The International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched a corporate governance initiative yesterday aimed at enhancing the efficiency of Cambodia’s private sector to strengthen the business climate and spur foreign investment and job creation, it said in a release. ...

Some 200 hectares of forest in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary have been cleared and sold for up to $400 per hectare – allegedly with an official’s blessing – while an additional 700 hectares around the protected area face clearing. ...

Land Minister Chea Sophara has told two firms to reopen a public road they fenced off without permission. The order came after 127 families affected by the closure complained about Phanimex and Heng​ Ly companies in August last year. ...

An environmental ranger and a village chief were questioned yesterday by the Pailin Provincial Court for allegedly colluding to grab, clear and sell land in a protected area supported by the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, according to officials. ...

Investment in Cambodia’s booming construction industry increased by 43.3 percent over the first four months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to data released by the Land Management Ministry on Tuesday. ...

This week marked the official kickoff of campaigning for the June 4 commune elections, with Cambodians taking to the streets to show support for their favourite party decked out in T-shirts, hats and stickers emblazoned with party logos. ...

Phnom Penh’s sole garbage hauler says it will need another week to collect thousands of tons of fetid garbage that piled up over the weekend when workers left the capital to vote in Sunday’s commune elections. ...

The government body charged with managing the Angkor Archaeological Park on Monday started tearing down the first of more than 500 homes and shophouses illegally built within the park in the weeks before the June 4 commune elections. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia yesterday revoked the licence of Dubai-based Royal Index Pte., an affiliate of Royal Index UAE, after it failed to fulfill its mandatory obligations as a derivatives trading firm operating in the kingdom. ...

Authorities in Siem Reap province have stopped negotiating with hundreds of families who recently built homes and shops illegally inside the Angkor Archaeological Park, and Defense Minister Tea Banh said they would start razing the structures without their consent. ...

Demolition crews are set to begin tearing down the Phnom Penh landmark known as the White Building today, after the Ministry of Land Management announced on Saturday that all families residing in the dilapidated structure had left the premises.​ ...

Phnom Penh will begin measuring the homes of hundreds of families seeking land titles to stave off potential eviction by a massive real-estate project filling in a pair of lakes, a municipal government spokesman said on Tuesday. ...

A Koh Kong environmental official yesterday said a company with a sand-washing facility in an area where the Ministry of Mines and Energy last month banned sand dredging would be allowed to keep and operate its facility. ...

Still more riverbank collapses have struck a community in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district where multiple houses have crumbled into the Tonle Bassac river a stone’s throw from where four companies are dredging the riverbed for sand. ...

Knight Frank Cambodia, a leading independent real estate consultancy in Cambodia, released its latest half yearly commercial and residential report for 2017. The report highlights four main sectors: the office sector, retail sector, serviced apartment sector and condominium sector. ...

International condemnation for the government’s continued clampdown on NGOs and independent media organisations continued to flow in over the weekend, with Human Rights Watch (HRW) calling it an “escalating campaign of politically-motivated harassment, intimidation, and legal action”. ...

The Ministry of Commerce has committed to joining up with the Thai Embassy in Cambodia to build a favourable business and investment climate between the Asean neighbours. ...

With rain pouring down for hours yesterday thanks to a low-pressure system, many Cambodians found their daily lives disrupted by severe flooding, with some taking to social media to criticise a poor flood management system in Phnom Penh. ...

Cambodia and Vietnam currently lack a system to effectively forecast and control flooding in the Sesan and Srepok river basins, both at the national and intergovernmental level, according to a study published by the Mekong River Commission (MRC). ...

The Constitutional Council yesterday approved four sets of controversial amendments to Cambodia’s election laws, greenlighting changes that will pave the way for the main opposition party’s parliamentary seats to be redistributed in the event of its dissolution. ...