IFC, Deutsche Bank respond to Global Witness report
May 14th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Foreign Investment, Forests, Industry, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns
On May 13, we ran an interview with London-based NGO Global Witness accusing the Deutsche Bank and the International Finance Corporation of financing two Vietnamese rubber companies that are allegedly involved in land grabs in Cambodia and Laos. …
We asked both banks for a response and invited them on to the show to explain their positions. Both declined to be interviewed but sent these statements:
Michael West, Managing Director / Head of Communications, Asia Pacific [Deutsche Bank]:
“Deutsche Bank does not provide financing to Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAGL), Dong Phu Rubber or Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG). The DWS fund shares referred to are held on behalf of investors. Deutsche Bank provides clerical trustee services to HAGL which is a listed company as it does to thousands of publicly listed companies globally.”
Hannfried von Hindenburg, Head of Communications for IFC in East Asia and the Pacific:
“IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, works with financial intermediaries, such as funds, because they can contribute to inclusive and sustainable financial markets that are essential to eradicating poverty and job creation. …
IFC will carefully study the findings of the Global Witness research and taking this research into consideration is part of our ongoing monitoring of our investments in Dragon Capital and VEIL.”
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/connect-asia/ifc-deutsche-bank-respond-to-global-witness-report/1130314
Cambodian Land Rights Activist’s Bail Plea Rejected
March 27th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Disputed Land, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns
The Cambodian Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a jailed land rights activist’s appeal to be released on bail, drawing criticism from rights groups who said the whole case smacked of political interference and should be thrown out. …
“I am having heart, respiratory, and stomach issues,” she said. “I have many responsibilities, defending my family and land. If the court wants to see real justice, I believe that I should be released.”
“But the Boeung Kak community and I will continue to struggle forever and we will not be defeated,” [Yorm Bopha] said. …
“The Supreme Court’s ruling comes as no surprise,” they said, adding that just over a week before Yorm Bopha’s appearance at the court, Prime Minister Hun Sen had publicly stated in a televised speech that her case had nothing to do with land issues and that she instead had acted “violently and unjustly in the eyes of the government.”
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-03272013191716.html
Cambodia Ups Minimum Wages for Workers
March 22nd, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, Social Concerns
The Cambodian government on Thursday announced a higher minimum wage of U.S. $80 per month for garment and footwear workers but they were not impressed, vowing to continue a strike until it is raised to U.S. $100.
A tripartite meeting between the government, unions and Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) agreed to raise the minimum wage of workers from U.S. $61 to U.S. $73, plus an additional U.S. $5 as a form of health benefit, Minister of Social Affairs Ith Samheng said in a statement. …
Cambodia’s 300,000 textile workers often work long shifts for little pay in the garment factories, trade unions complain. The garment industry is Cambodia’s third-largest currency earner. …
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-03212013185628.html
Short on Water in the Tonle Sap
March 20th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Climate Change, Construction, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Fishing, Infrastructure, Lakes/Rivers, Social Concerns
Residents of a village in the middle of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap “Great Lake” live surrounded by water, but don’t have enough access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing.
The Tonle Sap, a combined lake and river system that swells in the rainy season to form Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, has for generations supported fishing communities living in floating villages of moored houseboats.
But the silt deposited by the flow of the Mekong River, which nourishes the Tonle Sap’s abundance of fish that form a key source of food for millions of Cambodians, makes its brown, muddy waters unsuitable for daily use by households. …
During the wet season, residents can get clean water from nearby ponds and wells, but during the dry season villagers have to buy bottled water. …
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/water-03202013141227.html
Six Cambodians Injured in Capital Land Clash
March 13th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns
At least six people were seriously injured Wednesday in clashes between about 100 villagers demanding land compensation and 300 security personnel in front of the home of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, activists said.
According to villager representative Tep Vanny, the evictees from Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake community had earlier protested in front of the Ministry of Justice over the dispute and called for the release of a jailed fellow activist. …
When the mostly-female villagers tried to enter Hun Sen’s residence to confront the prime minister, “around 300 [security personnel] surrounded the villagers and detained at least three of them,” she said.
The action by Phnom Penh municipal police and Daun Penh district security guards, who were armed with riot shields and batons, led to a confrontation between the two sides that quickly escalated into violence, activists said. …
Protests over Boeung Kak Lake evictions have been ongoing since 2008, when the Chinese-Cambodian Shukaku Inc. began draining the lake to make way for a luxury residential development, drawing international attention to the country’s land development policies. …
According to Licadho, the government has given away nearly 4 million hectares (15,000 square miles), or 22 percent of the country’s land area, in mining or economic land concessions, in some cases pitting residents against developers and sparking protests. …
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/clash-03132013184900.html
Wide Gap Hampers Cambodian Wage Talks
February 26th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, News Source, Textiles
A higher minimum salary for Cambodia’s garment and footwear worker is still not within sight after talks broke down Tuesday between unions representing the workers and their employers, officials said.
The garment and footwear workers unions proposed to nearly double the current minimum monthly wage of U.S. $61 to U.S. $120, but the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) offered to increase it only to U.S. $72. …
Cambodia’s 300,000 textile workers often work long shifts for little pay in the garment factories, trade unions complain. The garment industry is Cambodia’s third-largest currency earner. …
Vann Vicha and Samean Yun
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-02262013140215.html
Hun Sen Orders Workers Compensated
February 20th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised to compensate thousands of garment workers demanding back pay they say they are owed since their factory owner fled the country to escape mounting debt, according to officials. …
Kandal provincial labor department director Thol Neang told RFA’s Khmer Service Tuesday that Hun Sen had ordered the Ministry of Labor to pay the workers and that local officials had begun registering their names in order to compensate them.
“Samdech [Hun Sen] ordered the government to use the national budget to pay the workers according to their demands,” Thol Neang said, using the prime minister’s honorific title.
Yung Wah Complex Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union representative Oum Visal said the government would have to spend about U.S. $8 million to compensate the 7,000 workers. …
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/workers-02192013184511.html
Sesan Dam Law Approved
February 18th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Construction, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Farmland, Forests, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, Lakes/Rivers, Land Tenure, News Source, Protected Areas, Water
Cambodia’s parliament on Friday approved a law providing financial guarantees for the developers of a planned hydropower dam on a Mekong River tributary, despite opposition from civil society groups seeking to delay the project.
Villagers campaigning against the Lower Sesan 2 dam in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province have expressed concern about compensation for villagers displaced by the project, which they say would destroy protected forest areas, kill rare fish, and negatively impact local ethnic minority culture.
But Friday’s vote in the National Assembly, after five hours of tough debate, cleared the way for the dam’s Chinese- and Vietnamese-backed developers to move ahead with plans to begin constructing the project next year. …
Environmental group International Rivers said the law helps put into effect an implementation agreement that significantly reduced the project’s compensation and environment costs, effectively releasing the developers from responsibility for many of the dam’s ecological and social impacts.
The text of the bill includes plans to provide compensation for less than 800 villagers displaced by the project, but green groups have said tens of thousands others living upstream and downstream from the project will also be affected. …
RFA’s Khmer Service
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/sesan-02152013182113.html
Villagers Petition Against Dam
February 14th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Climate Change, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, Lakes/Rivers, News Source, Water
Ethnic minority villagers expecting to be displaced by a proposed Chinese-built hydroelectric dam in northeastern Cambodia are asking the country’s parliament not to approve a law providing financial guarantees for the project. …
Villagers living along three rivers that will be affected by the dam spoke at a press conference hosted on Thursday by the NGO Forum on Cambodia, urging the National Assembly to reject the draft law. …
Seak Mekong, Srekor commune chief in Strung Treng province, told RFA’s Khmer Service on Wednesday that villagers have petitioned authorities over their concerns and have asked for relocation sites, but have received no response. …
RFA’s Khmer Service
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/villagers-02142013163955.html
Concern Over Chinese Investment
February 8th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Banking & Finance, Borrowing, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Extractive Industries, Foreign Investment, Garment Industry, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Mining, Technical Assistance, Timber/Wood
Cambodia’s largest opposition party has expressed concern that China’s investment in the country is heavily skewed towards exploiting natural resources, wreaking havoc on the environment.
China is Cambodia’s largest investor by a wide margin, having poured U.S. $9.7 billion into the country over the past 18 years, a government report said Wednesday. …
But opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay warned that China is having excessive control over Cambodia’s natural resources as companies from the Asian giant carry out extensive mineral exploration and logging and embark on hydropower projects in the impoverished country. …
Cambodia, Beijing’s top Southeast Asian ally, has borrowed vast sums from China in recent years to finance road, hydropower and defense projects, many of which are contracted to Chinese firms.
“China gives us loans, but they allow companies to set high prices,” Son Chhay said.
Cambodia owes about U.S. $3 billion dollars in loans from China, he said, adding that the debt gives the giant neighbor too much political influence in the country. …
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/china-02072013175545.html
Russian Firm Steps Up Dam Deal
February 6th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Water
Laos has stepped up plans for three hydropower dams on Mekong River tributaries, updating an eight-year-old deal with a Russian investor to build the projects for U.S. $1.5 billion.
Lao authorities signed a project development agreement with Russia’s Regional Oil for the Sekong 4, Sekong 5, and Nam Kong 1 projects in southern Laos on Friday, solidifying plans in the works since previous deals signed in 2005. …
But it [Laos] has come under fire for plowing ahead on the Xayaburi dam, the first dam across the main stem of the Mekong River, without first getting regional consensus from downstream neighbors concerned about the project’s transboundary impact. …
The Sekong 4 and 5 will be built on the Sekong River, an important tributary for the Mekong, and the Nam Kong 1 will dam waters flowing into the Sekong.
Global green group International Rivers has said the effects of the two Sekong dams will be felt as far as the mainstream Mekong in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. …
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/hydropower-02062013151208.html
Villagers Hit as Pond Dries Up
February 1st, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Agriculture & Agri-business, Environment & Natural Resources, Farming, Lakes/Rivers, Livestock, News Source
Hundreds of residents in five villages in southern Cambodia have been deprived of their sole source of water as a massive pond in their area has dried up, villagers said.
The affected villagers of Sre Ronnong commune in Takeo Province’s Tram Kork district have been buying water from businessmen since the pond could not be used from late last year, with each household forking out about 15,000 riels (about U.S. $4) per week for the vital resource. …
Savborey Ouk
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/water-02012013195339.html
MPs Urge Child Labor Action
January 30th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Farming, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Land Tenure, Social Concerns
A group of opposition lawmakers have written to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urging action against a sugar factory owned by a ruling party official accused of exploiting child labor and grabbing land from villagers.
Six Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) parliamentarians sent a letter dated Jan. 23 through National Assembly President Heng Samrin, calling on Hun Sen to “take serious measures” against the Phnom Penh Sugar Co., which runs the factory in central Cambodia’s Kompong Speu province. …
The company belonging to ruling Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat has been at the center of a long-running dispute with villagers who say they were offered inadequate compensation for land they had farmed for years which was taken over by the sugar project.
“Ly Yong Phat’s factory is using child labor from workers who are under 18 years of age,” reads the letter, demanding that Hun Sen take actions to “improve working conditions in this factory, which is abusing the rights of children.” …
It also called on the sugar company to resolve its land dispute with the more than 1,000 villagers in Kompong Speu province.
Member of Parliament Mu Sochua, who described the company as a “’blood sugar’ producer known for encroaching on villagers’ land,” said she and her fellow SRP lawmakers had discovered that the factory was employing underage children through an “investigation,” without providing further details. …
Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/children-01292013174957.html
Siem Reap Theft Fears Rise
January 30th, 2013, Radio Free Asia, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, News Source, Tourism
Fears of theft are on the rise among market vendors in a tourist district in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, the gateway to the world-renowned Angkor archeological site.
Vendors at a market in Puok district said they had lost a lot of money following a slew of thefts in the town’s main market this month and were concerned about their security. …
RFA’s Khmer Service
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/siem-reap-01302013174007.html
Lawmakers Reject Petition
December 17th, 2012, Radio Free Asia, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Land Tenure, News Source, Real Estate
Lawmakers from Cambodia’s ruling party on Monday refused to accept a petition from hundreds of people who held a rally calling for the government’s help in resolving land disputes, drawing criticism from activists who questioned the effectiveness of the country’s parliament.
The appeal, which contained more than 50,000 thumbprints from villagers across the country, was offered to ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) legislators by around 500 people protesting in front of the National Assembly, or parliament, in the capital Phnom Penh. …
RFA
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/petition-12172012164439.html
Logging Reporter Arrested
December 10th, 2012, Radio Free Asia, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Forests, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Cambodian authorities arrest a journalist who exposed the illegal smuggling of timber. …
Taing Try, a reporter affiliated with the Khmer Democratic Journalists’ Association, was taken into custody on Friday, police in Kratie’s Snoul district told RFA on Sunday. …
But Ing Savoeun, a representative from the local Anti-logging and Wildlife Protection group, said he believes Taing Try is being held in connection with timber-smuggling activities that the journalist himself had reported to local authorities. …
Taing Try’s arrest follows a pair of murders this year tied to exposing illegal logging in Cambodia’s forests, where deforestation and mining in recent years have taken a heavy toll on the environment. …
By Radio Free Asia Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/reporter-12102012174729.html
Concern Over Tonle Sap Catch
November 29th, 2012, Radio Free Asia, Agriculture & Agri-business, Environment & Natural Resources, Fishing, Industry, Lakes/Rivers
Fish production in Cambodia’s great Tonle Sap Lake is on track to reach last year’s level, an official said Wednesday, despite concern from fishermen that yields are dwindling due to environmental problems.
Nao Thouk, director of the Fisheries Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture, said that up to 500,000 tons of fish would be harvested this year from the lake, which is a major source of food for the whole country. …
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/tonle-sap-11282012191709.html
Sesan Dam Decision Questioned
November 14th, 2012, Radio Free Asia, Climate Change, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Disputed Land, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Land Tenure, News Source, Water
Cambodia has decided to go ahead with the construction of a dam on a Mekong tributary, but conservation groups are concerned that not enough study has been done on the hydropower project’s environmental consequences.
Construction on the 400 megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam in northwestern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province is set to begin in 2014, after the project received a stamp of approval from the country’s cabinet on Nov. 2.
A statement issued by the Council of Ministers said the decision came after eight years of research into the possible environmental and social consequences of the U.S. $800 million project to be undertaken by a Cambodia-China-Vietnam joint venture.
But green groups question the research findings, saying the studies have not been thorough. …
RFA
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/sesan-11142012170421.html
NGOs Harassed Ahead of Summit
November 14th, 2012, Radio Free Asia, Foreign Aid, International Relations, News Source, Technical Assistance
Cambodian authorities have disrupted several events held by nongovernmental organizations and have threatened to arrest anyone holding protests ahead of sensitive regional summits to be held in the capital Phnom Penh, rights groups said Wednesday.
The Independent Democracy of Informal Economic Association (IDEA) said authorities in Meanchey district forced the owner of a local restaurant to shut down the meeting space he had rented to a group of NGOs ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the East Asia Summit from Nov 18 to 20. …
Ngoung Mongtha, an IDEA official, told RFA’s Khmer service that hundreds of NGO officials met on Wednesday morning to discuss requests for a petition the group planned to submit to leaders of the 10-member ASEAN body during the summit. …
RFA
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/disrupted-11142012183518.html
Water Wars Feared Over Mekong
September 30th, 2012, Radio Free Asia, Agriculture & Agri-business, Climate Change, Construction, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Farming, Fishing, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Rice, Social Concerns, Water
China’s dam building spree on the upper Mekong River raises new tensions over water resources…
Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang obviously had China in mind when he warned recently that tensions over water resources are not only threatening economic growth but presenting a source of conflict…
Cambodia, Southeast Asia’s key China ally, is also not spared by China’s dam building spree on the Mekong.
Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake which has a close connection with the Mekong River, could also shrink in size, experts say…
Aside from fishery resources, the Tonle Sap Lake provides land fertile for the cultivation of rice and other agricultural plants…
Parameswaran Ponnudurai
http://www.rfa.org/english/east-asia-beat/mekong-09302012160353.html