International tourist arrivals to Cambodia increased nearly 28 per cent during the first quarter of the year compared with the corresponding period of 2011, Ministry of Tourism data shows.
The country drew more than 995,000 tourists from abroad during the three-month period, up from 778,467 a year earlier, according to figures obtained by the Post.
Leading the industry in numbers were almost 179,000 Vietnamese tourists, or 18 per cent of the market.
Officials attributed continued Vietnamese dominance in Cambodia’s tourism market to proximity, while expressing a hope Chinese visitors would acccount for a greater share…
Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on unions, employers and the Ministry of Labour to take a collaborative approach to stamping out violent protests in the garment industry, a unionist said yesterday.
During a Saturday conference involving 4,000 people from more than 60 union groups, Hun Sen said each group must work to “improve the atmosphere in the garment sector”, according to Som Aun, president of the Cambodian Labour Union Federation.
A public transportation system for Phnom Penh is still years from becoming a reality, according to a presentation during a meeting on urban transit on Friday at City Hall, but the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will begin a survey at the end of May to identify key traffic problems that clog the city’s streets….
In an effort to make up for the low salt yield this year caused by unexpected rainfall during the dry season, farmers in salt-producing Kep and Kampot provinces said yesterday that they would try to continue harvesting the mineral for another month even though the season usually ends in April…
Amid mounting calls for further investigation, officials said yesterday they were establishing a task force to look into the death of outspoken forestry activist Chut Wutty, while the family of the military police officer who allegedly killed Chut Wutty before turning the gun on himself cast doubts on the official police investigation.
“The Koh Kong shooting case is under investigation, and our investigating military police are working hard on this to find the real case behind the shooting to death of two men,” said General Sao Sokha, national military police commander. A “special committee” has been established to investigate the double killing, he said, though he declined to elaborate on details.
Though the case is still open, military police officials have provided an official explanation for the deaths, calling them a murder-suicide. They have said it came following an escalating verbal altercation between Chut Wutty, 46, and the military police officer, In Rattana, 32…
Poor accounting practices by ministries between 2005 and 2010 required them to seek additional government funds to the tune of $578.79 million, which was reserved for national emergencies, according to a multi-year budget analysis released on Friday by the NGO Forum on Cambodia…
… Industries such as tourism and garment production are booming. Mining is taking off and the Cambodian Stock Exchange (CSX) is finally up and running after a 10-month delay with Phnom Penh Water Supply (PPWS) its first listing.
“PPWS is considered one of the best managed state enterprises in Cambodia. Phnom Penh is one of the only cities in Asia where it is safe to drink water out of the tap,” said Doug Clayton, CEO of the frontier investment fund .
That reputation was hard earned in a country renowned for corruption (164th on Transparency International’s perceptions of corruption index last year).
What changed PPWS was the appointment of Ek Sonn Chan as director back in 1993. Given the mission to provide the city with clean, affordable drinking water, he began by building a performance-based corporate culture. Practices that allowed jobs for life, along with jobs for friends and relatives, were ditched. Staffing levels were cut by 80%. Those who remained were paid high salaries but told they would be dismissed if they failed to measure up.
Two factors contributed to the company’s success. First Sonn Chan obtained the implicit backing of Prime Minister Hun Sen who supported his plan to run PPWS as an autonomous body. Second, he tugged on the emotional heartstrings of donors who had begun entering the country as part of a UN bid to rebuild it. …
The chevron oil company announced it is not ready to pump offshore oil in Block A in Cambodia. Mr. Steve Glick, Chevron President said: “the company is not ready to pump oil in Block A offshore Cambodia on the set-date of December 2012, complaining that more tasks need to be completed, but expressed only its desire to perform the best to achieve the goal as proposed by the government.
Cambodia officials said previously that the kingdom could gain the first drop of oil product on December 12, 2012. ”We are working closely with the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA) to make it possible as soon as we can, but it is too early to set the date for pumping this year, and I am not sure when should be the proper time for pumping,” said Steve Glick…
Viet Nam and Cambodia have jointly launched a Superhighway Telecom Network which is expected to improve internet and telecommunication services in Cambodia and meet customer demands.
State-owned Viet Nam Telecom International (VTI) and Telecom Cambodia (TC) inaugurated the 260-km link, which connects VTI’s POP (Point of Presence) in Phnom Penh to HCM City, last Friday. …
The value-added textile sector, as the garment sector is called in Pakistan, has chosen Cambodia as an alternative destination for relocating their manufacturing units, owing to continued electricity and gas supply problems in the country. The power and gas shortage is affecting productivity in Pakistan’s apparel sector, which in turn, is affecting the sector’s exports. …
The lifting of EU sanctions against Myanmar is bound to have an impact on the Cambodian garment sector, Cambodia Sin Chew Daily reported on Thursday.
The European Union announced earlier this week that it was lifting sanctions against the country. Japan and Canada have made similar announcements since the end of last week. …
Deep in Koh Kong’s forested district on Thursday, Chut Wutty, 46, the founder of the Natural Resource Protection Group, and In Rattana, 32, a military police officer, were shot dead.
Chut Wutty, a forestry activist who has dedicated himself to preserving Cambodia’s disappearing forests since 2001, was traveling from Pursat to Koh Kong province to investigate illegal logging in the area.
Two journalists from the Cambodia Daily, Phorn Bopha, 27 and Olesia Plokhii, 27, were traveling with Wutthy as a part of a story on grassroots efforts to prevent illegal logging.
This is their story on the death of the two men. …
… Ms. Plokhii had been getting in the passenger side of the car when the shots were fired and did not see where they had come from. Ms. Bopha also did not see the shooter. Both Ms. Bopha and Ms. Plokhii dived out of the car and ran across the dirt road a few meters into the forest. As there was no more shooting, they re-emerged from the forest less than one minute later to find a military police officer lying wounded on the ground in front of the car. Chut Wutty was in the driver’s seat, his body slumped to one side. …
…Ms. Bopha and Ms. Plokhii did not feel safe. The soldiers reiterated they were not allowed to leave. …
… Later, with a court prosecutor present, they removed Chut Wutty’s body from the car. He was laid on clear white plastic and his belongings were placed with him. One of those items was a handgun. As darkness fell over the crime scene, Chut Wutty and In Rattana’s bodies were put in separate vehicles and taken to Koh Kong town. …
The military police officer who killed well-known anti-logging campaigner Chut Wutty, 46, on Thursday in Koh Kong province then died by his own hand after turning his AK-47 assault rifle on himself in an apparent act of instant suicide following the slaying of the forestry activist, officials said on Tuesday.
The officer, In Rattana, 32, opened fire on Mr. Wutty and killed him as he sat in the driver seat of his vehicle after the anti-logging activist was detained by a group of soldiers who demanded that he and two journalists from the Cambodia Daily hand over their cameras, which they had used to photograph suspected illegal logging in Mondol Seima district.
… “There is only one person that shot, and he is dead,” Col. Samoeun said, adding that the investigation was still ongoing. ….
…The reported suicide was challenged by Mr. Wutty’s nephew, Chuon Phirom, who questioned how the deceased officer had managed to shoot himself twice in the chest with a rifle. …
…Chan Soveth, deputy head of monitoring at local rights group Adhoc, said he arrived at the scene of the double shooting on Friday morning and he believed that there were many eyewitnesses to what happened, though they are afraid to speak out. …
About 20 former residents for the Borei Keila community protested outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday after a judge delayed a hearing regarding their land dispute with the powerful Phanimex company, a lawyer for the residents said. The residents filed a complaint against Phanimex earlier this month after the company failed to provide them with new housing they had been promised following the violent eviction of 120 families on Jan. 3.
… The judge has postponed the hearing until May 17, when Phanimex will have a lawyer.
The government needs to enforce legislation on protecting the environment, even as it gives away masses of land and resources in concessions, or risk jeopardising its economic future, the UN assistant secretary-general for disaster risk reduction said yesterday.
“The most critical impact of disasters today is economic, and it’s taking away from the development investments that come to the Mekong [countries],” Margareta Wahlström said during the last day of a six-day trip to Cambodia to meet government officials and development partners.
Cambodia has “excellent legislation” to protect its natural resources and the government needs to apply those laws to show it was serious about the issue, she said…
With his slaying yesterday in the jungles of Koh Kong province, Chut Wutty becomes one of the highest-profile members yet on a dark list of Cambodian activists who have been killed for making a stand against greed and corruption.
Although the details of his death remain unclear, rights groups are already raising the alarm that yesterday’s shooting is a disturbing example of the violent intimidation routinely used against activists in Cambodia.
Sok Sam Oeun, chairman of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, said yesterday that while such violence had been predictable at conservation demonstrations, the shooting was unprecedented.
“Powerful people try to use the courts all the time, but now they use force. The situation has become more serious than ever before,” he said. “Look at this story – and look at who will benefit from this killing.”…
The wife of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty today rejected early police accounts of the circumstances around his shooting death, saying she believed he had been targeted for death for his work in protecting Cambodia’s endangered forests.
Speaking to the Post by phone, 40-year-old Sam Chanthy, said that her husband had been at the exact site of his death in Koh Kong province little more than a month ago, where he had been in conflict with military police officers as he attempted to examine a cache of illegally logged timber.
“I think there were third persons involved with my husband’s killing. They prepared a plot to kill him because his work was affecting their interests.
“Those people were not happy with my husband and his work …so they planned to kill him when he went there again,” she said, referring to Veal Bei Point in Mondul Seima district’s Bak Khlang commune…
Tonle Sap fishermen and fisheries experts said yesterday that illegal fishing on the lake had increased substantially since Prime Minister Hun Sen cancelled commercial fishing lots in March and urged authorities to crack down on violators.
The prime minister suspended commercial lots across the country last year in hopes of reviving diminishing stocks for subsistence fishermen and signed a sub-decree cancelling the lots outright in March…
Government officials have joined forces with Japanese experts to formulate a new plan for economic diversity in Cambodia.
Foreign direct investment in Cambodian industry has largely gone to garment manufacturing during the past 10 years, putting the country at risk of economic shock in the event of continued financial crisis in the West.
Cambodia’s Supreme National Economic Council (SNEC) and the Japan International Co-operation Agency hosted a seminar yesterday on the establishment of new policies that could help the country attract investment in other forms of industry…
German sportswear brand Puma is seeking information on why the Svay Rieng Provincial Court decided to charge former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith with causing unintentional injuries, a Puma representative said yesterday.
Mr Bundith is the sole suspect in a shooting in Bavet City on February 20 that injured three female factory workers from the Kaoway Sports Factory. Kaoway supplies shoes to Puma, which sent a representative after the shooting to investigate the incident…
