The International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) on Thursday to develop a roadmap for strengthening the country’s corporate governance policies and practices. ...

Construction on a $3 billion oil refining plant, the Kingdom’s first, will start in October this year and is expected to be finished by the end of 2018, according to a senior executive at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. ...

Six months since Cambodia’s market regulator officially launched derivatives trading in Cambodia, Phnom Penh Securities Plc is poised to become the first local securities firm to legally trade the complex and little-understood financial instrument. ...

About 55,000 Cambodians are victims of forced marriage in Cambodia and they comprise 22 percent of the estimated 256,800 people in modern slavery in Cambodia, according to an Australian NGO’s findings cited in the Global Slavery Index report released yesterday. ...

Three months since the central bank soft-launched its FAST payment system it is taking the system public, making electronic riel-denominated transfers available to the customers of more than a dozen financial institutions. ...

The number of new HIV infections in Cambodia nearly doubled over the past decade—the greatest increase in Asia—while less than a third of Cambodians living with the virus are receiving medication to slow its development, according to a report released this week. ...

Bank of China, one of the five biggest state-owned commercial banks in China, will expand its operations in Cambodia by opening new branches in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, a local bank executive said yesterday. ...

Between 2008 and 2015, the World Bank and German aid agency GIZ spent $13 million setting up eight social land concessions for thousands of the poorest Cambodians, doling out small farms they could use to pull themselves out of poverty and, after a few years, ...

The Cambodia-Japan Association for Business and Investment (CJBI) was officially launched yesterday in order to bring the business groups between the two countries together. ...

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has banned a screening of a documentary film about murdered environmentalist Chut Wutty and threatened “strong action” against the venue if films continue to be shown without first being cleared by the government.   ...

A local newspaper publisher has appealed directly to Prime Minister Hun Sen for help after provincial officials allegedly crashed into his car and threatened him in order to hide timber smuggling activities. ...

Even though Cambodia’s insurance industry is still young compared to neighboring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, there is potential for its growth with the development of human resources in the sector. ...

The Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) has called on schools to adopt a flexible school uniform policy to help transgender students and for the government to introduce(CCHR) anti-discrimination laws, in partnership with a USAID program worth almost $300,000.   ...

A new academic report has urged farmers in the northwest of the Kingdom to change their planting ways if they want to mitigate the detrimental impacts of climate change on their crops. ...

A new set of security measures at Prey Sar prison, designed to stop rampant drug use at the facility, is instead being selectively applied to prisoners being held in a politically sensitive case related to an ongoing sex scandal involving opposition leader Kem Sokha.   ...

Cambodia Women Entrepreneurs Association (CWEA) received $50,000 from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to help develop the business and financial management skills of women entrepreneurs through training and workshops. ...

The Cambodia-India Joint Committee Meeting on bilateral trade and technology exchange will be held in New Delhi on Friday, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters yesterday.   ...

The multi-trillion-dollar scheme proposed by Chinese premier Xi Jinping in 2013 aims to promote economic integration across Eurasia by investing in a “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “Maritime Silk Road”, comprising transnational economic corridors and new trade arrangements. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for the closure of a Christian anti-trafficking NGO during a heated tirade at a graduation ceremony, condemning them and CNN for broadcasting an “insulting” story about girls who were sold into sexual slavery by their own mothers. ...

The government plans to increase the 2017 national budget by 15.7 percent, to more than $5 billion – representing an increase over this year’s government expenditure of more than $4.3 billion – a government source said yesterday. ...