News
Sand stats ‘correct’: government
At a government-organised forum on sand exports on January 24, a Ministry of Mines and Energy official said an investigation had been carried out into huge discrepancies in data on sand export from Cambodia to Singapore but that the probe found no irregularities. UN data ...
Ministry to meet sugar companies over land dispute
The Land Ministry will meet with the three companies at the center of the decade-long land dispute in Koh Kong province this week in an attempt to finally resolve the villagers’ grievances. In a letter made available to the public on January 18, the ministry’s ...
A struggle ‘on Chinese land’
Sitting on the edge of the dock, 68-year-old Vichay angrily pointed to three crumpled sheets of paper as he shuffled them around in his right hand. These wrinkled pages, he said, were the last remnants of evidence proving he owned the 15 hectares of land ...
Minister faces music on sand
Mines Minister Suy Sem could not give parliament’s anti-corruption commission an acceptable explanation for why Cambodian customs data failed to note $750 million in sand exports that Singapore says it received, the committee’s chairman said after a hearing on December 15. Sem was called in ...
Mixed feelings toward dredging-fuelled fund
Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem on December 6 announced in Koh Kong province the creation of a community fund of nearly $40,000 for Koh Sralao village, according to a ministry official, who said the funds came from a 2-cent-per-cubic-metre levy imposed on sand dredgers ...
Ministry moves to close vine factory
The Environment Ministry has asked Koh Kong provincial governor Bun Leut to stop construction of a factory which will process an indigenous vine and which plans to collect the yellow vine in a protected forest area. According to an official letter sent to Mr. Leut ...
Sand extraction in Koh Kong province halted, ministry says
Facing mounting scrutiny over the country’s sand trade, the Ministry of Mines and Energy said on November 16 that all sand extraction had been suspended in Koh Kong province, where much of the country’s extraction takes place. “We have suspended it for a long time already,” ...
Singapore’s data mirrors UN’s in Cambodia’s sand export numbers
Singaporean customs data on sand imports from Cambodia show near identical figures to those recorded by the UN, which last month were dismissed by a top official amid a reporting discrepancy in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The UN data showed $752 million in imports ...
Gov’t scoops up more mining revenue
In the first eight months of the year the Ministry of Mines and Energy has already surpassed its annual target for non-tax revenue collection from sand dredging and construction material-related mining operations, collecting 117 percent of the $6.6 million outlined in the 2016 national budget, ...
Coastal airport project gets nod
The Chinese developer behind a massive $3.8 billion tourism project being built in Koh Kong province has confirmed that it is ready to begin construction on a new international airport to serve the coastal resort and company’s related developments, though declined to reveal the investment ...
