Egat wants coal plants in Cambodia, Myanmar, Krabi
May 13th, 2013, The Nation, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Natural Gas
Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal has given the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) the green light to proceed with a plan to build coal-powered plants in Myanmar and Cambodia – providing Thailand with 10,000 megawatts of electricity. Egat has also been instructed to negotiate the purchase of nuclear power from China in order to bring down the cost of electricity. …
In addition, the Energy Ministry has also been discussing the possibility of investing in a coal-powered plant in Cambodia to produce 4,000MW of electricity. Thailand hopes that buying power from Cambodia will keep the domestic cost of electricity from exceeding Bt6 per unit. Egat also plans to go ahead with its coal-powered project in Krabi once it has reached an “understanding” with residents and businesses protesting against the deal. …
In addition to investing in coal-operated power plants from neighbouring countries, Egat is also looking at investing in hydro-electric power projects within the region. …
Watcharapong Thongrung
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Egat-wants-coal-plants-in-Cambodia-Myanmar-Krabi-30205968.html
Hun Sen Orders Toxic Ice Factory Shut Down
May 13th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, Social Concerns
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that he had ordered a Phnom Penh ice-making factory to shut down, after pungent chemical emissions from the plant in Russei Keo district caused more than 100 nearby residents to be hospitalized with breathing problems on Friday.
At least 20 of those hospitalized had to spend the night in the hospital, while 100 more were prescribed medication and told to return on Saturday to check ammonia-absorption levels, according to district health chief Phan Phearath. Ammonia is used in the ice freezing process. …
Mr. Hun Sen, speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a pagoda in Kompong Chhang province on Saturday, blamed the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy for allowing the factory to pollute the area with toxic chemical gases, and for refusing to act on on-going complaints by the community. …
Neou Vannarin
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-orders-toxic-ice-factory-shut-down-23617/
Investment and Trade Fair Opens In Koh Kong
May 13th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Economics, Exports, Foreign Investment, Imports, International Relations, News Source, Trade
The first three-day Koh Kong Investment and Trade Fair 2013 kicked off on Saturday, promoting trade and investment in the southern provinces of Cambodia with neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. …
“The [fair] is aimed at promoting trade and development in Koh Kong province and other border provinces in the southern region of the country, which is to further enlarge trade and the economy between Cambodian provinces, and with the provinces of Thailand and Vietnam that are boardering Cambodia in this southern region,” said Cham Prasidh, Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce. …
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051365565/Business/investment-and-trade-fair-opens-in-koh-kong.html
Boost For Animal Healthcare
May 13th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, Imports, Labor, Livestock, News Source, pharmaceuticals, Trade
Cambodia’s promising animal feed sector will soon see support from a big pharmaceutical manufacturer which is now studying local demand for animal healthcare – a nearly untapped market.
“We intend to introduce animal health business in Cambodia for our farm products and feed mills,” Khalid Baig, Bayer’s country group head Southeast Asia, told the Post. …
According to animal welfare and production expert Ros Limhy, several thousand veterinarians are working in the Kingdom, mostly at the village or commune level. However, the key players in improving animal health in Cambodia would be the Village Animal Health Workers, who have been trained by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the public sector.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is one of those NGOs. According to IFAD’s Country Operations Officer Meng Sakphouseth, 80 per cent of the villages in the Kingdom have at least one animal health worker. …
Sarah Thust
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051365566/Business/boost-for-animal-healthcare.html
CPP Senator Wins Power Transmission Contract
May 13th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Electricity, Energy, Hydroelectricity
The government on Friday awarded CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat a $92.21 million contract to install power lines in Cambodia’s eastern provinces, the Council of Ministers said in a statement.
During the weekly Cabinet meeting, senior officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on the deal to extend the national grid by connecting Phnom Penh with Kompong Cham, Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces. …
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/cpp-senator-wins-power-transmission-contract-23634/
SMC to invest 1.5 billion dollars in Cambodia Airlines
May 10th, 2013, ABS-CBN News, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, International Relations, News Source, Tourism
Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) will invest $1.5 billion for its airline venture in Cambodia, its top executive said yesterday.
Cambodia Airlines will have about 20 aircraft in its fleet and add as much as $400 million revenues per year to Philippine Airlines (PAL), said SMC and PAL president Ramon S. Ang in a briefing. …
PAL owns a 49-percent stake in Cambodia Airlines while RGC, chaired by Neak Oknha Kith Meng, controls the airline with a 51-percent interest.
Ang said Cambodia Airlines targets to reach 16 to 22 aircraft within the next two years, with an initial 10 airlines in the first year of operations.
Neil Jerome C. Morales
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/05/10/13/smc-invest-15-billion-dollars-cambodia-airlines
Navy arrests 4 Cambodian rosewood smugglers
May 10th, 2013, Pattaya Mail, Environment & Natural Resources, International Relations, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Royal Thai Navy ships intercepted a Cambodian fishing boat illegally smuggling 10 million baht in Siamese rosewood out of the kingdom. …
The HTMS Chao Phraya staffed with military, customs and forestry office personnel captured the 18-meter-long fishing vessel carrying 296 logs in its fish holds April 28 in Rayong Bay. …
Navy officials said the smuggled logs were to be offloaded in Vietnamese waters. …
Patcharapol Panrak
http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/navy-arrests-4-cambodian-rosewood-smugglers-25782?ref=pmci
Work underway on ‘catastrophic’ Cambodian dam
May 10th, 2013, DW, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Farming, Fishing, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Social Concerns, Water
Srekor village has stood on the banks of the Se San River in northeastern Cambodia for generations. In a few years it will be gone, submerged along with more than 300 square kilometres of surrounding farmland and forest. …
For 37-year-old rice farmer Pa Tou, the future looks bleak. The relocation site set aside for them is wholly unsuitable, he complains. There is no irrigation, it is miles from the river and the ground is either rocky or covered with trees. And at this stage it has no schools, no health clinics, no pagodas and no roads. …
International Rivers, a campaigning NGO, predicts the Lower Se San 2 Dam “will have a costly, catastrophic impact on the Mekong River’s fisheries and biodiversity”. …
But media reports consistently show the government favors projects like hydropower dams and coal-fired power stations. More are likely to go ahead. On May 9, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said two more planned dams on the 3S network had been deemed economically feasible, moving them a step closer to approval. One would be a 370MW dam on the Se San River; the other a 100MW dam on the Sre Pok River. The first would flood 40 villages alone.
Meanwhile the Cambodian government has plans to build a hydropower dam on its stretch of the Se Kong River, which rises in Laos. Baran says that would block the region’s third fish highway, leaving the Mekong mainstream as the sole route for migratory species, further harming fish stocks. The rush to hydropower risks inflicting profound and irreversible damage to many more people than the residents of Srekor village.
Deutsche Welle Staff
http://www.dw.de/work-underway-on-catastrophic-cambodian-dam/a-16803423
Opposition Lawmakers Want ‘Social’ Land to Go to Farmers
May 10th, 2013, VOA, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Economic Land Concessions, Farming, Industry, Land Tenure, Rice, Social Land Concessions
Cambodian lawmakers have passed a new law on agriculture, but critics say the law does not go far enough to protect the country’s farmers.
The law passed on Thursday evening, but not before debate at the National Assembly. …
During the debate opposition representatives called on the Cambodian government to stop providing land concessions to private companies—either for economic or “social” aims. So-called social land concessions are supposed to go toward the poor. But opposition lawmakers warn that they too can be abused by private companies. …
[Opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker] Yim Sovann also said the government should create a fund of $100 million to protect rice farmers against price fluctuations. That money could come from revenues on casino tariffs, he said. …
Chan Sarun, a CPP government representative, told the Assembly that a $100-million fund is not possible. And he said the government has already banned land concessions, since May 2012. Some 50,000 hectares have been saved from private development since the ban, he said.
In fact, watchdog and rights groups have said many concession deals have continued, despite an announced ban by Prime Minister Hun Sen in May 2012.
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/opposition-lawmakers-want-social-land-to-go-to-farmers/1657922.html
Villagers Make Heady Claims Against NGO
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Disputed Land, Forests, Land Tenure, News Source, Protected Areas
Families living in Koh Kong province have called on the provincial governor to intervene in what they claim are ongoing land disputes with Forestry Administration authorities and conservation NGO Wildlife Alliance.
Thirty-eight families from Mondul Seima and Khemarak Pumin districts have 110 hectares of land between them that authorities are refusing to allow student volunteers to measure, community representative In Chhron of Bak Khlang’s Cham Yeam village, said yesterday. …
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065550/National/villagers-make-heady-claims-against-ngo.html
Kingdom to reach rice target
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, News Source, Rice
Following a considerable increase in Cambodia’s milled rice exports in the first four months of the year, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said he was optimistic the Kingdom’s rice exports would reach the 2015 target of one million tonnes.
With this year’s export figures notably higher than those of the same period last year, Prasidh said he believed exports of milled rice would reach more than 300,000 tonnes in the first six months of the year, mostly absorbed by European markets. …
According to data from the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export Formality, Cambodian milled rice exports reached 118,500 tonnes in the first four months of this year compared with 51,466 tonnes in the same period last year. …
Rann Reuy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065539/Business/kingdom-to-reach-rice-target.html
‘Power cuts just a transitional problem’
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Electricity, Energy, News Source
Recurring power cuts and power shortages draw sharp complaints from Cambodia’s public, the political opposition and business owners. Keo Ratanak, director-general of Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), talked to the Post’s Sarah Thust.
What is EDC doing to reduce electricity cuts here?
The issue of power shortage is not a surprise to the Royal Government of Cambodia and EDC. We had forecasted many years ago that Cambodia would be precisely in the situation that it is in today.
That is the reason why EDC and the government had been working very, very hard to attract investment for [power] generation projects in hydropower, in coal-fire plants, in biomass power plants, and importing power from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. …
What is the reason for the electricity shortages, then?
Investment needs time and construction of projects needs time. Each construction usually takes four to five years, [not including] the time to negotiate, to close the financing.
Part of the problem also is that under the agreement we reached with Vietnam they are supposed to give us 200 megawatts at least, up to now, but they only gave us 170 megawatts, because Vietnam itself faces shortages.
The problem with the power from Thailand is a little bit different from Vietnam. It’s about technical constraints. The line that comes to our border is of small capacity, so to transmit more than 100 megawatts to Cambodia is difficult. …
Sarah Thust
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065532/Business/power-cuts-just-a-transitional-problem.html
Cambodian Parliament Ratifies ASEAN-China Maritime Transport Agreement
May 10th, 2013, Xinhuanet News, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, Imports, Industry, International Relations, News Source, Tourism, Trade
The National Assembly of Cambodia on Friday ratified the agreement on maritime transport between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, saying the agreement is essential to develop trade and economic ties between ASEAN and China. …
“The agreement aims to facilitate and foster cooperation in passenger and cargo transport by sea among the signatories,” Nin Saphon, Chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Public Work, Industry, Mines, Energy, Commerce, and Land Management, said during the session. …
Xinhua News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-05/10/c_132372924.htm
As Phnom Penh Grows, So Does Its Sewage Problem
May 10th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Environment & Natural Resources, Industry, Infrastructure, Social Concerns
Since 1998, Phnom Penh’s population has doubled to more than 2 million. High-rise buildings have popped up in the city’s center and housing developments have been hastily erected.
Yet the city’s antiquated, decades-old drainage system has undergone little improvement in that time and experts say the rapid urban growth currently underway could outpace the drainage system’s ability to channel rain and the increasing amount of water out of Phnom Penh.
Although the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working with City Hall since 1999 to improve the drainage system, there is still no plan to install a wastewater treatment plant in order to prevent the vast amounts of raw sewage being pumped into the city’s lakes and waterways.
Adding further complications, City Hall has no complete underground plans of the drainage network and possesses limited means to ensure that piping is properly maintained. Authorities have no data on how much sewage the city currently produces.
…
JICA is currently constructing 20 km of additional piping in central Phnom Penh. Once a toilet is flushed, the wastewater travels down the pipes, through open canals or the underground drainage system and eventually arrives in Boeng Trabek, where morning glory and lotus plants partially purify the sewage through natural process.
Plants in the reservoir absorb the discarded water’s bacterial nutrients and break down the waste before it is funneled, black and fetid, through the Boeng Trabek pumping station. The Contents are then emptied into Boeng Tampoun and finally ejected into the Tonle Bassac and Tonle Sap rivers. …
“Phnom Penh City has been developing very fast and many commercial and industrial activities have been located in the downtown and peri-urban areas and the wastewater from these activates is generally high contamination,” said Seng Solsdy, a program officer from JICA, in an email. “With this situation, the construction of a waste-water treatment plant is very important for treating the wastewater from the city before discharging it to the river and to avoid impacts on the environment and people’s health.” …
Last year, alone the total value of approved construction projects nationwide increased by 72 percent to 2.11 billion, compared to 1.23 billion in 2011. …
Noun Rithy, CEO of Bonna Realty Group, agreed that many private developments often leave the issue of drainage as an afterthought. This is coupled with the fact that municipal authorities do very few of their own checks on the drainage provisions of new projects. …
Dene-Hern Chen and Kaing Menghun, P.1
www.cambodiadaily.com
Residents Call for Foul-Smelling Factory to Move
May 10th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Environment & Natural Resources, Industry, Social Concerns
About 100 people protested Wednesday evening outside a Phnom Penh ice-making factory owned by the daughter of deputy Kompong Spue governor Tong Seng, complaining that the factory causes a bad smell and that the health of residents in Russei Keo district’s Kilometer 6 commune was suffering as a result. …
Residents say they want they want the factory moved out of the commune altogether. [District Governor] Mr. [Klaing] Hout said officials from the ministries of environment and industry mines and energy had visited yesterday to inspect the factory and promised that the bad smell and noise levels from the factory would be addressed. …
However, it is not the first time that complaints have been brought against the factory. In November, about 70 families met with factory representatives and deputy district governor Ly Rosamy, with Rosamy saying further action would be taken if the owner failed to build a wall around the factory, but no wall has been constructed. …
Kuch Naren, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
CIMB says Local Investors Bring More Franchises to Cambodia
May 10th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Economics, Foreign Investment, Industry, International Relations, Trade
The steady growth of franchises from overseas is likely to continue as young, moneyed Cambodians seize the opportunity to bring name brands into the country, a bank official said yesterday. …
Hoping to help its customers and others invest in franchises, Malaysia-based CIMB Bank yesterday organized a talk on franchising at the Malaysian Embassy in Phnom Penh. …
Thida Heng, CIMB head of retail financial services, said franchises were a reliable investment for young Cambodians looking to get into business and move away from property investments following the 2008 property crisis. …
Food and drink franchises are gradually setting up in Cambodia, taking advantage of the market provided by an increasingly wealthy urban population. …
Simon Lewis, P.21
www.cambodiadaily.com
Wage Hike Leads To Rent Fears
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Economics, Exports, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Imports, Industry, Labor, News Source, Trade
Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun yesterday appealed to landlords with properties close to garment factories not to take advantage of the industry’s minimum wage increase by raising rent prices.
The minimum monthly salary in the garment sector – Cambodia’s biggest export industry – officially climbed from $61 to $75 this month, and Chhun said rent prices were already showing signs of following suit. …
Some workers had been told their rent will increase by 15 per cent at the end of this month, Chhun said. …
Moeun Tola, head of the labour program at the Community Legal Education Center, said he had heard similar stories from garment workers in Phnom Penh, Kandal and Kampong Speu. …
Shane Worrell and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065555/National/wage-hike-leads-to-rent-fears.html
New Kompong Thom Governor Vows to Give Land to Evictees
May 10th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Industry, International Relations, Land Tenure
The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month.
Security forces evicted villagers from Santuk district’s Kraya commune in December 2009 to make way for the Tan Bien-Kompong Thom Rubber Development Company, which was granted an 8,100-hectare land concession in the area. For the past three years, the families have been living at a relocation site with no farmland, about 5 km away. …
Food shortage is a major problem for the evicted villagers, said Nhem Sarath, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc. “This matter caused by the provincial authorities, for not helping the villagers on time, has caused them food shortage and some families have moved away,” he said.
Chhorn Chansy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-kompong-thom-governor%E2%80%88vows-to-give-land-to-evictees-23138/
Delta Electronics eyes Cambodia expansion
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Foreign Investment, News Source
Delta Electronics (Thailand), one of the world’s leading producers of power supplies and electronic components, plans to expand to Cambodia and Myanmar, the Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday.
“There is no indication of a specific timeframe for the expansion, but the company sees these countries . . . as distributing channels of supply chain to other Asian and European countries,” the report said.
Asian Development Bank deputy country director Peter Brimble said, while he cannot speak for Delta about their reasons for moving to Cambodia, generally “regional automotive and electronics firms are looking to expand and spread their operational risk, including firms based in Thailand.” …
Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065533/Business/delta-electronics-eyes-cambodia-expansion.html
Japanese bank to boost local investments
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Financial Services, Foreign Investment, News Source
Japanese Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) signed an agreement yesterday with local Canadia Bank to shore up Japanese growth in Cambodia and to demonstrate its confidence in the Kingdom’s financial sector.
BTMU’s managing executive officer, Takami Onodera, and Pung Kheav Se, chairman of Canadia Bank, yesterday signed the agreement with the intention of bringing more Japanese investors to Cambodia. …
Japanese investment totalled about $330 million last year, a big jump from about $75 million in 2011.
Furthermore, data from the Japanese Business Association of Cambodia show that there were 101 Japanese companies here at the end of 2012, an increase from 69 the year before. …
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065537/Business/japanese-bank-to-boost-local-investments.html