Pakistan and Cambodia yesterday discussed strengthening economic ties in areas such banking and transportation, a government official said.
Ambassador of Pakistan Fazal-ur-Rahman Kazi and Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sok An considered an agreement on the protection of trade and investment, Ek Tha, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said.
Pakistan’s ambassador said he hopes an agreement will be signed next year, although there is no set timeline, according to Ek Tha…
Most Cambodians believe it is the government’s responsibility to respond to climate change, but are unclear about who in government should take the lead, according to a survey discussed by officials at a workshop on climate change yesterday.
The survey, Understanding Public Perceptions of Climate Change in Cambodia, also found that most people were unaware of any organised response to climate change, or of the national and local programs already set up to respond to shifting weather patterns…
Golden Fortune Securities, a Cambodian-Chinese joint venture and the Kingdom’s second securities dealer, officially opened its doors yesterday.
The company was the most recent of Cambodia’s 13 licensed dealers, brokers and underwriters to launch operations.
A date for company listings, or actual Cambodia Securities Exchange operations, was stilled undeclared for the exchange, which officially opened in July…
CAMBODIAN telecoms must produce digital content to remain competitive in the country’s crowded sector, experts said yesterday.
However, others claimed the consumer market for that content was still too small.
A lack of domestically produced TV programs, websites and other digital offerings has Cambodia’s estimated 755,000 internet users searching abroad, International Data Group ASEAN CEO Tam Le said yesterday during a press conference.
The production of domestic content would boost the already-fierce competition among the Kingdom’s nine active mobile operators and 12 active internet service providers, he said…
THE precious stone industry in Pailin province is facing bankruptcy as supplies dwindle and locals turn to agriculture as their main source of revenue, provincial authorities told the Post.
Pailin, long known for its rubies, sapphires and other precious stones, now depends on foreign imports to keep its jewelry shops stocked.
Still, many of those shops continue to close in the face of waning interest as the local population chooses instead to plant cassava and other crops…
A PROTEST on the fifth storey of a residential high-rise in Borei Keila ended with authorities fleeing the scene and incensed villagers breaking down a door yesterday.
About 50 villagers converged on the site to protest against Phan Imex and authorities evicting a man from his home on the fifth floor.
House owner On Nita, 22, said police and the company had ordered him out of his house, which he bought from Phor Lina, a village representative, for $8,900 early last year…
TWO activists involved in last month’s Prey Lang forest protest against illegal logging fled their houses yesterday in Sandan district in an attempt to evade local authorities, villagers reported.
Roeun Sopheap, village representative in Sandan commune, said he fled his home yesterday after finding several police officers stationed outside. He had just returned to his house a few days ago after spending nearly a month hiding in the woods avoiding capture…
A group of five unions plans to send a petition to the Ministry of Labor on Friday requesting a number of changes in the controversial draft union law.
Speaking at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday, Cambodian Confederation of Unions President Rong Chhun detailed the requests made by the unions, which include changes to more than 20 articles in the draft law…
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 the area has actually reached local communities and that they could jeopardize the environment and ethnic minorities in the area if not handled properly…
The National Assembly yesterday passed Cambodia’s first law on pesticide and chemical fertiliser control, which the government hopes will regulate the use and sale of dangerous chemicals on agricultural products.
Currently, hazardous pesticides are sold with little regulation and often without proper labeling that instructs farmers on how to use them.
Lawmakers from the CPP, which holds a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, discussed the 12-chapter draft law with Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun yesterday and Tuesday, before approving it without any amendments…
Cambodia and the Asian Development Bank have signed their latest loan agreement of US$15 million for the development of the Kingdom’s financial sector, according to ADB.
The money would be used for a number of development programs, including the improvement of regulatory regimes, creation of an inter-bank lending market and increased consumer access to credit, ADB said…
A woman summonsed to Kampong Speu provincial court over a land dispute yesterday returned home without being arrested after about 150 protesting villagers turned out to support her.
Rath Thavy, provincial monitor for human rights group Adhoc, speculated that the court decided not to arrest Khem Srey Pao, 37, of Thpong district’s Omlaing commune, because it was afraid of the villagers’ reaction.
However, Klot Pich, director of the provincial court, said the court had simply asked Khem Srey Pao, who was summonsed last week, about the complaint filed by Him Sam Oeun, and “did not arrest her”…
Cambodia’s National Youth Congress called on the government yesterday to act to protect the country’s natural resources from illegal traders.
About 100 young people from 30 colleges in Phnom Penh, Kratie and Kampong Thom Chhnang provinces attended a discussion about protecting natural resources – with a particular focus on forests – held at Phanha Cheat College in the capital yesterday…
Illegal logging of staggering proportions abetted by military personnel is decimating stocks of luxury rosewood in the Central Cardamom Protected Forest, while the conversation group tasked with protecting the area and its government counterparts deny the trade is even happening.
In a period of several hours beginning late on Sunday night, the Post witnessed at least nine industrial transport trucks, seven pick-up trucks and one Land Rover packed with timber drive out of Koh Kong province’s Thma Bang district in the CCPF on one road alone. Large numbers of trucks could also be heard using a nearby connecting road.
Several of the trucks that the Post was able to inspect closely were carrying heavy loads of illegal rosewood.
Villagers, loggers and conservationists have verified that Forestry Administration officials, military officers and rangers working in partnership with the NGO Conservation International are making no effort to stop the massive trade in protected rosewood.
In many cases, it is alleged, they are actively profiting.
Thuy Pet, 50, a former soldier from military division 5 now living in Thma Bang district’s Russey Chrum village, estimated that during peak logging periods, anywhere from 80 to 90 trucks carried timber out of the protected area every night. “I think nobody can stop this until they finish. When they finish, they will go to another area,” he said.
Another villager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that about 2,000 people were now logging in the area. “Residents used to be farmers, but now they’ve become loggers because of money,” he said.
Chut Wutty, director of the Natural Resources Protection Group, estimates that tens of thousands of dollars worth of rosewood, which fetches between US$5,000 and $8,000 per cubic metre, is being transported out of Thma Bang district every day…
Seven union leaders representing garment workers will send a statement today urging the Ministry of Labor and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) to decrease the use of temporary labor contracts, because they erode the rights of workers, union leaders said yesterday.
Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said during a two-day meeting between union leaders that temporary labor contracts, otherwise known as fixed-duration contracts (FDCs), are too often given to workers by factory owners as a way of avoiding long-term commitment to their employees…
Rolling out what may be the world’s longest krama, some 130 protesters presented the National Assembly with a petition yesterday morning bearing thousands of thumbprints urging lawmakers not to pass a trio of pending laws.
“We all urge the government to stop its attempt to pass the laws on NGOs, unions and agricultural cooperatives, which restrict people’s lives,” their petition read.
The demonstrators had fastened pages bearing what they said were more than 10,000 thumbprints to the blue scarves, which had been stitched together end-to-end to form a single stretch of cloth that was rolled out across the street from the Assembly to its 230-meter length…
State-owned Telecom Cambodia has signed a business cooperation agreement with Vietnam National Post and Telecommunications Corp in order to bolster TC’s product portfolio and coverage area, company officials said yesterday.
Telecom Cambodia offers both fixed-line phone and internet services in the Kingdom. Vietnam National Post and Telecommunications, also state-owned, will provide the technology and equipment necessary for Telecom Cambodia to grow its operations in the Kingdom, and in turn allow the company to better compete in a crowded sector, TC director general Lao Saroeun said…
The Cambodian government yesterday offered a subsidy on equipment to private electricity distributors in an effort to expand the Kingdom’s limited power grid.
Private power suppliers who have completed between 70 to 80 per cent of their planned investments in electricity networks can request subsidies on wire from the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy, Minister Suy Sem said yesterday at an Electricity Authority of Cambodia meeting…
A Kampuchea Krom monk was issued a summons yesterday to appear in a Phnom Penh court tomorrow to face accusations of incitement.
In a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, the investigating municipal judge, Duch Kimson, ordered Sieng Sovannra, a monk at the Samaki Raingsey pagoda, to attend an inquiry into his role in a protest led by Stung Meachey villagers and his fellow monks over a land dispute with a wealthy trader…
Union leaders gathered in the capital yesterday to discuss strategies to curb the garment industry’s widespread use of temporary contracts for hiring workers, saying employers were using them to discourage unions and ensure their workforce remained docile and easy to exploit.
They also accused employers of flouting the Labour Law by keeping staff on fixed contracts for longer than two years, and said that officials at the labour ministry were tolerating this despite a July, 2003 ruling by the Arbitration Council saying it was illegal.
Short-term contracts were also being used to weed out pregnant workers to avoid paying maternity leave, and coerce staff to work overtime, said Bent Gehrt, the Southeast Asia field director of the Worker Rights Consortium…
