News
Dam opposition takes complaint to Malaysia
Six environmental organisations opposing Laos’ controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam yesterday took their complaints to a new level: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. In a 23-page letter, the organisations from Cambodia, Thailand and the US collectively requested an investigation into the trans-boundary impacts of the ...
Laignee Barron
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-opposition-takes-complaint-malaysia
US retailers express support for Cambodian living wage
As a new round of Cambodian wage negotiations approaches this month, major U.S. and European retailers who source from the country say they will be watching the talks carefully and want to see fair pay for workers. Representatives of the brands like Gap, Levi Strauss, and ...
Kimseng Men
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-retailers-express-support-for-cambodian-living-wage/2470747.html
US-bound cargo from Cambodia to face enhanced scrutiny
Cargo headed to the U.S. from Cambodia will face added scrutiny due to what the U.S. Homeland Security calls inadequate security measures. According to the Cambodia Daily, U.S. authorities asked Cambodia ports to put additional security measures in place for several Cambodia ports in 2008, but ...
Corianne Egan
http://www.joc.com/port-news/asian-ports/us-bound-cargo-cambodia-face-enhanced-scrutiny_20140926.html
Inditex, H&M agree to pay more for clothes from Cambodia
Fashion brands, including Europe’s biggest clothing retailer Inditex SA (ITX) and Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMB), said they are willing to pay more for clothes made in Cambodia, backing a trade union campaign for higher wages. The chains are among eight clothing retailers that include Next Plc (NXT) and Primark that have ...
Gabi Thesing
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-19/inditex-h-m-agree-to-pay-more-for-clothes-from-cambodia.html
U.S. business executives eye investment potential in Cambodia
More than a dozen of American company representatives are visiting Cambodia to look into investment opportunities, a Cambodian spokesman said Thursday. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-09/04/c_133621460.htm
Cambodia, US share concerns over Lao dam
Following a meeting with a visiting U.S. diplomat on Wednesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary of State Ouch Borith said the U.S. shares Cambodia’s concerns about a controversial hydropower dam Laos is planning to build on the Mekong River. Cambodia and Vietnam both fear that the ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-us-share-concerns-over-lao-dam-67238/
241-Kg US war-era bomb found in Kandal province
Police and deminers in Kandal province on Wednesday removed from a riverbank a 241-kg Mark 82 bomb, of the kind the U.S. dropped on Cambodia in the heavy bombing that took place during its war against neighboring Vietnam. ...
Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/241-kg-us-war-era-bomb-found-in-kandal-province-64933/
CNRP officials imprisoned on insurrection charges
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday charged at least seven opposition CNRP lawmakers-elect and a party activist with insurrection and incitement over a protest that turned violent on Tuesday, sending six of the group to Prey Sar prison. Meng Sopheary, a lawyer on the defense ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-officials-sent-to-prison-on-charges-of-insurrection-64320/
Global brands linked to latest shamed garment factory
Italian sportswear brand Kappa and U.S.-based retail giant Walmart apparently source clothing from the latest addition to the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) list of low-compliance factories, according to a union leader at the factory who provided the branded tags from the clothing her members cut ...
Sun Heng and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/global-brands-linked-to-latest-shamed-garment-factory-63900/
Chemicals in war-era barrels tested and confirmed as tear gas
The head of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAC) said Thursday that field testing of a pair of war-era barrels found by villagers in Mondolkiri province earlier this week identified the contents as CS, a tear gas-like powder or aerosol that was used by the ...
Zsombor Peter and Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chemicals-in-war-era-barrels-tested-and-confirmed-as-tear-gas-63226/
Commerce minister vows ‘meaningful’ reforms to US investors
Cambodian Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol concluded a trade mission in the United States this week, emphasizing his government’s willingness to make “deep” reforms to improve its investment climate. Cambodia meanwhile needs more foreign investment to create jobs for the 300,000 young Cambodians who enter the ...
Sophat Soeung
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/commerce-minister-vows-meaningful-reforms-to-us-investors/1944607.html
USAID Review of Health NGO Finds Litany of Irregularities
A financial review by USAID, the U.S. government’s development arm, into local health NGO Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) has found financial mismanagement coupled with a lack of transparency and oversight within the organization that may point to evidence of fraudulent activity. Well-known for its ...
Simon Henderson and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/usaid-review-of-health-ngo-finds-litany-of-irregularities-49464/
Governor Seeks Curb in Rubber Resin Smuggling
Kompong Cham provincial governor Lun Lim Thai on Tuesday ordered authorities to step up long-running efforts to reduce the smuggling of unprocessed rubber resin from the province into Vietnam. Those smuggling resin to processors across the border should be more actively pursued and instead forced to ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/governor-seeks-curb-in-rubber-resin-smuggling-46966/
Cambodia Not Ready for Inter-Country Adoptions
It has been one year since Cambodia announced that it was lifting its ban on intercountry adoptions beginning January 1, 2013, but despite praising Cambodia’s efforts to implement international regulations, countries that ban adoptions of Cambodians said this week that they were no closer to ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-not-ready-for-inter-country-adoptions-46465/
Cambodia, US Extend Artifacts Trade Agreement
Cambodia and the U.S. have signed an extension to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that imposes strict import restrictions on artifacts dating from the Bronze Age to the end of the Angkor Empire. Hab Touch, director-general for tangible heritage at the Ministry of Culture and ...
Simon Henderson
https://cambodia.opendevelopmentmekong.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=34061&action=edit&message=1
US investors cite corruption as major issue
Though U.S.-owned businesses in Cambodia are optimistic of the country’s economy, its appeal as an investment destination lags behind most of its neighbors due to the perception of endemic corruption, a new survey of 475 senior U.S. business executives in Asean shows. The 2013-14 ASEAN Business ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/us-investors-cite-corruption-as-major-issue-40520/
US Taxman Provides Investigation Training
The U.S. tax collection agency is this week training Cambodian bank staff as well as anti-corruption officials, police, judges and prosecutors in how to investigate financial activity to detect wrongdoing, officials said Monday. U.S. Embassy spokesman Sean McIntosh said the program, called Intermediate Financial Investigations Training, ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/us-taxman-provides-investigation-training-40220/
Cambodia's trade with U.S. up 2% in first half of 2013
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and the United States has amounted to 1.44 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months of the year, up 2 percent compared with 1.41 billion U.S. dollars over the same period last year, the figures of the U.S. Department of ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-08/07/c_132610051.htm
In Cambodia, Cyber Casinos Fall Into a Legal Gray Area
In 2010, the Ha Tien Vegas Entertainment Resort, a casino investment on Kampot province’s border with Vietnam that included luxury karaoke rooms and suites, launched with high hopes of attracting Vietnamese gamblers. At the end of December, Ha Tien Vegas closed down. To the north, in ...
Cambodia’s Hun Sen Slams U.S. Threats Over Aid
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday criticized U.S. threats to cut aid to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation if its election wasn’t free and fair, and dared American lawmakers to follow through on their warning. His comments came after U.S. lawmakers started processes in the ...
http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-293500/
Textile Industry Gets Lessons From Korean Designers
Cambodian manufacturers on Wednesday received training from Korean designers on how to make apparel in line with current fashion trends in the hopes of assisting them in penetrating the lucrative but difficult Korean market. The event was organized by the ASEAN-Korea Center—an intergovernmental organization that aims ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/textile-industry-gets-lessons-from-korean-designers-35468/
5,000 Protest for Benefits in Kompong Speu
About 5,000 garment workers from a factory in Kompong Speu province, which manufactures clothing for U.S sports giant Nike, yesterday blocked National Road 4 demanding additional allowances, such as transport and maternity bonuses, a union representative said. The protest at Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment MFG Corp., in ...
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 ...
Cambodians Abroad Sent Home $256M Last Year
Cambodian migrant workers sent home $256 million last year, according to a report from a U.N. agency and the World Bank, which was released in Bangkok yesterday. The report from the bank and Rome-based International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), titled Sending Money Home to Asia, ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/cambodians-abroad-sent-home-256m-last-year-25574/