Indigenous community representatives told a forum on extractive industries on Friday that they were concerned about the effects mining projects in their areas could have on their health and livelihoods, and asked that they be better informed by companies and the government.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan on Thursday appealed to media outlets to stop seeing the potential loss of duty-free trade with the E.U. as “an evil that is terrifying for Cambodia.”
Cambodia needs to diversify exports and upskill its labor force, with productivity in its dominant garment export industry stagnating compared to competing economies in part because workers don’t have the “skills to attract higher-value FDI, nor do they have the means to acquire those skills,” according to a new World Bank report.
A new prison building that was to have been reserved for rich inmates willing to pay to be detained in relative comfort has been put under government control, the Interior Ministry’s prisons department spokesman said.
Illegal construction will not be tolerated by authorities in Preah Sihanouk province, but a small percentage of problems related to new construction — which has boomed in the coastal province in recent years — could not be helped, a provincial official said.
Transport Minister Sun Chanthol on Tuesday said Cambodia needs more loans and investment from China — the nation’s largest creditor — to develop the country’s infrastructure.
The European Union has called on Cambodia to protect labor and human rights associated with land titling, press freedom, political participation, trade union organizing for teachers and informal workers, and other areas of concern, in order to keep its duty-free trade access to the bloc.
About 800 workers from a factory in Kampong Speu province have protested for two days in a row demanding the reinstatement of their representatives.
The E.U. on Tuesday sent the Cambodian government its preliminary report on the possible suspension of duty-free trade over political and human rights concerns, the bloc said in a statement.
A gas explosion in the early afternoon on Monday sparked a huge fire at a Phnom Penh factory that burned for 12 hours before being finally put out, razing the building to the ground and putting about 600 employees jobs in jeopardy.
VOD is an independent media outlet producing radio programs and disseminating information to the public via the Internet.
© 2019 VOD. All Rights Reserved.
