Three Thai banks – Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), TMB Bank (TMB) and Kiatnakin Bank (KKB) – together with Netherlands-based ING Bank have offered a syndicated loan of US$65 million (Bt2.2 billion) to PRASAC Microfinance Institution, the biggest microfinance provider in Cambodia. ...

Construction at the controversial Lower Sesan II dam site in Stung Treng province has already begun, according to villagers, who will today petition several ministries, the Chinese embassy and the headquarters of the Royal Group to open negotiations with them. According to the villagers, who travelled ...

Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said George Boden, a campaigner at watchdog group Global Witness. Weak enforcement of mining laws excludes local communities from the decision-making process and smudges the revenue transparency, said ...

Representatives of 171 Pursat families who claim to have been unfairly left out of the government’s land-titling process said they have reached a tentative agreement with the minister of Industry, Mines and Energy to continue farming on the Bakan district land they have occupied for ...

Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister yesterday reiterated his commitment to criminalising money launDering and terrorist financing in the Kingdom. Sok An reassured Delegates at the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on Money LaunDering of Cambodia’s commitment to implementing comprehensive procedures to stop illegal monetary transactions. ...

Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An yesterday said the government should clear beggars away from the country’s most popular tourism sites by providing them with Decent education and legal ownership of their land. “We have performed well in working with homeless people, but I noticed ...

With civil society, the opposition and even the ruling party talking more and more about the subject of electoral and judicial reforms in the wake of July’s contested national elections, some groups yesterday gathered to call for reforms in a more modest sector – parking ...

Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital and largest city, has seen rapid development in the last decade — numerous high-rises, large shopping malls and business centres as well as public parks are beautifying this city — in the meantime, slum-dwellers are also on the rise. According to the ...

Unicef during a discussion yesterday pressured the Phnom Penh Municipality to develop a plan to eradicate slums in the capital, but government officials offered no quick fixes. According to the municipality, there are 281 slum communities in the capital, which 2,033 families call home. Earlier this month, ...

The Royal Government of Cambodia and private land developers were exploiting indigenous communities in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces by signing concession deals for the communities’ land without prior consultation, advocates said yesterday. “We urge the government as well as the private sector to respect [indigenous peoples’] ...

Cambodia’s tertiary system is not producing enough of the right type of graduates to meet the economy’s demands, says a report launched by the World Bank last week. The 222-page report, titled “Putting Higher Education to Work”, states that “quantity gaps are particularly strong in ...

Rights group Adhoc said yesterday that a large-scale march in Ratanakkiri province involving hundreds of ethnic minority villagers caught in land disputes would go on as planned later this month despite the government’s refusal to approve the march. The provincial coordinator for Adhoc, Pen Bonnar, said ...

As Rhona Smith, the U.N.’s new special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, began her first official visit to the country Wednesday, leading human rights activists were at odds over how much her position could influence the situation on the ground. ...

In a series of meetings before the annual session of the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Hun Sen highlighted Cambodia’s achievements as the world body set new targets to eradicate poverty and save the planet.Those achievements included “complete” peace, political stability, security and better public ...

One slickly produced television ad tells students “to join the community of minds that craves to learn,” as three teenagers assemble an electrical circuit board. “Better Skills! Better income!” a group of students shout in unison, fists raised. ...

Cambodia’s minister of social affairs on Sunday departed for a visit to Spain, which will be followed by a trip to Malta, to discuss and sign adoption agreements with both countries, according to a statement released Sunday. ...

A groundbreaking new study on human transmission of the dengue virus conducted in Kompong Cham province has shown that the virus can be spread back to mosquitoes by asymptomatic carriers, who are actually more infectious than those displaying symptoms. ...

The deadline for the country’s orphanages to register with the Ministry of Social Affairs has been extended once again as the government continues its months-long efforts to begin regulating the residential child care system. ...

Despite recent announcements of large Development projects throughout Cambodia focusing on so-called “affordable housing” for the emerging middle class, there remains a massive gap in the market for quality affordable housing for the poor; especially the urban poor as more rural Cambodians flock to cities ...

A new survey released by Cambodia’s Social Affairs Ministry on Thursday showed that the number of residential care institutions in the country’s five key provinces increased to 267 last year, up 92 percent from only 139 in the year before. ...