its-resources-24530/
Need for more transparency
GREATER transparency along the garment supply chain, from producers to buyers, is required in order to strengthen the accountability of retailers, factories and governments in protecting the rights of workers, Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said yesterday. Speaking in Phnom ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022861656/Business/need-for-more-transparency.html
Ethnic group press for communal title
Economic land concessions granted to a pair of Vietnamese companies in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district were endangering the traditional lifestyles of as many as 200 ethnic-minority families, villagerstold the Post yesterday. As the companies actively cleared forest to make room for the eventual rubber plantations, the government ...
ADB Report Links Corruption, Political Culture in Cambodia
The government is beset with high-level corruption, a lack of transparency in public procurements, poor auditing practices and political interference in the country’s main anti-corruption body, a report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) sent to the media yesterday states. In a 66-page report that ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/adb-links-corruption-political-culture-6525/
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia develop trade, tourism
The seventh investment–trade–tourism promotion conference for the Cambodia–Laos–Vietnam development triangle took place in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum on December 5. The event attracted the participation of representatives from over 400 domestic and foreign businesses. Vietnam is investing in 50 projects worth close to ...
US-Asean Meeting Addresses Economic, Security Cooperation
At the U.S.-Asean meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh yesterday, the U.S. and the 10 Asean member nations agreed to further their cooperation in all areas, including security to ensure peace in the region. ...
Asean Agrees to Promote Free Flow of Labor
Economic ministers from Asean’s 10 member states signed an agreement yesterday to loosen restrictions around the movement of skilled labor in the region, part of preparation for the integration of the Asean Economic Community in 2015. The Asean Movement of Natural Persons Agreement is supposed to ...
Benefits from ‘black gold’- Revenue from Cambodian oil fields could provide a big boost to development, if it’s done right
If Cambodia’s oil and gas sector is well managed, and transparent, it could provide the country a golden opportunity for investment, development and poverty reduction, said independent economist Chan Sophal, who spoke at a recent gathering looking at the economies of oil-producing countries. Chan Sophal said ...
Credit bureau makes doing business easier
A report released by the World Bank on Tuesday highlighted Cambodia as the most improved country in terms of businesses getting credit, due to the establishment of the country’s first credit bureau in March. Cambodia ranked 133 out of 185 in the World Bank’s report, up from 141 ...
Details on cancelled concessions sought
A week after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that he would be cancelling an unknown number of economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest, activists called for details on the annulled concessions, saying such revocations would be meaningless unless they could be policed. On September ...
European Anti-Corruption Law Could Reach Cambodia’s Oil, Forestry Sectors
New European legislation passed last month could help transparency in the extractive industries, by forcing companies to declare payments to foreign governments rich in resources For resource-rich countries like Cambodia, that means much more transparency, she said. More than 95 percent of the world’s major extractive ...
Oxfam urges freeze of land investments
Global development group Oxfam on Wednesday called on the World Bank to suspend financing for large-scale land acquisitions to ensure that its practices do not encourage foreign land grabs in developing countries. Oxfam urged Jim Yong Kim, the lender’s new president, to announce a six-month moratorium ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/04/worldbank-oxfam-land-idUSL1E8L2LKF20121004
Cambodia hits oil revenue
Officials yesterday confirmed that the Cambodian government will receive a majority of the revenue share from Chevron’s offshore Block A oil permit area near Sihanoukville in the Gulf of Thailand. The government expects to issue the American oil giant a production permit licence by the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012092858984/Business/cambodia-hits-oil-revenue.html