Patrick Devillers, the French national and associate of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, seemed to be putting down roots in Cambodia. The architect – whose shadowy presence has been on the fringes of one of modern China’s largest political scandals – owned land and a restaurant ...

Authorities have partially backed down on an order forcing 196 residents in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district to move their homes, but refused to scrap the plan completely when confronted at Chaom Chao commune hall yesterday. Phuong Sopheap, one of about 20 residents that congregated ...

At first glance, the numbers indicate Cambodia’s investment climate has grown a little colder. Conditions appear to be worse than they were a year ago due to a big drop in total fixed assets for approved investment projects. However, economists say the Cambodia outlook is actually ...

Villagers belonging to a Thai activist group filed a complaint to Thailand’s Administrative Court yesterday for the cancellation of an agreement form the country’s Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to buy power from a controversial mainstream Mekong dam in Laos, an NGO representative said yesterday. “According ...

More than 100 Cham fishing families who moor their boat homes on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula have been ordered to relocate, with one official saying the fishing boats were spoiling the beauty of the riverbank and the area around the new hotel. “We already ...

Almost five months after the launch of the Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC), experts agree that it has given financial institutions valuable new access to information about creditworthiness of potential borrowers, improving efficiency and loan quality. At the same time, there are still a few rough ...

Cambodia’s tradition of silk production is one that dates back as far as the 13th century. A long-standing symbol of status for the rich and the country, ancient Angkorian silk producing Cambodia bore unique weaving and reeling techniques that have been passed down from generation ...

Members of the Prey Lang Community Network yesterday called on the government to approve a forest preservation sub-decree that has been in draft form since 2011. Hoeun Sopheap, representative of the Kampong Thom provincial Prey Lang community, said the sub-decree would help protect the biodiversity of ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that the rapid growth of Phnom Penh’s population coupled with the rampant construction of new property projects means that there would always be a shortage of water and electricity in the capital. Speaking to a crowd of thousands who had ...

Japan-base Terra Motors said it plans to sell its smartphone-compatible electric scooter in Cambodia by the end of this year. The lithium-battery-powered A4000i, introduced last week in Tokyo, can be connected to an iPhone, delivering live data while driving. “We will start to sell this scooter ...

A 555-metre tower planned for Diamond Island is to go ahead, and expert engineers from China and Vietnam are studying the river bank and calculating the strength of the foundations needed to support the building. The building plan will not be changed and now the company ...

Co-operation on the exchange of electricity will be very important in making the 10-country ASEAN bloc move forward to a single market by 2015, experts said, but a shortage of power supply in each country remains a challenge. Speaking to reporters yesterday after the opening of ...

More than 1,500 Cambodian People’s Party supporters in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district were summonsed by party officials yesterday to be thanked for voting for the party, during a meeting one villager claimed was tacit intimidation. According to a villager speaking on the condition of anonymity, invited ...

The European union’s executive arm has responded to its parliamentarians’ concerns over rights abuses stemming from Cambodia’s economic land concessions, maintaining that, should the need arise, it “will be ready” to withdraw from its preferential trade agreements with the Kingdom. In a joint letter to concerned ...

The ILO is preparing to name Cambodian garment factories failing to comply with local safety requirements. The International Labour Organisation says Cambodian garment factories refusing to comply with safety requirements have one last chance before they are named and shamed. Jill Tucker, chief technical advisor for ...

A massive power outage that left large areas of Phnom Penh without electricity and water and plunged southern Vietnam into darkness on Wednesday was caused by a crane operator knocking a tree onto a high voltage power line, Vietnam’s state-owned energy provider said yesterday. “A ...

The Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the guilty verdict for anti-eviction activist Yorm Bopha, but reduced her sentence from three-to two-years imprisonment, of which one year was suspended. The ruling means that Ms. Bopha will not be released until late 2014. Supporters and human rights groups ...

Breaking into a medium almost universally controlled by the ruling party, acting opposition president Kem Sokha squared off yesterday against rival legislators during the filming of what may well have been Cambodia’s first televised national election debate. The debate at the state-run TVK studios, which featured ...

Caffe Bene, South Korea’s second-largest coffee chain, on Tuesday announced plans to open in Cambodia, according to a Korean media report. But while its entrance adds one more competitor to the more than half-a-dozen coffee chains already in the country, local franchises said the market is ...

Profitable income generation has many sources. Whether it requires work in an office, trading on the market or farming land – the outcome always depends on the innovation and effort of the individual. For Pring Leang, the sources are three small fields in Kampong Por village ...