Gasoline prices in Cambodia hit an all-time high on Friday, stoking fears of limited fuel reserves and increasing production costs at some of the Kingdom’s businesses.
Premium gasoline sold for $1.40 per litre last week, surpassing the $1.38-per-litre price during the global economic slump at the end of 2008, a PTT official said.
Importers and officials blamed global security issues and Cambodia’s reliance on imported oil…
The Kingdom’s much-hyped deadline of tapping its first oil reserves by December 12 2012, or 12-12-12, will not be met, a government spokesman said yesterday.
Chevron Overseas Petroleum (Cambodia) Ltd, which is now exploring the Kingdom’s offshore Block A in the Gulf of Thailand, has notified the Cambodian government that no oil extraction would take place this year, the spokesman said…
Thai cassava farmers have asked Cambodia to stop exporting the commodity into Thailand in an attempt to keep prices high and avoid saturating the market, officials said yesterday.
Sao Sarat, Pailin provincial cabinet chief, said that Thai government officials representing local cassava farmers met with Pailin provincial authorities two weeks ago to request that Cambodia drop its daily from nearly 2,000 tons a day to no more than 370 tons a day…
Ninety-five percent of factories in the country are issuing too much overtime, while more than 60 percent of factories are too hot, according to a report released yesterday by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories program.
Both the excessive overtime and the hot working conditions detailed in the bi-annual report are believed to contribute to the mass fainting phenomenon that has gripped Cambodia’s garment sector of late…
The last of the nearly 800 families from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community who are in line for land titles will not receive their long-awaited ownership records for another “two or three weeks”, a city official said yesterday.
The families were spared eviction at the hands of CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s controversial real estate project in August when Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered that 12.44 hectares of the development site be set aside for the last remaining families who had fought their eviction…
More people are buying furniture thanks to a growing construction sector and solid economic growth.
Cambodia’s economy grew by 6.9 percent in 2011 and is expected to grow by 6.5 percent for the next two years, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Meanwhile, the construction sector is recovering with US$1.7 billion in total investment, and has increased by 102 percent year-on-year in 2011, according to the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. And last year, the ministry granted licenses to 2,129 construction projects nationwide, only a slight decrease from 2,149 projects in 2010. ….
Almost 120,000 Cambodians who illegally crossed into neighbouring countries in search of work were repatriated during 2011, new figures from the Ministry of Interior have revealed, prompting a senior ministry official to call for a re-evaluation of how Cambodian workers are treated abroad.
Chou Bun Eng, secretary of state at the ministry, told the Post on Friday that Cambodian embassies had facilitated the return of workers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, East Timor and Saudi Arabia…
Nautisco Seafood Manufacturing Inc, a Canadian-Cambodian shrimp producer in Preah Sihanouk province, has accused the private equity fund Leopard Capital, one of its shareholders, of draining the company of its finances.
In a statement released Friday, Nautisco said that Phnom Penh Municipal Court had ordered the business to undergo restructuring, which it called “a plan of compromise”, in order to save the company…
The US government is working with a Cambodian microfinance institution to finance $2.7million in loans to farmers and small- and medium-sized agro-businesses in Battambang, Kompong Thom, Pursat and Siem Reap provinces in order to improve their access to credit, the US Embassy said.
USAid will work with Thaneakea Phum Ltd, a for-profit business, during the next four years to make its loans in these provinces larger and with longer repayment periods, the embassy said in a statement on Friday…
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An has told Iran’s ambassador to Cambodia that once an oil refinery in the country is operational, Cambodia would be able to import crude oil from Iran and export refined oil products to China, the Council of Ministers said on its website last week.
The announcement comes as both the US and the European Union have placed new sanctions on Iran in an attempt to get the country to abandon its alleged nuclear weapons program…
Cambodia’s gross domestic product grew 6.9 per cent year-on-year in 2011, and is set to increase to 6.5 per cent this year, according to preliminary projections from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Agriculture, which was hit hard by floods last year, climbed 3.3 per cent, according to the ministry’s website.
At the same time, industry was up 14.3 per cent, while garment manufacturing alone soared 20.2 per cent. Services gained 5 per cent on a strengthened financial sector, according to the website…
Dry-season rice farmers in some areas west of the Tonle Sap River and in eastern provinces are appealing to the government for help as the reservoirs they rely on for irrigation are drying up faster than usual, farmers and officials said yesterday.
Officials at the ministries of water resources and agriculture also said they were intervening quickly to provide pumps so that water could be pumped into rice fields.
San Vanty, under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told the Post that more than 20,000 hectares of dry-season rice fields were lacking water…
More than 300 villagers from two districts in Kampong Speu province joined forces yesterday to protest in front of the provincial court over two land disputes, vowing to continue until authorities resolved them and released a mother of seven jailed last month after she had been summonsed to the court over one of the disputes.
Protesters said the imprisonment of Chum Srey Noun, 49, on December 15 had convinced them to accompany community representatives summonsed to the provincial court yesterday and today to ensure the summonses were not used as a pretext for jailing them. The questioning was, however, postponed after more than 300 villagers showed up…
The floodwaters may have receded, but their effects are far from over, with the government, NGOs and international donors saying yesterday they are still assessing the damage as they shift to long-term rehabilitation.
Last November, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said the government would spend about US$200 million to repair infrastructure – including schools, hospitals and roads – damaged by the worst floods in more than a decade, which directly affected 1.6 million people in 20 provinces.
National Committee for Disaster Management chief Keo Vy told the Post “relevant ministries and local authorities are still working on recovery step-by-step”…
Low wages and a lack of occupational health and safety measures led to a mass fainting on Tuesday at a Phnom Penh garment factory that produces clothes for well-known brands Wal-Mart, Target and Reebok, according to a statement released by the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) yesterday.
About 60 workers were sent to the hospital on Tuesday morning after fainting at the Taiwanese-owned King First Industrial Co Ltd factory in Russei Keo district when they inhaled fumes from a newly laid floor, CLEC said…
Workers who were seen last week clearing forestland in Stung Treng province in preparation for the construction of the 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam have stopped their work after receiving an order to do so by the district governor, officials said yesterday.
Sesan district governor Bou Keo Sovann said that he ordered district police on Tuesday to stop workers of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) from clearing land in his district…
Villagers in Kompong Thom province’s Sandan district said yesterday that they handed over 77 pieces of luxury wood, which they had seized from illegal loggers, to the Forestry Administration after they were threatened with arrest.
Fed up with the perceived lack of government action against illegal loggers in Prey Long forest, about 40 locals took it upon themselves to stop a truck hauling the wood last month and took custody of the illicit haul themselves…
Human rights group Licadho raised the alarm yesterday over the increased use of armed force by authorities as they seek to suppress protests over Cambodia’s numerous land disputes. It noted that during the past two months, security forces have opened fire on villagers during three protests and fired warning shots at two other protests.
“Cambodia’s land-grabbing crisis has taken a disturbingly violent turn in the last two months,” Licadho said in a statement, which mentioned five five incidents that involve the use of firearms by government forces. During the incidents, 19 people were injured, seven of whom were shot, the organization said…
Despite a 67 per cent drop in food imports to Cambodia in 2011, inflation in exporting countries drove an 18 per cent rise in the total value of the imports.
Food imports fell from 769,993 tonnes in 2010 to 254,080 in 2011, while the total value of imports increased to US$158 million from $134 million, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed…
Some commercial banks could increase loans to the agricultural sector this year, according to industry insiders who cited improvements in the sector and a rise in crop prices.
Cambodian farmers lack the capital needed for inputs such as seeds and fertiliser, while domestic rice millers often can’t get credit to purchase large quantities of paddy, insiders said.
Experts have long said the dearth of loan activity in Cambodian agriculture stymied the sector’s development toward an economy of scale.
ACLEDA Bank, Cambodia’s largest domestically owned bank, would increase its loan portfolio in agriculture, which now represents about 16.5 per cent of its total lending, Executive Vice President So Phonnary said…
