Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday lashed out at the opposition party’s concerns over the interest rates charged by commercial banks to farmers.
SRP lawmaker Yim Sovann said commercial banks in Cambodia charge customers very high interest rates, and said it is much higher than in other countries. …
However, the premier, speaking at the opening of a new rubber processing plant in Stung Treng province said Sovann’s words do not apply with the market practice and the real situation in Cambodia’s economy. …
“Based on the market economy, they don’t allow the state to handle commercial bank. We have a national bank which cannot provide that serivce to customers. If people have money to deposit at the bank, they will get five per cent, some give four per cent and other 5.6 per cent [interest rate],” said Hun Sen. …
“To lower the interest rate to one per cent, it would kill the bank … They are against the political protectionism,” he said. …
According to the statistics from the National Bank of Cambodia, the Kingdom’s 32 commercial banks have lent $5.49 billion to about 1.6 million borrowers by November 2012, up 30 per cent year-on-year. …
During his speech last week at the swearing-in ceremony of Phnom Penh’s new governor, Pa Socheatvong, Interior Minister Sar Kheng noted that managing Cambodia’s capital is by no means an easy task. …
While critics of [former Phnom Penh governor] Mr. [Kep] Chuktema note his failure to settle high-profile land disputes and struggle to deal with the city’s expanding population, it is impossible not to notice some of Mr. Chuktema’s accomplishments. …
“[O]verall, in the last decade [Mr. Chuktema’s] tenure has overseen modest but uncoordinated infrastructure improvements set against increased isolation and forcible displacement of the urban poor,” [NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut] Ms. [Nora] Lindstorm said, noting that since 2003, about 100,000 Phnom Penh residents have been displaced to relocation sites in and around Phnom Penh where access to employment, education healthcare and clean water is often limited.
“In sum, we have seen unregulated urbanization that has benefited a small strata of society and has increased spatial inequality. Phnom Penh today is more gridlocked, less green and less equitable than ten years ago,” she added.
In 2007, City Hall announced that it had leased 133 hectares of land surrounding and including Boeng Kak for almost $80 million to Shukaku Inc., a company owned by CPP senator Lao Meng Khin. The forced evictions that followed have given rise to the most high-profile land dispute in the country, as landless protesters from the Boeng Kak community have taken to the streets on an almost daily basis to demonstrate against what they say is a collusion between City Hall and Shukaku in illegally usurping their land without proper compensation. …
Still, Mr. Chutema’s focus on major construction projects and the beautification of Phnom Penh has attracted much needed investment, according to Nuon Rithy, the managing director of Bonna Realty, one of the city’s largest real estate firms. …
Others, however say the municipality over the past ten years has failed to tackle the rate at which the population is growing. According to Khem Ley, a socioeconomic researcher at the Advanced Research Consultant Team, an independent consultancy, Phnom Penh’s population is growing at a rate of almost 7.5 percent a year. …
In March, Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed concern for the failing state of Phnom Penh’s infrastructure during a meeting with the visiting mayor of Paris. He said the city’s expansion had led to electricity shortages, traffic jams, trash problems and an inadequate water supply system. …
“The agriculture sector today is still playing significant role in promoting local production growth, job creation, and contributing to the poverty reduction of the people. At the same time, the agriculture sector will continue the basic role for economic growth and socio-economic development in Cambodia in the coming decades although Cambodia has diversified her economy, including industrialization”, Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia said last week. …
“The growth in agricultural sector is not only improving our economy but also transforming the red dry land to become the green area in all seasons, as well as allowing our youths in rural area to be employed, reducing migration, and improving their livelihood.”
According to the report made by H.E Chan Sarun, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the agriculture sector has grown in average about 4.3% in 2012, in which the rice production was about 3 million hectares, and the land of 2.98 million hectares could be cultivated, and the average yield per year in both dry and rainy seasons is 3.117 tons per hectares. …
“We have also expected that this poverty rate will further decline to under 19% in 2013. In the future, we will try our best to drag down the poverty rate until the elimination of the poverty through the continued development of agriculture and economic diversification.” …
To impose no land tax is like helping them right in the field. For example, they need to spend one or two hundred thousand Riel per hectare as tax. “When we do not charge tax from them, they could use the money for something else, like purchasing a bicycle for their kids or other agricultural utensils.” …
The Boeung Kak community and a land rights NGO yesterday released a proposed demarcation plan they say could solve the long-standing land dispute.
In a map presented yesterday, villagers said they had agreed on a land division that would make room for 70 families locked out of a plot created by the government and set aside for hundreds of families. …
Representatives of 157 families evicted in 2010 from a social land concession in Preah Vihear province belonging to businessman Pen Lim, a one-time adviser to Senate President Chea Sim, were in Phnom Penh yesterday to petition Hun Sen.
The families say they were forced off the land by Mr. Lim after paying thousands of dollars for plots and have been living with relatives since. …
Thousands of Cambodian people visited and bought Thai products on Thursday at a large scale exhibition although simmering border spat between the two countries remains unsolved.
“Even though border dispute is still going on, trade and investment ties between Thailand and Cambodia are still good,” Amparwon Pichalai, deputy director general of Thai commerce ministry’s international trade promotion department, told reporters before attending the opening of the Thai trade fair 2013 at the Diamond Island Exhibition Center in Phnom Penh. …
Mao Thora, secretary of state at Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, said it was a positive sign that the two countries have been working closely to improve the bilateral trade relations. …
Cambodia has lost almost a quarter of its forests in the past 40 years due to rapid development and China’s demand for timber, according to a new report released yesterday by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on the Greater Mekong Region.
Looking at five countries in the Mekong Region- Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam- WWF has calculated, using data from both satellite analysis and U.N. country reports, that almost a third of the region’s forests have been destroyed. Titled Ecosystems in the Greater Mekong Region, the report says that the presence of primary forest is “extremely low” in Cambodia, and only approximately 10 million hectares of forest cover remain in the county.
According to Agence Kampuchea Presse, Prime Minister Hun Sen said this week that 1.5 million hectares of forest cover has been used for economic land concessions, while there remains 9.5 million hectares of forest cover left in the country. However since 1.2 million hectares of these concessions have been allocated for rubber plantations, Mr. Hun Sen said that these land grants, in fact constitute forest cover …
About 5,000 Cambodian workers took to the street on Wednesday to mark the International Labor Day, calling for pay rise, better labor conditions and decrease in petrol prices, a union representative said.
Marchers, mostly garment workers, held banners and walked from the Freedom Park near the Wat Phnom historical site to the National Assembly in order to submit a petition to the National Assembly. …
The garment industry is Cambodia’s largest income earner, representing more than 80 percent of the country’s exports.
The latest report of the Ministry of Commerce showed that currently, the country has about 500 garment and footwear factories employing some 510,600 workers. Last year, the country exported garment products in equivalent to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 8 percent year-on-year. …
The premier recalled that the worker’s monthly salary was just more than 50 U.S. dollars in 2008 and increased to 61 U.S. dollars in 2010 and further rose to 80 U.S. dollars from May 2013.
He said the government would be happy if the employers could increase more wage for workers.
The government’s abuse of land rights and indigenous minorities were among the top concerns raised Tuesday by non-governmental groups at a workshop in Phnom Penh on Cambodia’s progress toward achieving a long list of U.N. human rights recommendations.
As part of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review process for all member states, Cambodia accepted all 91 recommendations the U.N. made in 2009. Covering everything from children to land, the recommendations hue toward the very vague. They urge the government to “tackle the roots” of gender inequality, for example, and “ensure” that trade unions get to operate freely. …
Ven Samin, an ethnic Souy from Konpong Speu province, wanted the recommendations to call for the protection of minorities.
“I want them to take account our problems,” said Ms. Samin, who accused the nationwide land-titling project being led by Prime Minister Hun Sen of pressuring her to give up much of her ancestral rights.
Kha Sros, an ethnic Kuoy from Stung Treng province, accused the government of largely ignoring the interests of the minorities.
When it comes to development, they [authorities] don’t let the indigenous give their ideas. …
Police at border checkpoints have in the past weeks stopped more than 2,200 people in Banteay Meanchey province from crossing into Thailand to look for better paid work, officials said yesterday.
The focus on Cambodian workers migrating to Thailand-many illegally-comes amid a shortage of labor at building sites in Cambodia, and in the country’s garment factories. …
Moeun Tola, who is in charge of labor programs at a free legal aid organization, Community Legal Education Center, said that Cambodian workers are simply looking for better opportunities in Thailand where the minimum wage is about $300 per month, making it much more attractive than staying in Cambodia where Garment sector’s minimum wage- the only sector with such a set salary is about $80 per month. …
Japan agreed Tuesday to provide a loan package of 90 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia for the improvement of a stretch of the national road No. 5 and two bypasses in northwestern provinces, according to a statement from Japanese Embassy to Cambodia. …
The statement said the loan would be used to widen a 47- kilometer stretch of the national road No. 5 between Battambang province and Sri Sophorn town of Banteay Meanchey province and to construct two bypasses in the two provinces.
The loan’s interest rate is 0.01 percent per annum with the repayment period of 40 years including 10 years of grace period, it said. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen chastised local authorities in Preah Sihanouk province on Friday for their inability to prevent a water shortage in early April that crippled businesses in the tourist hub of Sihanoukville and left locals without running water for almost a week. …
The incident underscored how Cambodia is battling during the hot season to supply a growing economy with sufficient energy levels and basic amenities. …
“We must guarantee the full water supply because [Preah Sihanouk province] is one of our biggest economic development poles,” he [Prime Minister Hun Sen] said. “It has many different sectors including industries, service and it has an [international] harbor.
Mr. Hun Sen added that before Prek Tup Lake dried up, he had told provincial governor Sboang Sarath to put Kbal Chhay online to prepare for such an event. He also said he had informed [Anco Water Supply Co.Ltd.] “a long time ago” about extending their pipelines to Kbal Chhay. …
“The lack of water came from the hot season and the water could only supply about 10,000 people, but now we have 60,000 people and there are a larger amounts of hotels rooms-up to 4,000 rooms compared to only 1,000 in the past few years,” Mr. Sarath said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday asked some 4,000 garment factory workers for their votes in July’s national elections at a rally in Phnom Penh attended by members of several CPP-aligned unions, according to those in attendance. …
Cambodian Union Federation president Choun Mom Thol said yesterday that he was among the 66 pro-CPP unions whose members attended the rally on Koh Pich, where Mr. Hun Sen took credit for a recent pay rise for garment workers.
According to Mr. Mom Thol, the prime minister “said he made the higher minimum wage so that both parties [employers and employees] are happy. He said the government could not make it higher or it will bankrupt the garment factories and workers would lose their jobs.”
Several unions last month reluctantly accepted an increase in monthly garment factory wages from $61 to $73 and an additional $7 health and living benefit, well below the $120 they were hoping for. …
The government has won an arbitration case in a World Bank court, successfully countering a $300 million claim made by a U.S based company over a failed power plant project dating back to 1996.
According to a statement from the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit released on Saturday, the claims made by the Cambodian Power Company (CPC) “have been dismissed in their entirety by an arbitral tribunal established under the auspices of the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).”
CPC, which is a subsidiary of Delaware-based Beacon Hill Associates Inc., accused the government and state-owned power company Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) of breaching agreements signed in 1996 “for the financing, construction and operation of a 60 [megawatt] electric power plant in Phnom Penh,” the statement says.
The company claimed damages of nearly $300 million over the power plant venture- the value of which was estimated at $74 million- in Russei Keo district, which never came to fruition. …
The March 1996 deal- which made Beacon Hill associates the biggest American investor at the time- fell apart just three months after it was signed in a ceremony attended by then-Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. …
Cambodia imported 412,190 tons of Crude Oil in Q-1 of Y 2013, a 12% fall compared with the 471,000 tons it imported at the same period last year, the Commerce ministry’s report showed Saturday.
During the January-March period this year, the country spent US$ 397-M to buy its Crude Oil down 15% from US$469-M at the same period last year, it said. …
On 8 April, during the official visit of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to China, Hun Sen and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang witnessed a signing on a Memorandum of Understanding MOU on a 5-M tons Crude Oil refinery project among China Development Bank HK:1062, China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, China Perfect Machinery Industry Corporation and Cambodian Petrochemical Company. …
Human rights group Adhoc yesterday criticized a commune official in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district for accusing one of its staff of incitement and spreading disinformation after villagers traveled to Phnom Penh in March to protest over a land dispute with well known businessman Try Pheap. …
As part of his work Mr. [Phuong] Sothea had provided the families with information on land rights and advocacy methods. On March 15, he had also helped a workshop in Pursat city with families and local authorities to discuss the situation.
Mr. Sothea said yesterday that he was innocent and had not incited the villagers. …
In its statement, Adhoc said that Mr. Sothea had merely provided the affected families in the land dispute with information on land rights and advocacy methods, and “at no time did he engage in legal activities.” …
A commune official in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district has filed a lawsuit accusing a human rights worker of incitement and disinformation after villagers the NGO staffer spoke to traveled to Phnom Penh to protest over a land dispute involving a well-known businessman Try Pheap.
Pursat Provincial Court prosecutor Tan Seihak Dechak said that on Monday, Thma Da commune chief Prom Ngoy submitted a complaint against Adhoc provincial coordinator Phuong Sothea alleging that the human rights worker was guilty of criminal incitement and spreading misinformation. …
Farmers in Kompong Chhnang province locked in a land dispute with a local businesswoman are waiting for the government to make a decision on who owns the property after student volunteers measured the area earlier this month as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide land-titling program.
A team of student volunteers measured the 45 hectares of rice and cashew fields claimed by 76 families in Rolea Ba’ier district’s Kraing Leav commune on April 2 and 3. At the request of local businesswoman Moul Engly, the volunteers then measured the same area again on April 4. …
In his letter clarifying the role of the student volunteers in the land dispute, Mr. [Por] Vannith, the volunteers’ provincial coordinator, addressed a Supreme Court decision from 2010 involving a criminal case Ms. Engly had brought against eight local farmers for allegedly occupying her land illegally, and damaging her property.
While the Supreme Court ruled that eight villagers were not guilty of the allegations levelled by Ms.Engly, as had the Appeal Court before it, Mr. Vannith said the decision made by the Supreme Court had not settled the question of ownership to the land. …
Rubber exports from Cambodia were up over 17 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, but the revenue from rubber stayed steady as prices decline worldwide, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
The data showed that in the first quarter of this year, total export increased to 15,019 tonnes from 12,805 tonnes in the same period last year.
However, the price of rubber decreased sharply, by $461 per tonne for the three-month period, from $3,216.52 per tonne in the early part of the year, to $2,755.34 by the end of the quarter. Total revenue reached $41,382,434 so far
this year, compared with $41,187,582 the previous year. …
More than 25 families living on the site of the long-disused airfield in Preah Vihear province have been ordered to move off the land, a district official said yesterday. …
“The authorities are forcing residents to leave without compensation and this eviction is illegal because they have stayed for a long time [since 1979],” said Lor Chan, provincial coordinator at Adhoc, adding that 50 other families at the site have been left alone. …
