World Bank Supports Improved Connectivity and Emergency Response in Cambodia

Cambodia will improve the condition, safety, and climate resilience of a key national highway, with US$110 million in additional financing approved today by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. The additional support to the Road Asset Management Project II (RAMP II) is also expected to provide an immediate and effective response in case of an emergency.

The most direct corridor linking Phnom Penh to Cambodia’s only deep-sea port in Preah Sihanouk province, National Road 4 endures heavy traffic through several economic zones and rich agricultural areas including some large-scale farms. Through this additional financing more than 200 kilometers will be upgraded with an overlay of asphalt concrete, shoulders will be replaced and drains and bridges will be built along flood prone areas.

Cryptos illegal in the Kingdom: regulators

An illustration of tokens representing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Photo supplied

Three of the Kingdom’s institutions issued a joint statement on Tuesday, warning the public that using, trading or advertising cryptocurrencies is illegal. They said various local blockchain projects which were operating without government approval pose serious risks to the public.

The message was posted on the Facebook page of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and endorsed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) and the General Commissariat of National Police.

It called out ventures such as KH Coin, Suncoin, K Coin, One-coin and Forex coin, all of which operate similarly to bitcoin, which is currently the world’s top cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.

Wing, City team up for cashless bus payment

Buses donated to the Kingdom by China are lined up last year. Photo supplied

Electronic payment service provider Wing and the Phnom Penh City Bus Authority (PPCBA) on Tuesday joined hands to offer a cashless payment option for the city’s buses, making travelling on public transport smarter and easier.

A PPCBA press release issued on Tuesday said the venture is the first of its kind and that Wing will provide two kinds of cards – Blue and Green – which allow customers to use local bus services with just the swipe.

Users can hop on and off with no need for cash, enjoying greater flexibility and stress-free travel when riding one of the city’s fleets of over 150 buses.

Ex-opposition leader kem Sokha wins South Korean human rights award

Mu Sochua (left) accepts on behalf of Kem Sokha the National Council of Churches of Korea’s Asian Human Rights Peace Prize. Photo supplied

The former president of the court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Kem Sokha, was awarded the Asian Human Rights Peace Prize last week by the National Council of Churches of Korea for his efforts to promote human rights and democracy in Cambodia.

The award ceremony took place in Gwangju, South Korea, on Friday with Mu Sochua, a former CNRP deputy president, and Nhoy Chamrouen, a former opposition lawmaker, receiving it on behalf of Sokha, who is in jail and facing trial for “treason”.

Government hits back at UN human rights officials

UN Special Rapporteur Rhona Smith in March upon the start of a 10-day visit to the Kingdom. Pha Lina

CAMBODIAN officials have accused two United Nations (UN) human rights experts of interfering in its internal affairs when they commented on the freedom of opinion and expression in the Kingdom and the media code of conduct for the July 29 national elections.

They were criticising comments made by the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, and the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule.

Released on Friday, the UN officials’ press release, under the banner of the UN Human Rights Special Procedures, said among others: The prohibitions on the media in the code raise serious concerns relating to media freedoms.

Protesters demand Japan pull support for elections

Protesters in Tokyo demand their government pull support for Cambodia’s July 29 elections. supplied

MORE than 1,000 Cambodians in Tokyo, Japan, demonstrated on Sunday, demanding that the Japanese government cease supporting the upcoming national elections. The protesters asked the Japanese government to declare that it will not support the national elections on July 29 or its results.

Officials from the Cambodian government and the National Election Committee (NEC), however, claimed the demands would have no impact on the ballot.

The demonstration in Japan coincided with a US protests that drew more than 500 Cambodians outside the Japanese Embassy of the United Nations in New York on Saturday where they, too, demanded the Japanese government pull its support for the polls.

BGU rejects RFA claims

Hing Bun Heang, chief of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit (second from left), at a celebration for the eighth anniversary of the force’s formation in September. supplied

ON Thursday, Radio Free Asia (RFA) broadcasted claims by Human Rights Watch’s Asia division director, Brad Adams, that the head of the Prime Minister’s Bodyguard Unit (BGU), General Hing Bun Heang, has significant assets in Cambodia and money hidden in Singapore.

However, the claims have since been rejected as “slanderous”, according to a statement seen by The Post on Sunday.

“Indeed, many people have told me that Hing Bun Heang has assets overseas such as in Singapore, while for the assets in his country, Hing Bun Heang has a very big house. How can he have money to build a very big house on a government salary? If he has no money in the bank, does he keep money in a bag or under a mattress? I believe that he really deposits his money in a bank,” Adams had said.

Nearly $2 billion invested in four projects

The CDC headquarters in Phnom Penh. CDC

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) on Thursday announced it has approved four projects so far in June, amounting to $1.9 billion.

CDC posted in its Facebook page that since the beginning of the month it has issued final registration certificates for four projects that, once operational, are expected to create more than 11,000 jobs.

Capital Mineral Resources Investment will invest $11.93 million in a marble factory in Stung Treng province.

Leader of GDP calls on nations to monitor poll

Yang Saing Koma, the newly elected president of the Grassroots Democracy Party (GDP), spoke to his members last week. Sreng Meng Srun

Earlier this week, the newly elected president of the Grassroots Democracy Party (GDP), Yang Saing Koma, appealed to several countries to take part in monitoring the upcoming elections.

Saing Koma, a well-known agriculture expert, said he travelled on Sunday to Bangkok to meet with ambassadors from Canada, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Finland and Norway.

He said he has also met with United Nations officials and ambassadors from Japan, France, Singapore, Sweden and the European Union (EU) in Phnom Penh.

UK Ambassador will monitor election

Outgoing British Ambassador Bill Longhurst shakes hands with National Assembly President Heng Samrin. National Assembly

Great Britain will participate in monitoring the national election on July 29. This was agreed upon at a meeting on Friday (June 15) between Heng Samrin, president of the NA (National Assembly), and Bill Longhurst, current British Ambassador to Cambodia. This will be the last Cambodian election he will experience as he will soon return to England.

“His Excellency Bill Longhurst said that during his four- year mission in Cambodia he joined the observers of the communal election 2017, but he will get new experience from the national election 2018,” was to read in the NA’s statement.

Wing inks agreement on Malaysia remittances

Customer came to send money via Wing at one store in Phnom Penh.

Wing Specialized Bank, the local mobile banking provider, recently launched international remittance services from Malaysia, after inking a partnership deal with that country’s financial technology firm, Valyou.

The deal aims to target Cambodian nationals living and working in the Asean nation.

According to Wing’s announcement, more than 150,000 Cambodians are employed in Malaysia in various industries such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing, fishing and domestic service.

Nearly $2B in investments cleared by CDC

Motorists drive along an expressway in Phnom Penh. Hong Menea

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), the government body in charge of approving large-scale investments, announced on Thursday that it had approved four projects with a combined total capital investment of nearly $2 billion. It said the four projects would create 11,193 jobs.

Announcing the matter on its Facebook page, the CDC said it had approved the investment of Cambodian PPSHV Expressway Co – a $1.87 billion plan to construct an expressway from the capital to Sihanoukville.

The second project, with an investment of about $11.93 million, was from Capital Mineral Resources Investment’s scheme to establish a marble processing plant.

Rainsy election boycott call a ‘betrayal of King’

Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong spoke in yesterday event, criticising former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Sam Rainsy. FN

Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong on Wednesday criticised calls from former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Sam Rainsy to boycott the July 29 elections as a “betrayal to the King, nation and people”.

He also labelled Rainsy “stupid” in comparing himself with the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk, who went into exile after a military coup, led by the Lon Nol regime, forced him out as the head of state in 1970, before he returned to the Kingdom in the1990s.

“I think Sam Rainsy, who compared himself with the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk, who was forced out by military coup and had to escape [to other countries] for decades, before returning to the throne . . . made a stupid comparison.”

Bun Heang mocks US, threatens its citizens in scathing open letter

The bloodied face of Cambodia’s ‘rule of law’. Former CNRP lawmaker Kong Sakphea is helped into a medical clinic in October after he was attacked by men in the Bun Heang-led BGU. Heng Chivoan

After being hit with sanctions from the US Department of Treasury, Cambodian General Hing Bun Heang said he would retaliate against any US national who does not respect his country’s sovereignty, has ambitions to invade Cambodia or incites “traitors” in the Kingdom to do so.

Bun Heang is the deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and commander of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit (BGU). The US sanctions against him include denying a visa and freezing any assets he has there.

The US Treasury cited Bun Heang’s role as a commander of a “Cambodian unit that engaged in a series of human rights abuses” as among the reasons he was a target of sanctions.

In bid to ease remittances, Wing strikes new deal

A Wing kiosk in Phnom Penh. KT/Fabien Mouret

Wing Specialised Bank last week announced a new partnership to expand the reach of its products and services. This time the Cambodian money transfer company is teaming up with Valyou, a Malaysian fintech firm, to give Cambodian migrant workers in Malaysia access to fast and easy remittance services.

With the new deal, Cambodians in Malaysia can send money home using Valyou’s mobile wallet app. The transferred money is made instantly available in the receiver’s Wing account, or can be retrieved at any Wing kiosk in Cambodia.

Valyou, a subsidiary of Telenor Group, has more than 2,500 cash-in-cash-out merchants in Malaysia, while Wing’s own network of agents in the Kingdom exceeds 5,000 people.

Government earns $366m from construction sector

A view of the skyline of Phnom Penh from a rooftop. KT/Chor Sokunthea

The government collected more than $366 million in revenues from the construction sector from 2013 to 2017, mostly from land registration and cadastre, construction, land leases, and property title transfer services, according to a recent government report.

Cadastre accounted for $37 million of those revenues, construction for $11.8 million, land leases for $337,535, and property title transfer services for $317 million, according to the report.

Chea Sophara, the Minister of Land Management, said the sector’s remarkable performance was a result of strong leadership in the government and within his ministry, and added that land titles have been one of their priorities in 2017.

Cambodia earns UN economic council seat

Tuy Ry, middle right, helped gain the appointment. Facebook

The Foreign Affairs Ministry yesterday said that Cambodia has been elected to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council for a duration of one year.

A ministry statement said that at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, 183 of 188 countries supported Cambodia’s candidacy.

“This is another great success for the Kingdom of Cambodia in order to promote our national prestige and honour in the international arena,” the statement said.

US advocates for release of two RFA reporters

Mr Chhin and Mr Sothearin were accused of espionage. KT/Chor Sokunthea

US congressmen have urged the government to release two former Radio Free Asia journalists who remain jailed over espionage charges for allegedly sending reports to the US.

Eight US congressmen wrote a letter to US Ambassador to Cambodia William Heidt to continue to advocate for the release of Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin who were arrested in Phnom Penh’s Marady Hotel on November 14 and accused of espionage.

“As members of the United States Congress, we are concerned not only about the downward spiral of Cambodia’s fragile democracy, but also about the detention of numerous people caught up in Hun Sen’s autocratic net,” the letter said.

Program targets poor performing schools

The program will boost primary education. KT/Chor Sokunthea

The Education Ministry and the Development Partnership Fund have agreed to target nine provinces to develop quality primary education.

The program, phase three of the Global Partnership of Education, was launched yesterday for 40 districts in the provinces.

The provinces targeted include Battambang, Kampong Thom, Kratie, Mondolkiri, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Ratanakkiri, Siem Reap and Stung Treng.

General vows to suppress rebels after sanctions

Prime Minister Hun Sen shakes hands with Gen Hing Bun Hieng yesterday. Facebook

General Hing Bun Hieng, commander of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit, yesterday vowed to suppress any US nationals tied to a colour revolution attempt in the wake of the US slapping him with financial sanctions.

Gen Bun Hieng issued a personal statement yesterday in response to the sanctions, which were announced on Tuesday over his alleged involvement in multiple attacks on unarmed Cambodians for many years, including in 2013 at Wat Phnom and in 2015 in front of the National Assembly, where CNRP lawmakers were beaten.

On Tuesday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that in the 2015 incident, three members of Mr Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit were imprisoned after they confessed to participating in an attack on CNRP lawmakers Kong Saphea and Nhay Chamroeun.