The government has lashed out at the U.S. and E.U. over their criticism of the detention of five current and former rights workers in Cambodia for more than a year, adopting the language of its critics by calling their statements “politically motivated.” ...

A second ship accused by the NGO Mother Nature of illegally exporting dredged ocean sand last week is expected to arrive at a port in China today with a cargo of silica sand, which is exempt from the ban, the ship’s owner said yesterday. ...

A CNRP television spot featuring former party president Sam Rainsy may have been rejected on Monday, but the country’s main opposition has found other ways to promote the exiled leader in its campaigning ahead of the June 4 commune elections.   ...

Two of the country’s biggest garment workers’ unions have asked the government to make factories give their workers three days of paid leave and provide loans for travel expenses to allow them to return to their hometowns to vote in the upcoming local elections. ...

As the country now focuses its attention on the commune elections, the real estate sector has quietened down slightly to observe the situation. However, Worldbridge Land’s chairman Sear Rithy is unperturbed as he prepares to launch another large-scale development in the capital. ...

Exports grew at a solid pace in 2016, rising by 7.2 percent to $7.3 billion, but the number of registered exporting factories fell by 10.4 per cent, while the number of workers declined by 2.9 per cent, compared to 2015.   ...

The rapid expansion of pepper cultivation in Cambodia coincides with the spice’s plummeting world prices, creating concerns that the glut of pepper ripening on vines across the Kingdom could further erode next season’s market prices and push the sector toward a collapse. ...

Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy said in a speech on Monday that military leaders aligned with the ruling party recently “came to whisper” to him the message that they would not prevent the opposition taking power if it were to win the 2018 national election. ...

Angkor Wat ticket sales revenue surged during the first half of 2017 on the back of a sharp increase in tourist entry fees, with no indication that the steeper admission prices had discouraged visits to the Kingdom’s top tourist draw, government officials said yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Tourism is to collaborate with Yunnan’s Tourism and Vocational Training Institution to develop human resources in tourism and seek the methodology to attract more Chinese tourists to visit Cambodia. ...

Cambodia’s banking sector enjoyed another strong performance last year as the Kingdom’s economy continued to expand, with banking credit moderating, deposits increasing and financial institutions remaining healthy as they further integrate into the global economy, the central bank said in its annual report yesterday. ...

Two weeks after Bangladesh and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Phnom Penh to purchase rice from Cambodia, on Monday of this week Bangladesh signed a deal to buy 250,000 tonnes of milled rice from Cambodia. ...

The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) announced yesterday that it plans to support the growth of NGO-backed community saving groups in a move to help members of these currently unregulated groups establish funding pools that can be accessed without the need for collateral. ...

When Cambodia National Rescue Party President Kem Sokha stood arm-in-arm with three newly minted deputies earlier this year, the quartet seemed eager and ready to address the party’s next challenge at hand: critical commune elections that could greatly bolster grassroots support. ...

More than 200 families who have been locked in land disputes with sugar firms will have at least some of their land returned to them after the Ministry of Land Management approved their claims yesterday, though hundreds more families are still waiting for resolution. ...

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng held a meeting with other top ministry officials yesterday to discuss introducing a legal amendment banning insults to the King, similar to so-called “lèse-majesté” laws in Thailand, which critics have characterised as a cudgel to suppress dissent. ...

The Education Ministry has produced a short video and posted it to its YouTube channel to help teachers educate students in grades one to three. The video, which runs less than 20 minutes, shows methods of teaching Khmer literature, mathematics and other subjects. ...

An investigating judge has rejected Kem Sokha’s request that he interview a representative from the US government in connection with the former opposition leader’s “treason” case, despite the fact that Sokha stands accused of plotting a US-backed overthrow of the Cambodian government. ...

Officials from the Ministry of Labour met with former workers from three garment factories in the capital’s Por Senchey district this morning after the owner absconded without warning last week, leaving 2,000 workers without their severance or salary for the month of January. ...

Strikes in Cambodia plummeted by more than half last year, according to the Ministry of Labour’s annual report – a statistic lauded by the government as evidence that worker conditions had improved but rejected by labour advocates as a sign that dissent was being suppressed. ...