Freedom House and several other international human rights groups condemned the conviction of 13 Phnom Penh women last week who are locked in a land dispute with CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin and called for their release in a joint statement issued Tuesday.
The women were arrested on May 22 while protesting peacefully on land that they accuse the senator’s firm of grabbing. …
A US$37.9 million base plate factory will launch in June in the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, Japanese electronics manufacturer SC WADO Component Co said yesterday in a statement.
The entry of SC WADO, a subsidiary of Nidec Electronics, was another step in Cambodia’s march away from garment exports, which have been the country’s primary ware to overseas markets. …
Garment and footwear exports from Cambodia increased 15.29 percent to $1.29 billion in the first three months of the year compared to the same period in 2011, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce.
While exports to the European Union rose 46.76 percent to $376.14 million in the first quarter, marginally fewer orders from the U.S.—Cambodia’s largest market—meant exports fell by 0.89 percent to $510.23 million.
Despite the slight dip in orders from the U.S., Sok Sopheak, director general of the Ministry of Commerce’s international trade department, said demand would likely remain strong for garments due to the competitiveness of wages in the country. …
Canadia Bank will launch a rice mill in Cambodia’s Takeo province in October, a move that insiders said could help curb the flow of unmilled rice to neighbouring Vietnam.
Bank officials yesterday said they will buy US$3 million in milling equipment, and the total cost of the facility was expected to be $10 million. …
Borei Keila evictees will have a chance to revisit the area they were forcibly evicted from this Sunday when authorities truck them back from the makeshift tents of their relocation site for a special purpose – to vote.
Touch Khorn, a representative of the Borei Keila community villagers who were evicted from their homes in Phnom Penh in January, said yesterday that their one-time Veal Vong commune chief, ruling party member Keo Sakal, had agreed to provide two trucks for the ballot.
“On June 3 at 6:00am, the trucks will go to take us to Phnom Penh,” he said. …
Most are reluctant to divulge their political preferences, but despite the experience of seeing their homes bulldozed, some maintain they will stick with the Cambodian People’s Party. …
This month’s eviction of villagers in Kratie province that resulted in the death of a 14-year-old girl was one of many such violent incidents over land that have erupted in Cambodia in recent years. But what set the May 16 violence apart was a word: secession.
On the morning of the eviction, 14-year-old Heng Chantha was shot dead when about 200 armed soldiers, police and military police descended upon Broma village in Chhlong district .
The night before, provincial authorities had begun denouncing the villagers as so-called secessionists, claiming the poor villagers were attempting to annex an area and govern it as a zone autonomous from the government.
The accusation that the residents of Broma village were trying to establish their own mini-state was widely expounded by government officials, and two weeks later, police are still searching for five so-called members of their anti-government movement. …
Amnesty International researcher for Cambodia Rupert Abbott also said that government claims of a separatist movement were far from reality. “The explanation that villagers were trying to create an independent state seems implausible, and may appear to be an excuse for violently crushing villagers involved in a long-running land dispute with the Casotim rubber company,” he said in an email. …
Angkor Gold Corp, a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company, has announced the identification of five new prospects in Ratanakiri province, according to a company statement. …
the mining firm said it planned to consolidate its gold prospects in the northeastern corner of the country. …
Malaysia-based telecommunications firm Axiata Group said yesterday that revenues at its Hello mobile phone operator in Cambodia grew by 27.3 percent to $2.21 million at the end of the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2011. …
Six residents of the Boeung Chhouk community in the capital’s Russei Keo district have been summonsed to court to answer charges they used violence against the supposed owner of their land – a person they claim never to have met.
Khiev Chenda, 42, one of six who will appear in Phnom Penh municipal court today, said a police officer had delivered summonses to them in Kilometre 6 commune early this week…
Japanese electronics firm Nidec Corporation has invested about $37.5 million to establish a factory in Poipet City that will produce parts for computer hard drives…
…(The Company), an Agro-Management company focused on stevia agronomics, announced that it has incorporated Health Power Trading Company Ltd., a wholly owned BVI subsidiary company and Mighty Mekong Agro Industries Co. Ltd., a Cambodian based wholly owned subsidiary.
This strategic move by Stevia Nutra will allow the Company to capitalize on significant labour and technical advantages as well as provide access to prime fertile lands in pursuing stevia agriculture, cultivation and processing in Cambodia…
Guinea will buy 40,000 tons milled rice product from Cambodia in the near future, Eang Sophalet, assistant to Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Friday after the meeting between Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen and visiting president of Guinea His Excellency Professor Alpha Conde at peace palace in Phnom Penh. …
Cambodia and Malaysia trade and investment are increasing subsequently as the two members of ASEAN are trying to boost the integration for ASEAN community in 2015.
The report from the embassy of Malaysia here said: as for trade performance in 2012, for the first quarter of 2012, Malaysia recorded an increase of 5.32 percent.
Total trade between Malaysia and Cambodia from January to March 2012 was recorded at USD75.8 million compared to the preceding period of 2011 which recorded USD72.0 million. …
The new function building at Diamond Island known as Koh Pich City Hall will host the ASEAN Foreign Minister’s dinner on July 12.
Completed in March and opened last month, construction of the lavishly furnished venue was timed to coincide with Cambodia’s chairmanship of ASEAN this year, to demonstrate this country’s capability to deliver high-quality services for visitors.
The $5 million project, designed by architect Raborey Vuth, was started in November 2010…
With Sunday’s commune elections quickly approaching, the five main political parties are all predicting substantial gains over how they faired in the last election in 2007, though none deny that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) will continue to dominate the polls.
And with the entrance of the relatively new Human Rights Party (HRP) to the mix, there may not be much room for improvement left for traditional opposition the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP). In 2007, the CPP won 7,993 of the 11,353 commune councilor seats that were up for grabs and as a result reaped 1,592 of the 1,621 powerful commune chief positions.
Despite making gains over the 2002 commune election, the SRP only walked away with 28 commune chief positions in 2007 and 2,660 councilor seats. According to SRP party whip Son Chhay, the party is expecting to take more than 100 commune chief positions on Sunday, and double the number of councilor seats. …
The planned theme of yesterday’s ASEAN defence ministers roundtable was military cooperation between countries, particularly in times of natural disaster, but it was a theme invariably pushed to the background by other regional developments.
Among them was what appeared to be a cooling-off period in the dispute between the Philippines and China over sovereignty in the South China Sea, as well as this week’s visit by China’s minister of defence, the timing of which raised some eyebrows. …
While the CPP in Phnom Penh has spent much of the campaign period broadcasting speeches by Prime Minister Hun Sen, hosting music concerts and sending well-known comedians into the streets to work the crowds, the SRP has a starker campaign focus.
When the sun sets, 10 trucks make their way around the city’s streets showing a video on makeshift screens hung haphazardly over the bed of trucks depicting clip after clip of villagers and authorities clashing in some of the highest profile land disputes.
Judging by the crowds that gather at each viewing, the strategy seems to be a hit. Shop-owners duck out of their stores and motorcycle taxi drivers…
Cambodian government officials and private sector leaders have met with Chinese officials to negotiate a US$200 million loan for the development of Cambodia’s rice sector, an official said on Tuesday. …
The new loan would focus on the development of the agricultural sector, primarily the construction of rice-milling factories and improvements of cultivation techniques. …
Cambodian people used banks less than any other country in the Asia-Pacific region last year in percentage terms of using financial services, recent data from the World Bank showed.
The report, released this month, also pointed to high growth in the percentage of borrowers, which insiders said was concentrated in Cambodia’s mircofinance sector.
Informal lending, a threat to the financial stability of many low-income earners, was high above the regional average. …
Only 4 per cent of Cambodians had an account at a formal financial institution in 2011, compared with 27 per cent in Lao PDR and 21 per cent in Vietnam. …
Cambodia’s ASEAN Economic Minister yesterday urged small and medium-size enterprises to focus on countries in Southeast Asia, rather than Europe and the United States, for export destinations.
Cham Prasidh, also the minister of commerce, said yesterday that regional markets have traditionally held a second place to those in the West.
The so-called ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a tariff and regulation bloc which member states hope to form by 2015, should bring regional trade into the forefront, he said. …
