Spreading of A(H1N1) reported in Cambodia

The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation announced last week that the country is now facing local transmission of the influenza A(H1N1) virus, commonly known as swine flu.

A joint statement released last week said five new cases were discovered to have been contracted within the country.

"Five Cambodians were confirmed as having contracted the virus locally with no history of travel or contact with travellers," the statement read.

As of August 31, the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu in Cambodia had risen to 31. Click to read more...

Betting on gold

Gold exchanges are the big winners in the mad rush to gamble on changes in the yellow metal’s price.

Gold fever is sweeping Vietnam.
It manifests itself in the burgeoning number of gold exchanges and the countless thousands of old hands and neophytes who patronize them.

Like a stock exchange, they have to buy and sell orders, computerize trading, preset stop-loss and profit-taking points, even options trading at one of them, but only a single commodity is traded.

In Ho Chi Minh City alone, there are dozens of gold exchanges, and more are planned.
Large amounts of paper gold, or rather electronic gold, change hands in the course of a day.

To give an idea of the trading volume, more than 400,000 taels of gold are bought and sold daily at the Sacombank Jewelry Company’s gold exchange on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, according to its general director, Nguyen Ngoc Que Chi. Click to original source...

Vietnam makes first ethanol fuel

A Vietnamese company in the central province of Quang Nam produced its and the country’s first batch of ethanol fuel on Wednesday.

The biofuel for motor vehicles is made from sugar cane and cassava and could have a retail price VND2,000 per liter less than the VND15,700 it costs for a liter of straight 92-octane petrol.

The exact price at the pump will depend on the ratio of ethanol to gasoline in the final mix, said a representative of Dong Xanh Joint Stock Company, whose ethanol plant is situated in Dai Tan Commune.

The plant has an annual output capacity of 100,000 tons (or 120 million liters) and is expected to consume 300,000 tons of dry cassava yearly.

That translates to an annual income of at least VND300 billion (nearly USD17 million) for farmers in the central region who supply the plant, according to the company.

Last year PetroVietnam Oil North Company, a member of state-owned PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil), trialed the use of Gasohol E5 biofuel from China in Hanoi’s taxicabs.

However, the trial was aborted when it turned out that the fuel was being sold without authorization to the public at large. Click to original source...

EdC signs electricity line deal with China

Electricite Du Cambodge signed an agreement Thursday with China National Heavy Machinery Co (CHMC) to build a US$80 million electricity transmission loop line around Phnom Penh.

The project, which is due to commence next year and be completed in 2012, is to be financed with a soft loan from the Chinese government.

The Phnom Penh Loop Line Transmission System would connect to transmission lines bringing electricity from all over Cambodia, including hydroelectric dams in Kamchay, Stung Tatay, Russey Chrum Krom, Cheay Araeng and Sesan Krom II.

It would also connect to lines bringing electricity from coal and gas power plants in Vietnam.CHMC has already completed a 36-month feasibility study on the project.

EdC Director General Keo Rottanak said the transmission project would improve the electricity supply in Phnom Penh.

"We hope that the project will bring stability to the country's electricity supply," he said. Original Source from Phnom Penh Post...

EIU upgrades Cambodian economic growth estimate

Think tank says better-than-expected global recovery will lessen effects of economic crisis on the Kingdom, slashes projected GDP contraction by half

THE Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has revised its 2009 growth forecast for Cambodia upwards from a 3 percent contraction to a smaller 1.5 percent decline, citing changes to its global forecast.

"The main reason we have revised up our Cambodia GDP forecast is that the global recession is likely to be less severe than we had previously expected, mainly owing to the impact of fiscal stimulus in the world's leading economies," EIU economist Nick Owen said by email from London on Thursday. Click to read more...

Crises still prove hard to forecast

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts - Everyone from the Queen of England to laid-off Detroit autoworkers wants to know why more experts did not see the financial crisis coming.

It is an awkward question. How can policymakers be so certain that financial catastrophe won't soon recur when they seemed to have no idea that such a crisis would happen in the first place? The answer is not very reassuring.

Essentially, there is still a risk that the financial crisis is simply hibernating as it slowly morphs into a government debt crisis. For better or for worse, the reason most investors are now much more confident than they were a few months ago is that governments around the world have cast a vast safety net under much of the financial system. At the same time, they have propped up economies by running massive deficits, while central banks have cut interest rates nearly to zero. Click to read more...

Potential for price war looms over mobile sector, govt says

MPTC warns after meeting over still-unresolved price dispute that operators should be monitoring their competitors' tariffs

THE Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) has warned mobile-phone operators to monitor one another's prices amid a continuing disagreement over the tariffs offered by Beeline, citing "remarkably" declining revenues in the sector.

In an official account from a meeting of mobile operators, MPTC departments and Telecom Cambodia in Phnom Penh on August 14 obtained by the Post, the ministry recommended that companies report sector misdemeanors to the government.

The document refers in particular to below-cost pricing, the illegal use of other companies' prefixes - charges Mobitel has brought against Beeline - and blocking of network interconnectivity, a counter-accusation by the latter in a dispute that thus far remains unresolved. Click to read more...

Cassava industry demands reopening of polluting plant

Farmers and brokers say that unless the bio-ethanol factory resumes operations soon, they will lose thousands of dollars.

CASSAVA farmers and brokers have urged the owners of a bio-ethanol factory closed Monday to overhaul its wastewater-treatment systems and resume production as quickly as possible as Thai buyers moved Tuesday to force down prices.

Pheng Se, 26, a cassava broker from Kampong Thom province, said he sold 6,500 tonnes of dried cassava to the South Korean-owned MH Bio-Energy Group in late July for US$118 per tonne and was preparing to deliver a 3,000-tonne shipment at $116 per tonne when the factory was shuttered after complaints by local villagers that toxic waste from the facility was killing tens of thousands of fish in nearby waterways.

"I will lose $348,000 if the suspension of MH Bio-Energy Group continues to until next month, because there is no-one else to buy [the cassava]," he said. Click to read more...

Trade with VN drops 22pc

CAMBODIA's bilateral trade with Vietnam decreased an annualised 21.87 percent from US$951 million to $743 million in the first seven months of this year, official Vietnamese figures showed Wednesday, as the Kingdom maintained a large but shrinking trade deficit with its neighbour.

Le Bien Cuong, the commercial counsellor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh, told the Post that Vietnam's year-on-year exports to Cambodia had dropped 21.85 percent this year up to the end of July, from US$810 million to $633 million.

"Cambodia's exports to Vietnam also dramatically went down from $141 million to $110 million," he said, which represented a decline of 22 percent during the same period.

The figures showed that Cambodia's large trade deficit with Vietnam declined 21.82 percent during the first seven months from $669 million to $523 million as a result of the overall drop in trade. Click to read more...

GMAC to build training centre

THE Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) said it plans to spend US$5 million to develop a training institute next year to boost the skills of garment workers and enable them to take over management functions currently dominated by overseas workers.

GMAC President Van Sou Ieng told the Post by phone from China on Wednesday that the institute will be able to train around 1,000 workers a year.

"Our main purpose in building this institute is to train Cambodian workers in the garment sector with skills so that they will be able to replace foreign workers who are working in the management level in Cambodia at present," Van Sou Ieng said.

Around 320,000 people work in Cambodia's garment sector, including about 10,000 at management level. However, very few managers are Cambodian. Click to read more...

5pc of nation's hotels have ministry rating

Thursday, 03 September 2009 15:00 Nguon Sovan and Nathan Green

Government says it will not renew licences of unclassified hotels after end of next year

JUST 5.5 percent of the roughly 450 hotels in Cambodia have been rated under a Ministry of Tourism hotel classification system, and the remainder have until the end of next year to complete the process or their operating licences will be pulled, a senior official warned Wednesday.

"We are committed to having all hotels in Cambodia classified from one star to five stars by the end of 2010," Prak Chan Dara, the director of the ministry's Tourism Industry Department, said. "If they fail to do it, their annual operating licenses will not be renewed."

A further 12 hotels had submitted applications and were awaiting approval, he said, meaning 413 hotels had not engaged with the ministry scheme launched by sub-decree in 2004.The hotel classification standards conformed to ASEAN rules, Prak Chan Dara said, adding that the system would boost the credibility of the sector among foreigners.

The classification could also be used by hotels to demonstrate their standards against those of their competitors, he said. Click to read more...

Beeline accused of reneging

Wednesday, 02 September 2009 15:01 Steve Finch and Ith Sothoeuth

Mobile operator drops its controversial pricing plan but only for new customers; Mobitel says this violates recent agreement to settle telecoms dispute.

MOBITEL on Tuesday accused Beeline of not doing enough to end a months-long dispute even after the mobile operator halted new applications for its "Boom" tariff, which competitors have said is priced below the cost of connecting across networks.

Beeline Cambodia General Director Gael Campan confirmed that it stopped adding new users on the tariff Tuesday, and that all advertising - including billboards - had been withdrawn."We have instructed all our outlets to stop selling Boom," Campan said Tuesday. Click to read more...

Hun Sen OKs Ream eco-resort

Wednesday, 02 September 2009 15:01 May Kunmakara

HUN SEN has given the green light to China's United International to begin building an ecotourism project worth more than US$700 million on the coast in Ream, Preah Sihanouk province, after a meeting Tuesday with company officials at the prime minister's home in Takhmao, government officials said.

Following the meeting, Hun Sen's spokesman Eang Sophalleth said the company - which is known in Cambodia as Yeejia Tourism Development Co Ltd - "plans to start ... construction later this year, in November".

The 5-million-square-metre project would be built in four phases, he added, over four years each. Infrastructure including roads, electricity lines and water access would be built from scratch, said Eang Sophalleth, along with facilities including a business centre, school and hospital.

Youn Heng, deputy director of the Evaluation and Incentives Department at the Cambodian Investment Board (CIB), told the Post Tuesday that Yeejia Tourism Development Co had been seeking government approval for the project since 2005 and had finally been accepted this year. Click to original source...

New carrier buys Airbus jet

National carrier Cambodia Angkor Air is to receive a new Airbus A321 today as the new airline increases flights to domestic destinations and Ho Chi Minh City

NEW national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) will receive today delivery of a new Airbus A321 at Phnom Penh International Airport, an official said Tuesday.

Soy Sokhan, undersecretary of state at the secretariat of civil aviation, who is in charge of all matters related to CAA within the government, said the new passenger jet would go into service from Saturday. Click to read more...

Rice millers invest in packaging factory

THE Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Associations announced Tuesday that it had invested US$7.8 million to construct a packaging plant for milled rice in Battambang province, a move it said would help boost Cambodia's prospects for exporting rice.

Federation President Phou Puy said construction of the factory was already 90 percent complete, and that the plant would go online in December.

"We hope that when the plant is finished, it will play an important role in supporting Cambodia's plan to export in a more competitive manner," Phou Puy said.Investment in the technology - which was imported from Japan - came from a number of members of the federation, Phou Puy said, adding that it would be able to pack 720 tonnes of rice per day.

Packaged milled rice has more potential markets and a higher market value than unmilled rice due to countries looking for value-added, higher-quality products.Mao Thora, secretary of state at the Ministry of Commerce, said that Cambodia would be ready to export international-standard rice next year following a series of investments in infrastructure, including the packaging machine.

"We will start two projects in 2010 to discover any obstacles which have hindered previous efforts to export," he said. Click to original source...

Tourist port in Kep seeks approval for expansion

The company behind a proposed $4 million tourist port in Kep province has applied for approval to boost its investment to $20 million and build a conference centre on site, a company representative said Monday.

The woman, who declined to be named, said Rotong Development Group had asked for a land concession on more than 100 hectares along the beach for the project.

Approval had been granted by provincial authorities, but a decision was still pending from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) and the Ministry for the Environment, she said. "We cannot do anything on the proposed site until we get approval from the two institutions," she said.

Kep Governor Has Sareth said he had already approved the expanded plan. "I don't know when a final decision will be made. It is now under the consideration of the relevant ministries and institutions to determine the environment impact of the development," he said. Neither the CDC nor the Environment Ministry could be reached for comment Monday. Click to read more...

Deepwater port in VN boosts traffic through Phnom Penh

Exports through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port rose by nearly a quarter in August as traders turned to new shipping facility

The Phnom Penh Autonomous Port is starting to see the benefits from the launch of the Cai Mep deepwater port in southern Vietnam, with outbound cargo increasing 22.65 percent in August compared with the same month a year earlier.

The gain follows a 0.84 percent increase in exports through the port in July, which in turn followed declining trade volumes across the first six months of the year.

Port General Director Eang Veng Sun said the improved fortunes were due to the new deepwater port in southern Vietnam's Ba Ria Vung Tau province. Click to read more...

Oil money will not be used to encourage corruption ... but the amount is a state secret that only Hun Xen and Sok An know?

SUSIE GHARIB: China is the world's second largest oil consumer and until the recession hit, its appetite for fuel was driving economies around the globe, including Cambodia. As Rian Maelzer reports, the global slowdown has raised doubts about Cambodia's plans to tap recent finds of oil and gas.

RIAN MAELZER, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: strong demand from the U.S. and EU had been keeping Cambodia's sewing machines working at full tilt. But in the past year, garment exports to those markets have slumped, costing thousands of workers their jobs. Arjun Goswami of the Asian Development Bank says it's a huge blow for a country that still relies on foreign aid for close to half the government's budget.

ARJUN GOSWAMI, COUNTRY DIRECTOR, ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK: This is an open economy, it's a small economy and it's not very diversified, so there have been serious impacts. Click to read more...

Cambodia records 31 cases of flu A/H1N1

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Health Minister Mum Bun Heng said on Tuesday that the Cambodia's flu A/H1N1 cases have increased to 31 after five people were confirmed positive of the flu in the country on Aug. 31.

"The five people are the latest cases in the country and they all are Khmer," Bun Heng told reporters at a ceremony of receiving a new thermal scanner from Singapore."They all are being treated by our doctors," Mum said, adding that "so far nobody died of the flu in the kingdom."

"We have strengthened our existing system to track the suspected people of the flu," he said. The new thermal scanner will be equipped at Phnom Penh International Airport and the old one at the airport will be transferred to install at the Poipet Checkpoint bordering on Thailand. Click to read more...

Political comments on the relationships with Japan following the Japanese opposition’s election victory

01 September 2009
By Leang Delux
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Japan’s opposition party recently won the election with a mandate to lead the country.

This change leads to diverging comments from Cambodian politicians, in particular regarding the bilateral relationship between Japan and Cambodia, because Japan is the largest donor country to Cambodia.Up until now, Japan is the largest donor country to Cambodia.

Will the new Japanese government affect the bilateral relationships between Cambodia and Japan or not?The Cambodian government believes that there will be no effect on the bilateral relationships between the two countries, but for Cambodia’s opposition parties, the new Japanese government will pay closer attention to aids provided to Cambodia. Click to read more...