Traditional miners pan for gold at a mine in Hampalit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
A small kitchen of a Chinese-owned Top World factory collapsed, wounded 24 workers on Monday May 20 in Phnom Penh. The injured workers were transported by ambulance to two hospitals in the city. Garment workers at the factory said they were taken aback by the collapse. (Reuters, Phnom Penh)
Factory management said there was not a serious problem but that a rumor of an electrical malfunction was enough to scare workers.
Total aid from 1993 to 2012 amounts to around $10 billion, with the percentage of aid coming as loans steadily increasing.
At least two workers died and 11 others were injured Thursday morning when a section of a shoe factory collapsed where they were working in Kampong Speu province, authorities said. Officials have so far blamed the collapse on shoddy construction of a storage mezzanine at the Wing Star Shoes factory, 50 kilometers south of Phnom Penh. VOA Khmer's Kong Sothanarith reports from the scene in Kompong Speu province.
At least two workers were killed when the ceiling of a warehouse fell in at a shoe factory in Cambodia, Cambodia Minister of Social Affairs Ith Sam Heng said Thursday at the scene. The incident add the concern about safety standards at Asian factories producing clothes cheaply for western consumers. Men Kimseng, Washington.
Representatives from both companies denied the report’s findings, Global Witness said.
The death tool from last week's collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh now stands at more than 500 and is expected to go higher. The disaster brings attention to the overall problems in garment factories in developing countries. VOA's Deborah Block give us a look at the economics of the industry.
The law passed on Thursday evening, but not before debate at the National Assembly.
Thousands of garment workers gathered in a demonstration in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, to demand better salaries and improved working conditions for the hundreds of thousands of workers in Cambodia’s factories. Workers say a government increase of the minimum wage, to $80 per month, is not enough to keep up with the rising cost of living in the country. The demonstration took place in front of the National Assembly, where representatives of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party and royalist Funcinpec addressed the workers. The demonstration was the first since political parties began ramping up for the July 27 national elections. (Suy Heimkhemra, Phnom Penh)
Cambodians have been settling in the United States for more than 30 years. Yet there are few real success stories in business. But there are exceptions, like Timothy Chhim, president of the Chamber of Commerce for Nanuet, New York. Chhim recently visited Washington for a business conference, he told VOA Khmer in an interview that's because many of them fail to think big, take risks and go after what they want. (Sok Khemara, Washington)
Workers say a government increase of the minimum wage, to $80 per month, is not enough to keep up with the rising cost of living in the country.
The French Development Agency has put nearly $360 million into Cambodia in grants and loans to develop infrastructure, agriculture and vocational training.
Cambodians have been settling in the United States for decades now, yet there are few real success stories in business.
Housing rights activist Tep Vanny and other international rights advocates were awarded in a gala event at the Kennedy Center in Washington Tuesday night, sharing the stage with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden. The event was held by Vital Voices, an organization established by Clinton in 1997. Tep Vanny accepted a global leadership award, calling it a sign that the Cambodian struggle for housing and land in the face of forced evictions had earned international recognition. VOA Khmer's Sok Khemera reports from Washington.
The award-winning documentary on Cambodian development, "A River Changes Course," screened in Washington last month for an environmental film festival. The festival examined the impacts of globalization and environmental destruction. VOA Khmer's Men Kimseng spoke with filmmaker Mam Kalyanee to discuss how these issues are addressed by activists and decision-makers.
Last month, hundreds of them marched along the river, protesting the construction of the dam, which would force as many as 1,500 families to resettle.
Though the government has approved the Lower Sesan 2 Dam project, affected villagers in Stung Treng province continue to rally against it. They want authorities to reconsider plans for the hydropower dam. VOA Khmer's Say Mony reports from northern Cambodia in Stung Treng province. The villagers living along the Sesan river in Stung Treng province say they do not want to see the Lower Sesan 2 dam erected on the river, where generations of Cambodians have supported families by fishing and rice farming. Noy Phut is a fisherman here in Srek Kor village of Sesan district. He says if built, the dam would disrupt his ability to support his family by fishing. “Of course, there will be nothing,’’ Noy Phut said.
Some observers say Cambodia could graduate as a more developed country by the end of the decade or sooner.
The government’s Quick Reaction Unit said in a statement the report was “exaggerated” and meant to “dishonor” Hun Sen ahead of the July elections.
Kem Sokha, head of the opposition Human Rights Party, is seeking support from Cambodian workers in South Korea ahead of July's national polls. More than 1,000 workers welcomed Kem Sokha to Soul last weekend, providing financial support as the opposition prepares for the parliamentary elections. In a Skype interview with VOA Khmer Sok Khemara, Kem Sokha said he hoped to update the thousands of Cambodian workers in South Korea on Cambodian politics.
The price for premium gasoline in Phnom Penh was as high as 5,700 riel per liter, or about $1.90, on March 3, though prices vary from station to station.
A new exhibition of photographs at the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh illustrates the lives of Cambodians after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Australian photographer Paul Cummings, whose works on are display, began traveling to Cambodia in 1983. He recently spoke to VOA Khmer's Men Kimseng about post-Khmer Rouge reconstruction and how he captured it in pictures.
Social injustice, impunity and the abuse of Cambodian women will be featured in a new graphic novel, “The Beauty Curse." Veteran journalist Eric Pape has taken the case of Tat Marina, a former karaoke star and victim of an acid attack, as the subject of the illustrated novel, finding a new way to examine acid attacks, which continue to plague modern Cambodia. Pape told VOA Khmer's Men Kimseng that the graphic novel, which is seeking funding through a Kickstarter campaign, will tell her story to a wider audience, adding to the media coverage and a documentary on the attack.
Ear Sophal, author of “Aid Dependence in Cambodia,” told VOA Khmer in a recent interview that when people don’t pay taxes, they don’t own their part of the democratic process.
Too much foreign aid is used in Cambodia as a substitute for local revenue, making it hard for people to hold their government accountable, a US-based analyst says. Sophal Ear, author of “Aid Dependence in Cambodia,” tells VOA Khmer's Im Sothearith that when people don’t pay enough taxes, they don’t own part of the democratic process.
Some 5,000 people will have to be moved once the 8-kilometer dam is built.
Sothy Khieng, a doctoral candidate says that their dependence on outside aid means civic organizations don’t have the stability they need.
China used to be the world's factory - workers were cheap, and manufactures liked the profit margin that meant, especially in the garment industry. But no more: China's laborers are now amongst Asian's best paid. Garment companies are looking for a better deal in Cambodian. VOA Khmer's Say Mony reports from Phnom Penh.
People in Cambodian capital are slowly moving into and colonising an old graveyard, making the cemetery into a living village. (AP, Phnom Penh)
There are now only about 447 cyclo drivers left in the country, according to the Cyclo Conversation and Career Association.
Filmmaker Mam Kalyanee told VOA Khmer from the festival that the film was meant to show how development in Cambodia “affects our people’s lives and environment.”
US companies are the fifth-most invested here in dollar terms, with more than $1.2 billion in investments over the last decade.
China has become Cambodia’s biggest investor, putting some $8.8 billion into the country over nearly two decades, according to online data from the government’s lead investment agency.
The Ministry of Land Management approved some 1,600 construction projects in 2012, worth $2 billion, an increase of nearly 70 percent over the year before.
In a letter to the ministry, the union says Mfone intends to prevent them from working, which is a breech of the labor law.
Although the US averted the so-called “fiscal cliff,” a Cambodian economist in the US says the world still faces a number of economic challenges as Congressional leaders continue to wrestle with ongoing budget questions. And the differing views on taxes and spending that are at the core of the debate between Democrats and Republicans will not be easily reconciled, Duch Darin, an economist based in Florida, told VOA Khmer in a Skype interview.
The US stock market rebounded with the news of last week’s agreement, but Duch Darin said that kind of unsteady growth won’t last forever.
Cambodian politics are bitterly divided between the ruling party and the opposition, with opposition lawmakers complaining they do not have their say on the floor of the National Assembly.